July 17, 2026 • 34 mins
You've heard the saying "stress kills." But are there good and bad stresses? Why does stress affect our appetites? And why do scientists think that mowing the lawn can make you less tense? Will and Mango take a carefree dive into the science of stress, from why it can help us to how we can get rid of it.
This episode originally aired on April 20, 2018.
Got a question or idea for the show, or a tip for relieving stress? Call our hotline at (302) 405-5925 or email higeniuses@gmail.com.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what, mango, what's that?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Will?
Speaker 1 (00:01):
So you Now, sometimes you'll set your alarm clock really early,
like if you've got a flight or something like that,
and then the next morning you'll wake up right on time.
Does this never happen to you? Yeah, it does. I'll
either do that or I'll wake up at like two
and then three and then four and then whenever I
have to wake up. But more often than not, it's
so weird because you'll wake up like a minute before
your alarm goes off. And I was reading this study
(00:21):
from the University of Lubec and they got some student
volunteers to go to sleep, and they told them before
that that they'd wake them up at either six in
the morning or nine in the morning, and then they
lied and well, everybody up at six o'clock.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
So I'm guessing a lot of the people who were
told they'd wake up at six were like more awake
at that time, right.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, that's exactly what happens. And the kids who were
told they'd be getting up at nine were completely groggy
and just out of it. But what's interesting is that
they were monitoring their bodies the entire time, and so
for the sleepers who were told they'd be woken up early.
There's stress hormones kicked in at around four thirty in
the morning. You could actually see that their bodies were
using stress to anticipate these early mornings and prepare them
(01:02):
for the early day. And so today's episode is all
about stress. What does it do to our body and
how can we use it for good and what are
the best ways to relieve it? So let's dig in. Hey,
(01:32):
their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
Manges shut Ticketter and on the other side of the
soundproof glass raking this tiny zin garden. Oh it's so sweet,
but he's breaking pretty aggressively, actually really aggressively. That's our
friend and producer Tristan McNeil. I think you need to
go a little easier, Tristan, but he is getting pretty
(01:52):
zin with it, and he's raking the heck out of
this thing.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah I know, I mean, he does claim it helps
them to relax. So I think we ought to support
man for today's show. Especially, we should try to keep
an open mind to different approaches to dealing with stress,
because there really is no one correct way to cope
with it. For example, I was reading about the study
from a team out of Australia, these neuroscientists from the
University of Queensland, and apparently they figured out that when
(02:16):
grass is cut, it actually inhibits our brain's release of
stress causing hormones. So it turns out there's a good
reason why people love the scent of fresh cut grass
so much. It can actually help you calm down.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Huh, that's pretty interesting. So that's our first tip pretty
early in the day. So if you're feeling stress, just
mow your lawn or get an air freshener that smells
like mode lawn. And the truth is, there are a
ton of other offbeat examples that you know are there
to relieve our stress. But to start things off, why
don't we talk about what stress is and what kind
of effects it can have on our bodies?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
All right?
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Well, since stress is something that's always been a part
of life, I obviously don't have a great origin story
for this one, but the closest thing might be the
origin of the term. So I didn't realize this, but
prior to nineteen forty six, the word stress didn't mean
like a mental or emotional strain. Until that point, it
was just used to refer to the pressure applied to
an object, you know, not to a person's well being.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
So what changed in nineteen forty six specifically that that
kind of gave it this new meaning.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
So there's this Austrian physician named Hans Celier, and that's
the year he first coined the term stress while describing
his latest experiments. So, of course this comes back to
a rat study, because we love rat studies on this show.
But Celia had been monitoring the physical responses of rats
that have been injected with different hormones and also different
like tissues, and he found that the rats symptoms were
(03:37):
identical regardless of what they'd been injected with. And what
became apparent was that the rats were responding to the
trauma of the experiments themselves, and he called this trauma stress.
