Truth about stress: from the advantages of “good type” to exercise that only worsens

Everything is in the mind

True (up to a point)
The way stress manifests is very body, focused on hormones like cortisol and its effect on us. But this process is triggered by the brain (especially the amygdala and the hypothalamus) and the way our brain reacts to stress is often established in early childhood, even in the uterus. Pregnant women who experience extreme stress can give birth to babies that react more strongly to stress hormones, with increasing tests suggesting that this causes modifications to the baby’s DNA. The self -current stress is difficult, especially since the causes can be severe and inescapable, but not always impossible. Some studies have shown that if you say people are the type of person who does not feel stress, they experience less symptoms. A US study found that teenagers who were growing with concerns about violent crime in a private part of Chicago tended to get better if they simply did not try to think.

Is always bad for you

Dishonest
Stress is essential for human existence and its most obvious and visceral manifestation, our response of struggle or flight to the immediate threat, has evolved to protect us from danger. There is also evidence that can help us concentrate. A study by video game players who participated in a tournament found that those who showed almost no increase in cortisol levels were the worst and those who had a higher increased moderately. The winners tended to have some extra cortisol, but not too much. This act of hormonal and psychological balance is different for everyone, so it is difficult to do a lot of stress “correct”. But as a wide guide, stress is less likely to be detrimental if it is predictable and, above all, if it is voluntary. The studies have shown that the realization of an orchestra causes the body to show multiple signs of apparent stress. But this is the stress of illusion, which is less likely to have sick effects.

Is the preserves of male business executives

Dishonest
For decades, the study of stress was completely based on men and often focused on the best. The advancement was a pioneering Swedish study that found that people with high demands in their time, but little control over their lives tended to be the most stressed. Later research has shown that inevitable demands, either through care responsibility or for multiple jobs, are especially stressful. These findings are fundamental in much of the understanding of modern stress, especially those that connect to work. Sir Michael Marmot, a pioneering researcher in health inequalities, has argued that jobs such as an Amazon -type warehouse, where rhythm is relentless and each movement is monitored, “ as if we took everything we knew about the risks of psychosocial work, put it in a syringe and people with it are injected. ”

It’s a new concern

Dishonest
Much of our modern understanding of stress is based on experiments with laboratory rats in the 1930’s by Hans Selye, an Austrian -Hungarian doctor and researcher who discovered that the repeated and chronic triggering of the body’s hormonal alarm system can harm health. But even the Victorians were concerned that innovations such as railway travel and telegraph were too much for humans. George Miller Beard, the highly creative popularist of the disorder he called Neurasthenia, used his evoked book in 1881, the North -American nervousness, to blame the stress of everything, from science to civilian freedoms and “the phenomenal beauty of the north -American girl of the highest type.” Modern stress is worse? It is certainly different. Compared to a Victorian, a 21st century British has a state security network, more life expectancy and a child mortality rate about 60 times lower. However, there is a very focus on whether the overload of things like phones is a new type of stress. It is a reasonable concern, especially for children, but it is far from new. The term “information overload” was created by Alvin Toffler, a United States author, the best -selling book that Future Shock argued that the rhythm of change in society caused by things like modern technology was simply too much for people’s brain in 1970.

Is mainly caused by great concerns

Mainly fake
In his 1972 poem The Shoece, Charles Bukowski said that while humans may generally deal with important disorders, which finally shows too much is the “continuous series of small tragedies”, all from the “shoe shop that has no time left” to an unexpected bill. He was right; Repeated studies have shown that stress tends to affect more people when chronic. But it is also important to keep in mind that the scale of a concern is relative. What is described as “minor” stress is completely personal and subjective, and depends on everything, from personal circumstances and background to revenue, a single greater invoice than expected can be catastrophic if you are poor. There are some ways in which stress can be mitigated, or at least its effects. But don’t let anyone tell you that a particular cause of stress is less. This is a topic for you and your body.

Exercise always helps

Dishonest
There are endless studies that show that physical activity can relieve stress symptoms. But other research has shown that the exercise of great intensity can worsen the issues. A study volunteered through an exhausting mocking work interview process or a physical test through a stationary bicycle. Although post-test questionnaires showed that those in the last group were less stressed, their cortisol levels were higher and remained for hours later. Cortisol itself is not a problem for the body. He plays a central role in maintaining things like blood glucose levels and also acts as a hormonal alarm clock, gradually rising at night to a morning peak to help us get out of bed. The problem occurs with the chronic triggering of body stress response. So how to avoid -with exercise? One of the advice is to say that it does not feel like a job: research has shown that it can be especially stressful. Another is to see if a less intensive exercise, maybe even something like yoga, helps. But, as never before, there are no firm rules. Everyone is different.

You lose weight when stressed

True and fake
Some people lose weight under chronic stress. But about two -thirds of people are more likely to put it. There are two different factors at work and one is hormonal. Studies have linked the levels of constantly high hormones such as cortisol with a propensity to store fats around the stomach. In addition, research has constantly shown that stress tends to push people to less healthy eating options. There is a whole sub -genre of studies in which the volunteers are placed under artificial stress, presented with a table of various foods and are called snack as they want. Each time, those exposed to stress are gravitated to fat, sweet or salty options and eat more generally than the control group that was not stressed.

Animals also feel stress

Faithful
The same struggle or flight alarm system exists in mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles. And it is not just existential threats. Babuin studies have shown that lower livestock animals in a troop show higher levels of stress hormones. But what is unique of humans is the idea of ​​chronic anticipatory stress. Like Robert Sapolsky, a North -American biologist who spent two decades studying Kenyan Babuins, once joked: “It’s amazing to realize that long ago, while a predator evaded or pursued a dam, a dinosaur secreted glucocorticoids … [But] There is no dinosaur who worried to persevere with the absurd idea that an asteroid can hit the Earth. “For humans, early stress is used for a purpose.

It’s your fault you are stressed

Very, very false
There are two immediate and very obvious reasons why this does not work. Stress is often imposed by unavoidable external factors, and the body response of people can often be aggravated by their background, especially their childhood and childhood. But there is more things: events of stress so that it is even more difficult to escape the circumstances that cause it, such as poverty. A US study found that when the poorest people were asked to think of a completely hypothetical bill of vehicle repair, they worked less in a subsequent cognitive test. Other studies have quantified this effect in a diverse manner as the same as losing a whole night of sleep or spilling about 15 points of IQ. This is not a minor impact.

There is nothing you can do about it

True (and yet not)
This is correct in the sense that stress can often be imposed on your life circumstances and the pre -established form of the body. But the physical manifestations of stress are more possible. For example, although chronic stress can make you more likely to develop metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, being more physically active can reducing this risk again. Some diets may have a similar effect, with studies that show that those that include many green vegetables and polyphenols rich foods, known for their anti -inflammatory properties, can reduce cortisol levels. Psychotherapy can also help with our stress -integrated responses. And the research has shown the benefits of stress reducing everything, from more social and better quality relationships to certain music, aromas and, at least in the short term, simple human touch. What works for one person may not for another, but one of the curiosities of stress is that his slip, the way he has such a wide front in his impact on humans, he also gives many entry points when he fights.

Tested Stress: As the new science of stress hormones can transform your health by DR Richard Mackenzie and Peter Walker is published on 24 April (Bluebird£ 22). To support The Guardian and observer, ask for your copy to GuardianBookshop.com. Delivery charges can be applied.