Stress is an unavoidable part of life, and while it often carries a negative connotation, it is actually a fundamental survival mechanism. When faced with a perceived threat, whether physical or emotional, the body instinctively reacts to protect itself. This automatic response is commonly known as the "fight, flight, or freeze" response. While it serves an essential function in dangerous situations, chronic activation of this response due to daily stressors can have significant consequences for mental and physical health.

The body’s response to stress is rooted in human evolution. When our ancestors encountered a predator, their nervous systems immediately prepared them to either confront the threat (fight), escape to safety (flight), or become still and unnoticed (freeze). While modern-day stressors may not include wild animals, our nervous system reacts similarly to job pressures, financial worries, or social conflicts.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, stress is the body's response to change, activating a physiological reaction that helps us adapt and protect ourselves. While short-term stress can be beneficial, prolonged exposure can lead to an overactive stress response, negatively impacting overall well-being.

The Three Stress Responses: Fight, Flight, and Freeze

1. Fight

The fight response prepares the body for direct action. When triggered, the nervous system releases adrenaline, increasing heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension. While this reaction once helped early humans fend off predators, today it manifests as irritability, frustration, or aggression.

For instance, the employee who has experienced too much workload may work extremely long hours just to succeed. In short term, the action may produce good results but mostly ends in burnout, anxiety, and physical illness, for example, tension headache or digestion problems.

2. Fight

The flight response triggers an intense need to remove oneself from a stressful situation. Just as our ancestors would flee from danger, modern individuals may avoid conflict, quit jobs impulsively, or detach from relationships when overwhelmed.

Flight mode is linked with restlessness and anxiety. Individuals may have a sense of needing to get up and go-pacing, changing environments constantly, or avoiding tasks that seem too overwhelming. Someone with a flight response might have the desire to change jobs constantly, relocate constantly, or become reclusive in order to avoid perceived dangers.

3. Freeze

The freeze response occurs when the nervous system perceives a threat as too overwhelming to fight or flee. Rather than taking action, individuals shut down, feeling numb, disconnected, or paralyzed by fear.

Unlike fight or flight, which involve heightened activation, freeze mode slows down physiological functions. A person experiencing freeze mode may feel physically unable to move, struggle to make decisions, or find themselves dissociating from their emotions. This can manifest in situations such as public speaking anxiety, where someone might "blank out" or feel stuck in the moment.

What Happens in the Body During A Stressful Event?

When faced with a stressor, the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activates, triggering physiological changes, including:

• Increased heart rate and breathing: The body pumps more oxygen to muscles and the brain in case action is needed.
• Muscle tension: The body prepares for movement, sometimes causing trembling or stiffness.
• Dilated pupils: Vision sharpens to detect potential threats.
• Dry mouth: Saliva production decreases as the body redirects energy to essential functions.
• Changes in skin tone: Blood flow is directed to vital organs, sometimes making the skin appear pale or flushed.

For those experiencing the freeze response, the body undergoes a different reaction, often reducing heart rate and causing physical immobility rather than heightened activation.

Strategies for Coping and Managing the Stress Response

While the stress response is necessary for survival, frequent activation due to daily stressors can take a toll on health. Recognizing your default response—whether fight, flight, or freeze—can help in developing effective coping mechanisms.

1. Moving to a Safe Space

If possible, changing your environment can help signal to your brain that the threat has passed. Stepping outside for fresh air, finding a quiet place, or distancing yourself from overwhelming stimuli can help regulate emotions.

2. Practicing Controlled Breathing

Deep, slow breathing can be used to counteract the stress response by engaging the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes relaxation. Techniques such as diaphragmatic breathing or the 4-7-8 method (inhale for four seconds, hold for seven, exhale for eight) can be particularly effective in calming the body.

3. Engaging in Physical Activity

This helps release pent-up energy and aids in the endorphin cascade, natural boosters for our mood.

4. Seeking Social Support

Relieving oneself from stress can come in many ways, but sharing it with trusted friends, a family member, or a good therapist will sure give that psychological boost of hope. Social support is an especially effective way of cushioning people against the stressors that they are subjected to in chronic forms.

When to Seek Professional Help

While occasional stress is normal, chronic activation of the fight, flight, or freeze response can indicate underlying mental health concerns, such as anxiety disorders or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If stress is affecting daily life—leading to sleep disturbances, difficulty concentrating, or persistent feelings of fear—it may be time to consult a mental health professional.