So I'm assuming the stress that Celia witnessed was involuntary,
like you know, a faster heart rate or an increase
in blood pressure. I actually looked into this fight or
flight response a little bit, and you know, that's the
(03:58):
feeling that gets triggered in your body when the brain
recognizes some sort of outside threat. So basically it starts
when the hypothalama sends signals to the pituitary glands and
the adrenal glands. And what that does is it triggers
the production of adrenaline and these other stress hormones like
cortisol and epinephrine. And then a few things happen when
all these chemicals are swirling around in our bloodstream. So
(04:20):
for starters, our reflexes and senses are heightened so we
can better deal with that perceived threat. The cortisol also
pushes glucose out of our tissues and into our blood,
and that gives our bodies this extra boost of energy
that you might experience if you're really really stressed. Yeah,
I'm always amazed by that sort of thing, Like we
think of stress as such a negative and yet it's
(04:41):
also this reaction that's supposed to help us deal with
these life threatening situations, like if our ancestors had to
like avoid running from a lion or something, that's when
stress kicks in and it's helpful. But obviously these sharpened
senses don't always help us deal with the more benign
things like trying to make a deadline or trying to
give a public speech, and you know, for someone like
me who is really used to avoiding public speaking, that
(05:05):
sort of stress can be debilitating. Like doesn't it feel
like overkill from the body to still be sending out
all these signals?
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah, it does, and the response to stress can be
a problem when all that extra focus and energy doesn't
really have a natural outlet. Part of that's because the
stress hormones actually begin to build up, and so that
not only keeps us on edge, but it also provokes
all kinds of unnecessary responses in our bodies. For example,
you know how stress can make some people feel nauseous
or sick to their stomach. Well, that's because stress hormones
(05:33):
push the blood away from the gastro intestinal system and
actually redirect it to the brain. And that makes sense
because it helps the brain better respond to threats. But
there are side effects, and that's when this redirection agitates
the microbes living in our gut, and that of course
makes you feel sick at your stomach.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
So I definitely feel that loss of appetite from anxiety.
But what's weirder to me is that even though stress
can sap your desire to eat, it can also make
you gain weight at the same time. And I didn't
realize this before. But as stress hormones like cortisol circulate
through the body, they relay messages to our fat stores,
telling them to generate as much energy as possible, and
(06:09):
this call to action triggers the process called lipolysis, which
is basically when fatty acids called lipids are broken down
and circulated through the body as a source of energy.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
All right, so if the fat is being broken down,
it seems like that would cause us to lose weight
rather than gain it. So how does this work?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Yeah, I mean it should, except that these lipids also
signal the brain to release more stress hormones, which basically
tells the body to conserve its fat supplies. So it's
kind of this negative feedback loop like as one professor
of neuroscience explained it. He said, cortisol causes lipolysis to
release energy, but stimulates the growth of fat cells replenishing it,
(06:47):
which makes it a double edged sword. And basically, these
mixed messages are also a big reason why stress can
lead to obesity as well as certain kinds of diabetes.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Okay, I mean it makes sense. I'd actually never heard
that before. And when you were talk about await gain,
I just assume you were talking about like stress eating
or other responses like that.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yeah, I mean that's interesting to me too. I find
it bizarre because you know, I can't eat, but like
other people tend to chow down when they're stressed. And
that's really because stress responses are highly individualized to our
genetic differences, So you know, people can have wildly different
responses to the exact same stressor.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah, and it is probably worth mentioning that while we
know stress can make us feel sick, we aren't one
hundred percent sure of the physiological reasons behind that. Besign
us have made some headway on that over the past
decade or so. For instance, there was a study out
of UCLA. This was back in twenty twelve, and it
pointed toward the immune system as a possible answer to this.
So the researchers had a group of one hundred and
(07:40):
twenty two participants fill out questionnaires and they were answering
questions about their activities over the last week or so,
and including that was whether each social encounter they had
was positive or negative. And they also have participants undertake
a whole series of these very stressful lab tests, and
before and after these tests, the volunteers had their saliva
attested and what they were looking for was, you know,
(08:02):
indicators of inflammation called cytokines, and these are products of
the immune system. So cytokines are supposed to travel to
the side of the wound or you know, something like
that so they can help fight off infection. So the
researchers were trying to see if the stress would lead
to a rise in these cido kinds, and amazingly it did.
