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While the medical community vaguely attributes all sorts of issues to stress, (especially if they can't figure out what's wrong with us
), there has been precious little dedicated research that delves into the actual physical and chemical processes that are interconnected, and the measurable changes that they can cause in our lives. As I mentioned in a previous post, it's not the episodes in our lives that are predictable and expected, that cause harmful stress, (though they might indeed cause stress, this type of stress probably has little to no life-altering effect, in the long term), it's the events over which we have no control, that have a serious impact on our well-being. Did you know, for example, that winners of Academy Awards live an average of 4 years longer than their peers who never receive one of those awards, simply because from that point on, they can be very selective about the work they do, and they don't have to kiss anyone's butt, in the process?The most insidious type of stress damage, though, is that which occurs to us in the womb, in the form of prenatal trauma. This is probably the most extreme example of stress over which we have no control, (because it is due to stress suffered by our mothers, thus spanning a generation gap. And, of course, there is always the risk of epigenetic changes in DNA, due to stress caused by abuse in early childhood. As noted in the article cited below, (and in the quote below), these changes can involve genes encoding glucocorticoid receptors, which leads to a magnified stress response in the individual. Even though the abuse might be temporary, the damage is permanent, unfortunately.
We are all similarly affected, no matter what our lifestyle might be, and what type of work we do. Though some careers are obviously more stressful than others, basically, the more control we have over the details of our life, (and our work), the less stressed we will be, and the less likely we are to develop life-altering diseases. That's why managers who choose to micromanage the people they supervise, truly suck, (because they actually shorten the lifespan of the people who report to them, by their misguided behavior).
I found a great article which contains a treasure trove of original research to support this position, in the August, 2010 issue of Wired magazine. Consider this quote from the article:
The red emphasis is mine, of course. I subscribe to the magazine, and usually read it cover to cover. I originally read this article a couple of months ago, between truck loads, during corn harvest, (it was my job to unload trucks, but there is usually a little free time between loads, so I read it over the course of a day). Polly's post reminded me of the issue of stress, and how closely it seems to be linked with MC. Presumably, the glucocorticoid issue is the common thread that ties the damaging effects of stress to this disease, (and others, for that matter), by the mechanism of it's chemical actions. It's somewhat long, but I highly recommend reading the entire article. It appears to be a cutting edge glimpse into the "mysteries" of the type of stress that is slowly killing us. Wired magazine is excellent, IMO, and my hat is off to them, for making the entire article available online, free of charge.Redelmeier compared the award winners to two groups: (1) actors who had appeared in the same film as a nominated actor and didn’t get a nomination and (2) actors who had been nominated for an Academy Award but never won. The results were clear: People with Oscars lived, on average, four years longer than their less-successful peers, which represented a 28 percent reduction in death rate. As Redelmeier notes, this longevity boost is roughly equal to the effect that would come from “curing all cancers in all people for all time.”
The moral is that the most dangerous kinds of stress don’t feel that stressful. It’s not the late night at the office that’s going to kill us; it’s the feeling that nothing can be done. The person most at risk for heart disease isn’t the high-powered executive anxious about their endless to-do list — it’s the frustrated janitor stuck with existential despair.
Stress is a chemistry problem. When people feel stressed, a tiny circuit in the base of their brain triggers the release of glucocorticoids, a family of stress hormones that puts the body in a heightened state of alert. The molecules are named after their ability to rapidly increase levels of glucose in the blood, thus providing muscles with a burst of energy. They also shut down all nonessential bodily processes, such as digestion and the immune response. “This is just the body being efficient,” Sapolsky says. “When you’re being chased by a lion, you don’t want to waste resources on the small intestine. You’ll ovulate some other time. You need every ounce of energy just to get away.”
But glucocorticoids have a nasty side effect: When they linger in the bloodstream, as they might due to chronic stress related to low rank, damage accumulates. It’s the physiological version of a government devoting too many resources to its defense department, Sapolsky says. The body is so worried about war that it doesn’t fix the roads or invest in schools. Interestingly, the effects of stress appear particularly toxic to the brain. Elizabeth Gould, a neuroscientist at Princeton, is best known for demonstrating that the birth of new neurons — a process known as neurogenesis — takes place in the adult brain. For the past several years, Gould has been studying the relationship between neurogenesis and stress in primates. She has found that when stress becomes chronic, neurons stop investing in themselves. Neurogenesis slows. Dendrites shrink. Neuronal arbors retreat. (In fact, the very act of keeping primates in standard lab enclosures — often just bare wire cages — is so stressful that for years scientists had a warped understanding of the primate brain. Gould has become an ardent advocate of “enriched enclosures,” which provide the animals with things to play with and social interaction.) These cellular alterations help explain why, as researchers noted in a recent review article, a “large part of the changes in brain structure and function [induced by chronic stress] have similar characteristics to those observed in neurodegenerative diseases, most notably Alzheimer’s.” And the higher the level of stress hormone, the greater the level of cognitive decline.
One of the most disturbing aspects of these stress effects is the way they’re transmitted across generations, from parent to child. Gould has demonstrated, for instance, that if a pregnant rhesus monkey is forced to endure stressful conditions, like being startled by a blaring horn, her offspring are born with reduced neurogenesis, even if they never actually experience stress after birth. This prenatal trauma, just like trauma endured in infancy, has lifelong implications. The offspring of monkeys stressed during pregnancy have smaller hippocampi, suffer from elevated levels of stress hormone and anxiety. Or look at humans: A recent study found that individuals abused by their parents during early childhood showed epigenetic changes to their DNA, which altered how their genes were read. The most prominent changes involved genes encoding glucocorticoid receptors, which led to a magnified stress response. The abuse might be temporary, but the damage is permanent, a wound that never heals.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/07/ff_stress_cure/
Love,
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