French fries are the top choice for binge-eating, movie night or days when you do not want to cook anything. It’s easier and faster to make. However, over the period of time, snacking on these snacks has been deemed unhealthy by people claiming it triggers several health risks

Recently, a fitness influencer, Siddhartha Singh, came into the spotlight for calling French fries the “worst food”. He called French fries the “hyper-palatable” food, items that contain high levels of sugar, carbohydrates, sodium, and fat which triggers the reward part of your brain, leading to consuming more.

“If you have one, you’ll have to eat 50. This food will put you on a blood-sugar roller coaster. High fat, high carb! You eat it, and after 10 minutes, you’re hungry again, but your blood sugar goes up and then falls.” He explains in the video that French fries absorb all the oil, and when you eat them, it goes directly into your body.

Highly processed foods are usually engineered to have enjoyable qualities of sweetness, saltiness, or richness.

Meanwhile, Aditi Prasad Apte, Senior Clinical Nutritionist at Aster RV Hospital, says otherwise and claims that fries are not entirely unhealthy but the damage caused by them depends on how they are cooked or how often they are eaten in quantity.

She explains that every food's nutritional value falls into one of two categories: healthy or unhealthy. The nutritional value of French fries depends on their cooking method and portion size. She said, "Deep-fried fries eaten frequently can contribute to weight gain, high blood pressure and heart disease due to excess calories, unhealthy fats and sodium.”

How Can It Affect Your Health?

Usually, French fries affect metabolic health. Sodium consumed, which is in high concentration in French fries, affects the kidneys and elevates blood pressure, while unhealthy fats can raise LDL, which is bad cholesterol.

Dr Apte shares that hormonal differences can also influence how fries impact men and women.

“In women, frequent consumption may worsen insulin resistance and hormonal imbalances seen in conditions like PCOS. In men, it can contribute to abdominal obesity, which is closely linked to heart disease.”

Many women have strong cravings for fries during PMS. The expert explains that fluctuating estrogen and progesterone levels can lower serotonin, a chemical which affects the mood, which leads to a craving for high-carbonated foods like fries.

She further says, it may boost mood, but excess salt can worsen bloating.

How Can You Make French Fries Healthy?

Dr. Apte also shares how fried foods can be eaten healthily:

• Baking, air frying or using minimal oil.
• A portion is about 80–100 grams, roughly a small serving.
• Roasted vegetables like carrots, zucchini, beetroot or pumpkin can also be used as a good substitute.

In 2025, Andhra Pradesh reported 1,566 scrub typhus cases, and nine suspected deaths, according to data from the Integrated Health Information Platform, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP-IHIP) on 8 December. Followed by Karnataka with 1,870 cases, Tamil Nadu 7,308 cases, and Telangana, 309 cases. Scrub typhus cases have significantly increased from previous year. It is one of the deadliest infections affecting multiple organs, or even death. Early it was relevant to poeple working in fields, new studies show it migrating to human settlements.

What Is Scrub Typhus?

Scrub typhus, also known as bush typhus, is a bacterial infection caused by bacteria infection, caused by bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi. It is spread through bites of infected larval mites, Chiggers.

Most cases of scrub typhus occur in rural areas of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, China, Japan, the Indian subcontinent and northern Australia. Until now, it was believed that chiggers only lurked in the tall grasses of remote paddy fields or dense forests. Due to this, it is commonly known as "farmers' disease", only confined to the fields.

However, new PLOS study data revealed the opposite. The study is led by researchers from Christian Medical College (CMC) Vellore and international collaborators and suggests that the bulk of infections are now even occurring within human settlements.

The study monitored over 32 000 people in Tamil Nadu, which led to the conclusion that agricultural activities, long considered the primary risk factor, were only weakly associated with the disease in high-prevalence areas.

How are Human Settlements A Prime Factor?

Risk for scrub typhus is significantly higher for those living in clustered houses or homes with fewer rooms. If the micro environment around the residence is unmaintained, gardens are patched, or even the damp corners of a courtyard, it could lead to breeding ground for the mites and the rodents that carry Chiggers.

Who Is At Most Risk?

It was once believed that working-age men were the most affected, but the new study tells otherwise. According to the new data, women over 60 are at the highest risk of infection.

As women spend most of their time in and around the home, due to household work, from the kitchen to the laundry, these activities are now the primary cross point of contact with infected mites.

What Is the Risk Factor Of Infection?

As initial symptoms of infection, such as fever, headache, and muscle pain, are the same as viral flu or dengue, many first seek help from untrained practitioners or local pharmacies.

By the time they reach the hospital, the disease has already progressed to severe complications like acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), Kidney failure, or Meningoencephalitis, which is inflammation of your meninges and brain at the same time, a life-threatening condition.