After the participants engaged in negatively stressful activities things like arguments,
(08:24):
their levels of cytokines went way up, which is pretty
wild when you think about it. It's like our immune system
is responding to an emotional or maybe a mental wound
in the same way that it would a physical one.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Oh that's crazy. So, I mean, are are there any
negative effects of this that? Like? Have scientists figured that
part out?
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Well, there definitely are. I mean, the reaction can lead
to some pretty major problems in the long term, including
stuff like heart disease and even cancer. You know, because
we mentioned these cytokines are looking for a wound to
work on, and when they don't find one. They just
keep circulating and inflame regions that really don't require their attention. Huh.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
So is there any way to prevent these unneeded side
of kinds from circulating? I mean, besides trying to avoid
any of these stressful situations we put ourselves in.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Well, I mean, that's pretty much the only solution. And
this was actually the takeaway of the study. I've got
a quote here from the paper's author, Shelley Taylor. She says,
the message is that the flautsam and jetsam of life
predict changes in your underlying biology in ways that cumulatively
could have a bad effect on health. What this tells
me is that people should be investing in socially supportive
relationships and they should not court relationships that lead to
(09:32):
a great deal of conflict.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
So don't hang out with enemies all the time.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yes, don't hang out with bad people. See, it's such
sound advice we're providing.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I also know from my own experience I'm not always
the best at evaluating my own stress levels. So it's
actually something I looked into. And did you come across this,
this scientist named Stephen.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Cole in your research.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I don't think, so it doesn't ring a bell.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
So Cole was basically bothered by our inability to measure
our own stress. So he wondered, like, what if our
brain's automatic stress assessment doesn't translate to a conscious awareness
of it?
Speaker 1 (10:04):
So are there actually subconscious signs that we're feeling stressed,
like things we might not even notice in ourselves.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
So that's exactly what Colin and fellow researchers wanted to
find out, and to do it, they enlisted one hundred
and forty three volunteers and had them wear these audio
recorders for two days, and during that time, the recorders
would switch on automatically every couple of minutes, and they
actually gathered over twenty thousand audio clips. And from there
the researchers transcribed the recordings and started picking apart the
(10:32):
specific language, and in particular, they paid attention to these
things called function words, which are pronouns and adjectives that
I guess clarify meaning rather than providing it themselves. So
you think about the opposite of that, which is meaning
words nouns and verbs. Those are words a speaker might
deliberately choose, versus like these so called function words, which
are produced without thinking, and the idea is that maybe
(10:54):
these function words could theoretically give you a glimpse of
what's going on subconsciously, so.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Where the research is able to link certain words to
feelings of stress.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Yeah, the study found that a volunteers use of function
words was much more accurate prediction of gene expression than
even like an individual self report about his or her
stress levels. So, for example, participants who exhibited stressed out
gene expressions talked less overall, but when they did speak,
they used more intensifying adverbs such as like really or
(11:23):
very or incredibly, and they also used fewer third person
plural pronouns such as they are there.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
All right, all right, I'm writing all these down for
later us. It's good.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Well, I mean there's a reason, like, according to the researchers,
we use they are they're less, and that's because people
tend to focus inwards. And of course there's still much
more research to do on all of this, but if
these initial findings hold up, it could actually be a
new way for doctors or even like your phones or
your watches or your alexas to spot if you're stressed
(11:53):
out and all that by just listening to the words
you use.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
That is pretty incredible and also a little bit weird
to think about, but yeah, very interesting, and it reminds
me there are actually a few other symptoms of stress
that I wanted to talk about, and one of these
is is whether or not it can really make your
hair turn gray.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Well, as someone whose hair is all turned gray since
I've had kids, I'm very interested in who to blame
for this. But before we dig in, let's take a
quick break.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
You're listening to part Time Genius and we're talking about
all the different ways stress can affect our bodies and Mango,
I've got bad news for you. There's one thing stress
doesn't do, and that's turn your hair gray.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
So I'm definitely a little confused by this because I
look at Obama and George Bush and how their hair
turned color like pretty soon after they got into office,
and for some reason, our current president's hair has stayed
the exact same color. But are you saying stress makes
no contribut into these like Bonnie Rate streaks in my hair?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
You know, I've always wanted to tell you how much
you reminded me of Bonnie Rates. I'm glad you finally
brought it up. But you know, despite what many people think,
there's actually no clear scientific link between stress and going gray.
