[Hypertension is an independent risk factor of cardiovascular diseases. Several factors contribute to its development, including chronic stress, which may induce hypertension by increasing sympathetic activity. The signs of increasing sympathetic activity can be primarily detected in the initial phase of hypertension, which is characterized by the increase in cardiac output. In addition to the hemodynamic consequences (increase in cardiac output, tachycardia, coronary vasoconstriction, proarrhythmia), the increase in sympathetic activity has many harmful effects. Numerous metabolic (insulin resistance, dyslipidemia), structural and trophic effects (endothelial dysfunction, vascular hypertrophy, myocardial hypertrophy), as well as thrombotic and humoral processes (procoagulation, enhancement of thrombocyte aggregation, sodium retention, activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis) may develop and consequently damage body functions at many targets. Several different antihypertensive drug classes are available for reducing increased sympathetic activity, including peripheral alpha and beta blockers and centrally acting drugs. First generation antihypertensive drugs with central mechanisms of action (e.g. clonidine, guanfacine, alpha-methyldopa) is currently rarely administered and only for a few indications as they have a significant adverse events profile. Among centrally acting, second generation drugs, rilmenidine stimulates imidazoline-I1 receptors and thus beneficially influences mild or moderate hypertension that involves enhanced sympathetic nervous system activity.]

[The aim of the study: The objective of the study was to assess and compare job and life satisfaction affected by workplace problems, stress, rewards, success and social support. We analyzed the coping strategies applied by the employees to solves the above problems. Material and method: The anonymous data collection was carried out in October, 2015 by applying AVEM and an own-edited socio-demographic questionnaire among theatre nurses from Hungarian and German clinics. Results: The employees evaluated stressful situations and problems differently in the two groups examined. Job satisfaction was equally important for both groups, but it affected life satisfaction of the Hungarian employees to greater extent. The stress management of the Hungarian employees was more effective in spite of the fact that German nurses used more coping strategies. Social support had a positive effect on overcoming the workplace problems in both groups. Conclusions: Job satisfaction of the nurses has a beneficial effect on their life satisfaction. The ability to divide work and private life and stress management are different among the nurses. Job satisfaction can be improved by workplace health promotion programs.]

[Although Hans Selye is mostly known for his discovery & development of the stress concept, he also introduced the first physiologically sound, structure-activity classification of steroids that was also based on the chemical structure of steroids in 1943. He not only introduced the names of glucocorticoids & mineralocorticoids but discovered the anti- & pro-inflammatory properties, respectively, of these steroids in animal models. Furthermore, he not only described the first stress-induced gastric ulcers in rats (1936) & characterized the first human ‘stress ulcers’ during the air-raids in London during World War II (1943). Thus, Selye was a much more productive & creative scientist than it is generally considered.]

[A brief survey is offering of debates on two long-standing questions in stress studies and theories: 1) question of stress nonspecificity (i.e. homo- or heterogeneity in stress responses), and 2) what is the functional role of central catecholamines in stress mechanisms, especially in stress signaltransduction and in the realization of stress responses.]

[Selye pioneered the stress concept that is ingrained in the vocabulary of daily life. This was originally build on experimental observations that divers noxious agents can trigger a similar triad of endocrine (adrenal enlargement), immune (involution of thymus) and gut (gastric erosion formation) responses as reported in a letter to Nature in 1936. Subsequently, he articulated the underlying mechanisms and hypothesized the existence of a “first mediator” in the hypothalamus able to orchestrate this bodily changes. However he took two generations to identify this mediator. The Nobel Laureate, Roger Guillemin, a former Selye’s PhD student, demonstrated in 1955 the existence of a hypothalamic factor that elicited adrenocorticotropic hormone release from the rat pituitary and named it corticotropin releasing factor (CRF). In 1981, Wylie Vale, a former Guillemin’s Ph Student, characterized CRF as 41 amino acid and cloned the CRF1 and CRF2 receptors. This paves the way to experimental studies establishing that the activation of the CRF signaling pathways in the brain plays a key role in mediating the stress-related endocrine, behavioral, autonomic and visceral responses. The unraveling of the biochemical coding of stress is rooted in Selye legacy continues to have increasing impact on the scientific community.]