Not only this, the researchers revealed that nearly 10 percent of affected households exceed 25 percent of their income in the treatment.

For severe cases, the cost of treatment can be up to approximately INR 110,000, a staggering sum for rural and peri-urban families earning a fraction of that monthly.

Prevention

• Do not let the grass grow tall around your house
• Tightly maintain kitchen gardens and remove piles of wood or debris where rodents (the primary hosts for mites) might nest.
• As chiggers are usually found close to the ground, do not sit directly on the grass or soil. Use chairs or mats. For children, make them wear socks and full- length trousers while playing in the yard.
• If you notice a small, dark, cigarette-burn-like mark, it is usually left behind by mites. It is most likely "Eschar". It is an important critical clue. As the bite is painless, it often goes unnoticed.
• Do a thorough skin check for an eschar, especially in warm, moist areas like the armpits, groin, or behind the knees.

Early intervention is necessary, as if a fever lasts more than two days, don't just treat it as "seasonal fever".

Consult a qualified doctor and specifically ask about scrub typhus. Infection can be treated with doxycycline common antibiotic, in the early stages. The case fatality rate in this study was 1.5 percent, hospital based studies in South India have previously recorded mortality rates as high 30 percent when treatment is delayed

Shingles, caused by the reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus (the same virus that causes chickenpox), can strike more than once, especially in older adults and people with weakened immune systems. Vaccination against the virus is the most effective way to prevent shingles and related complications, said health experts as part of the Shingles Awareness Week.

The World Health Organization estimates that over 90 percent of individuals worldwide are infected with the varicella-zoster virus, indicating a high susceptibility to shingles.

Health experts explained that the varicella-zoster virus remains dormant in the nerves of the body after an attack of chickenpox.

Dr. Monica Mahajan, Senior Director – Internal Medicine, Max Multi Speciality Centre, Panchsheel Park, told HealthandMe that the virus can remain in an inactive state for two to five decades, or even longer.

When the immunity decreases, the virus can re-activate to cause shingles. The most common symptoms include a rash with sharp, shooting, or stabbing nerve pain.

While it is rare, shingles can recur as one episode of the disease doesn’t grant lifelong immunity.

“It is possible to get shingles infection more than once. An episode of shingles may not give lifelong immunity to the disease. Although it is a rare occurrence, people who have had shingles once can get it again. But those who get vaccinated after the first attack of shingles can prevent the second attack,” Dr. Mahajan said.

How Do Shingles Disrupt Life?

The common manifestation of shingles is a painful blister-like rash, which usually occurs only on one side of the body or face.

It is followed by post-herpetic neuralgia -- a nerve pain that arises in the areas where the rash was located, which often lasts for months or years after the rash has cleared up.

“It is severe and excruciating and is sometimes described as a pain that is worse than chronic cancer pain,” Dr. Chandani Jain Gupta, Dermatologist & Aesthetic Physician, Elantis Healthcare, New Delhi, told HealthandMe.

Dr. Gupta noted that shingles can also affect the eye, impacting the patient's ability to see.

Other less frequent complications of shingles are secondary bacterial infections of the rash, pneumonia, blindness, hearing loss, and neurological complications involving the brain. Fatigue, fever, and sensitivity to touch are other potential complications due to shingles.

Who Is At Risk Of Shingles?

As longevity increases, the phenomenon of ‘immunosenescence’ becomes more common. This means that as we age, our immunity declines, and this process generally starts at the age of 50 years.

"As life expectancy is increasing, more and more people live well beyond the age of 50 years. These people have lowered immunity and are at a higher risk of developing shingles," Dr. Mahajan said.

People who suffer from conditions such as diabetes, HIV, cancer, and patients with kidney or liver transplants are also at a higher risk of shingles because of lower immunity.

Patients who are on certain drugs called the ‘immunomodulators’ (used for conditions like arthritis, lupus, and some skin diseases) that reduce immunity are also more vulnerable to shingles.

How Do Vaccinations prevent Shingles? When to Get It

While some anti-viral medicines can reduce the intensity of the rash and the pain, these are effective only when given within three days of the first symptom. Despite medications, the outcome is not satisfactory in most patients.

But shingles can be prevented with vaccination.

• Adults 50 and older: The CDC recommends that all healthy adults aged 50 years and older receive two doses of the shingles vaccine. The second dose is typically given 2 to 6 months after the first.

• Adults 19 and older with weakened immune systems: If you are 19 or older and have a compromised immune system due to disease (like cancer or HIV) or treatments (like chemotherapy or immunosuppressive drugs). The second dose can be given 1 to 2 months after the first.