And it turns out it's actually a person's genes more
than anything else, that determine when their hair turns gray.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
So why is that, when like my kids started talking
a lot and bossing me around, that's when my hair
went gray.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
I think it's just getting older, man. I mean, it's
the same thing for the presidents that you talk about,
or most of our presidents. And you know, while we
don't know the exact genetic reason why most people go
gray as they age, we do know that it ultimately
comes down to these mellenocytes, which are these pigment cells
that give hair its color. So when you're younger, the
cells work to fight off damaging compounds like hydrogen peroxide,
(13:50):
and these would otherwise cause oxidation if they were allowed
to build up on the scalp. But as we get older,
our genes have a harder and harder time keeping that
oxidation at bed. And so, according to one theory, as
the hydrogen peroxide accumulates over time, our melanocytes start to
die off. So you know, once our follicles begin to
run low on their only source of pigment, they start
(14:11):
producing colorless or gray hair instead.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
So I mean, I'm going to accept that answer, but
I also feel like, you know, these old wives tales
have been going on for long enough that there has
to be some validity, right, Like, is there any truth
to any of it?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Well, there actually is one thing that kind of redeems
their tail, and that's because cellular strain that's brought on
by oxidation. It is actually known as oxidative stress, and
that's different from the kind of emotional stress that we've
been talking about, though it's still somewhat connected. So this
comes from Mary Seilberg of the Global Dermatology Institute, And
as she says, a very strong chronic stress is known
(14:47):
to increase oxidative stress, and there are studies that document
correlations between extreme emotional stress and increase cellular oxidative stress.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
I got it.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
No, you didn't let me finish here, mango. So this
is not to say that we gray every time that
we fight with our children or spouses. That was what
she said.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Well, well, family and work stress might not turn our
hair gray. There is one thing that does lead to
hair loss. Because oddly enough, losing your hair is a
coping mechanism when we're going through exceptionally hard times.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
So I do have my kids to blame. This is
good to know.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Well, for first, it helps to know the life cycle
of our hair includes three phases. I'm going to talk
through that, the last of which is this resting period
called the telligent phase, and hairs in this stage are
no longer connected to a blood supply, which means they're
no longer growing either. Now, usually about eight percent of
our hair is in this dormant stage at any given time,
and this is all completely natural, right, Like, hair is
(15:47):
in this in telligent phase they put for around three
months or so, and then they kind of just fall
out gradually as we go about our lives.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
All right, So then how does stress figure into this?
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Well, when people go through something that's emotionally draining, like illness,
or like the loss of a loved one, or even
something positive but still taxing, something like childbirth, our bodies
will sometimes prompt much of our hair to enter this
intelligent phase prematurely. And it's actually the body's way of
conserving energy to be used elsewhere during like a period
of extended stress.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
All right, So let me get this straight. Not only
do you have to get through a tough time, but
when you finally get to the end of it a
few months later, all your hair falls down. I mean,
it kind of feels like a raw deal to me.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
But you know, we've been concentrating on the negative here,
which is a little uncharacteristic for us. But the truth
is not all of stress's effects on the body are
bad ones. They're actually upsides to emotional or mental pressure.
And you know, for one thing, experiencing stress better prepares
us to handle it in the future. And the reason
for that really comes down to mental conditioning. You know,
(16:48):
whenever we encounter a stressful situation, our prefrontal cortex takes
notice of this. And remember this is the part of
the brain that handles executive functions that help us cope
with different threats. So the next time we're faced with
a mild stress or that we've handled before, the prefrontal
cortex is able to overrule those warnings and that makes
the stress much easier to bear than it was the
(17:09):
last time.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
I'm actually glad you're pointing out how stress can make
is more resilient because one of the things I found
out this week is that having a well rounded view
of stress can actually help you live longer.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
So why is that?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
This is According to a study from nineteen ninety eight,
when researchers asked about thirty thousand adults in the US
about their opinions on stress, and the participants were asked
to report how much stress they'd experienced in the past
year and whether or not they believed that stress was
negatively impacting their health. Then, eight years later, the researchers
determined that high levels of stress had increased the risk
(17:42):
of dying by forty three percent, but only in the
people who had said stress was making them less healthy.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So what about the people who reported high stress levels
but didn't think it was hurting them.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
I mean, that's the craziest part. Not only were those
people less likely to die prematurely, they actually had the
lowest risk of death of all the participants, including those
who'd reported low stress levels. So it really seems like
stress itself isn't the problem. It's kind of how we
think about it or deal with it that makes or
breaks this.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Well, that sounds right, and of course there's a little
caveat there. I mean, simply being exposed to stressful situation
doesn't equip us to handle them better next time. I mean,
if you get really stressed before presentation and then you
crack under pressure, it's not like you're going to feel
stress free the next time you have to give a presentation.
And on the other hand, like if you overcome those
anxious feelings and give a solid performance despite all that stress,
(18:33):
then of course the next time you'll feel a whole
lot less stress going up again mm hmmm.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
I mean, there's definitely no quick fix for stress. But
like we've been saying, maybe that's not such a bad thing.
I mean, I think about the people from the study
who reported high stress levels but didn't actually consider it
a problem, and I'd wager what they were experiencing is
something called ustress or healthy stress. And this was another
term coined by that scientists we talked about earlier, Hans Cellier,
(18:57):
and it refers to the range of stress where people
actually feel motivated or more productive. It was just fascinating
to think about it, and it makes sense. But what
separates this good stress from the bad stress?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Again, it really comes down to perceptions.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
So like if you think about like an employee who's
been given a reasonable amount of work and a realistic deadline,
then it's likely that person will feel engaged but not overwhelmed,
you know, like the goal seems achievable, so they know
that any stress they feel is temporary or you know, surmountable,
and that usually results in motivation and focus rather than
(19:32):
I guess what would be discouraging feelings, you know, when
you feel like it's just too much to cope with.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Well, that does make sense. And obviously not all stress
is going to be healthy stress, I mean, sooner or
later we have to deal with the bad kind. And
while you mentioned how working through distress can make you
more resilient in the long run, sometimes you just want
relief from it, you.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Know, absolutely, So let's check out a few offbeat ways
to cope with stress. But before we do, let's take
another quick break. Okay, well, so why don't you go first?
(20:13):
What's your favorite time tested way to de stress?
Speaker 1 (20:17):
All right, So this isn't anything I've tried before, but
I came across this study on acupuncture, and I've always
been curious about acupuncture, and this study was from a
few years back, and it really shed some light on
why the practice might be so effective at relieving certain
people's stress. Now, acupuncture is of course a big part
of traditional Chinese medicine, and it actually dates back several
thousand years, but for all that time, the treatment has
(20:40):
largely been seen as really more of a placebo in
the eyes of western medicine. And it seemed to work
as a form of pain management, but you know, researchers
weren't sure exactly why.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
So I've actually done a course of acupuncture for this
arm injury I had, and I was really skeptical going in,
and then I found it really helpful. But I was
also curious whether it was just like a placebo thing.
But you're kind of saying that someone's cracked the case
on why it might work.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Well maybe, I mean, there was a team at Georgetown
that took on this challenge back in twenty fifteen, and
they found that acupuncture might actually work by suppressing some
of those stress hormones that we talked about earlier. So,
in humans, our central stress response is called the HPA
and this stands for the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis, and
believe it or not, this complex feedback system is linked
(21:28):
to an acupuncture point on our shins of all things. Now, Luckily,
there appears to be a similar point on the pause
of what else but rats, right, And so researchers were
able to use them for a study instead. And so
first they stressed out the rats by exposing them to
cold conditions, and then they tested how these cold rats
responded to stimulation on that specific pallpoint. And so it
(21:50):
turns out the acupuncture greatly reduced the activity in the
rats HPA axis and it was blocking the production of
stress hormones. And this is much like the anti anxiety
medication might do. So, you know, while there's still more
research to be done, the evidence does suggest that acupuncture
holds more water than many people give it credit for.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Well, for those of you out there who have no
interest in like poking yourself or prodding yourself before a
big speech or game or whatever, you can actually make
do with stress toys. And this is anything from fidget
widgets to paper clips, to stress balls to silly putty,
even that little zen garden that Tristan's been raking the
heck out of for half an.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Hour, and he's he's only getting more aggressively, I know.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
But the strange thing is it really works, so There's
this pair of researchers from Polytechnic Institute at NYU, and
they've been doing a study on these kinds of objects,
and they claim that stress toys function as quote, playful
secondary interactions that are able to engage bodily movement, effective states,
and cognition to support primary serious tests.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
I mean, that feels like a high falutint way to
talk about paper clips, but I get it, and I'm curious.
I mean, have there been any studies just on stress balls,
because it feels like there was a time when these
things were the most popular thing in the world, Like
you remember this, and everybody was giving away these stress balls.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
I know, I feel like I came back with like
three stress balls a week just from walking around campus
or whatever. But there's actually no definitive research on it.
I did find one study that showed that brief distractions
actually helped people concentrate. So you think about like checking
your email or watching a short YouTube clip or you know,
all that type of thing can serve as a mini
(23:29):
vacation for your brain and it kind of resets your
attention span, which makes sense unless you get back to
work and when you do your focuses more readily there.
But this is where the team from NYU comes in, because,
according to them, fidget widgets have an advantage over these
other kinds of diversions. And that's because stress toys are
typically used just for the enjoyment of the experience itself.
(23:49):
So with something like a smartphone game, like you might
find relief from work, but you're also setting a new
kind of goal as you're playing it, like you got
to beat this level or you've got to get this
high score. And yeah, on the other hand, like when
you're squeezing a stress ball, all you're doing is squeezing
a stress ball, right right, I mean it's something that's
done just as a simple form of mindless fun. Then
(24:10):
it actually stands a better chance of relieving your stress
than any of the other stuff we mentioned. But there's
actually this other great study I have to bring up
because it involves fake smiles.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Oh fake smile. Sorry, well tell me about it.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
So you remember that episode we did on exercise a
while back where there was this one study about how
when you smile when you're running, it can improve your endurance.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yeah, I remember that one, But it was only if
the smile was like truly genuine though.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Right, Yeah, so apparently fake smiles are actually good for
something else. So this is an experiment I'd actually paid
to witness, But researchers use chopsticks to manipulate participants' faces
into one of three expressions. Like they use the chopsticks
to press their faces into like a neutral expression and
a standard smile, and then the so called genuine smile,
(24:57):
where it also pressed the muscles around their eyes. And
once their expressions were set, the volunteers were asked to
complete a series of stressful multitasking activities. All will continue
to hold the chopsticks in place.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
See this is where I'm jealous of scientists, because even
if you didn't actually believe there was something you could
find for this, you could just say, like, we're trying
to study for this for science, so I'm going to
stick some chopsticks in your face and move your face around.
But I'm with you, I want to see this experiment too.
But I'm curious here, like how was their stress level
monitored or was this really just some elaborate hoax, like
(25:30):
I said, to get, you know, to get to be
able to press these chopsticks into people's faces.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
No, it was a real thing, and researchers actually tracked
the volunteers' heart rates through the experiment, and they also
had each person give a self report of how stress
they felt at different times. And in the end, the
people who maintained the neutral expressions had the highest heart
rates of all the participants. And granted, the people with
the genuine smiles were the most relaxed and gave the
most positive reports, but even the people who were forced
(25:55):
with standard smiles, they responded more positively than those who
didn't smile at all.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I mean, that is pretty amazing. So I'm going to
try that the next time I'm stuck in traffic. I'm
going to keep some chopsticks in my glove compartment and
then when I get stressed, I'm just gonna pull them
out and just shove them into my cheeks.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Well, I don't know if that'll make you feel better,
but it's definitely gonna make me feel better.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
All right, Well, I do want to talk about one
other aspect of stress, and that's the fact that it's
on the rise in our country now, according to a
twenty seventeen national survey. This was conducted by the American
Psychological Association. The US is currently undergoing a statistically significant
increase in anxiety, and this is the first time since
the annual survey launched back in two thousand and six,
(26:37):
so we're talking over a decade now. And that may
sound vague enough to not worry about it too deeply,
but when you couple that with research from Harvard and
Stanford Business schools which report that health problem stemming from
job stress end up killing about one hundred and twenty
thousand people each year, you know, it becomes clear pretty
quickly that we can afford for stress levels to get
(26:57):
much higher. I mean, it's literally killing us.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Yeah, it's hard not to worry when you hear stats
like that, which is another problem in itself, because even
stressing about stress is bad for you. I read about
the study back in nineteen ninety one where over seven
thousand civil servants in London were asked to rank how
much they thought their stress level affected their overall health,
and then nearly two decades later, the researchers took those
answers and compared them alongside a list of participants who
(27:20):
wound up having fatal or non fatal heart attacks in
the years since the servant and this is where things
get weird. So The Atlantic reported on this a few
years later, and this is how they summarized the findings.
Eight percent of the participants had reported that stress affected
their health either a lot or extremely and by the
end of the study, those same people were over twice
(27:40):
as likely to have suffered a heart attack as those
who believed it didn't impact their health at all. This
was independent of how much stress they actually experienced. So
while psychological, biological, and behavioral factors are all probably in
play here, the takeaway is simply that if you feel
like stress is killing you, there's a good chance it is.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
And thankfully they're all kinds of effective ways to manage stress,
and it's much harder for some than others, but people
turn to things like exercise and controlled breathing as well
as chronic stress treatments like therapy and you know, even
certain medications.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Yeah, and I also want to circle back to something
we talked about near the top of the show, which
is that idea of investing in socially supportive relationships. There's
actually a good deal of evidence to suggest that a
lot of the stress we feel today is made worse
by some of the more isolating aspects of modern culture. So,
you know, if this world has you feeling anxious, I'd
recommend indulging in some good old fashioned camaraderie because you know,
(28:34):
while other people are often a major cause of stress
in our lives, in some cases, they can also be
a way to relieve it.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, it's definitely true. And if all else fails, yet
yourself a zen garden. All right, why don't we start
the fact off?
Speaker 3 (28:53):
So here's when to kick this off. You don't want
to separate a cow from their best friend cow. According
to research from north Hampton University, when cows are penned
in with their best cow friends a pallad they've grown
up around, their heart rates and stress levels go down.
But when they're putting a pen for thirty minutes with
a cow stranger they get more stressed out, which you
know sounds silly, but the buddy system is relevant to
(29:16):
farmers because that stress can actually decrease the cow's milk production.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
All right, So you know how people who are stressed
sometimes want to sleep away that stress, Like even the
stress of a big argument can make you sleepy sometimes. Well,
there's a reason for this. Researchers at the University of
Pennsylvania stressed out a bunch of roundworms, and then they
found that there's a gene that helps repair damage DNA
by making them sleepy, and that helps sedate them when
they were stressed. And according to the Atlantic, the idea
(29:43):
is that some types of stress and does sleep occur
because the body may be trying to patch up its genes. Huh,
that's fascinating.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
So, for no particular reason, I looked up celebrities and
how they relieve stress. So Keanu Reeves has a very
Buddhist approach. He says too much money in worrying about
your bank account can cause stress. So his advice is
to give lots of your money away and live simply,
mostly out of a suitcase in hotels. If selling everything
and living in a hotel doesn't calm you down, you
can also follow Kendall Jenner's approach. She says, my way
(30:13):
to distress is to either listen to music or talk
to my sister Courtney Kardashian, which is good advice. I'm
going to talk to Courtney the next time I'm stressed too.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah, I'm glad. We're turning to Kendall and Keanu for
our stress relief ideas, or well, here's something I didn't realize.
Financial stress can hurt you physically. This comes from Aileen Chow,
a public policy professor at UVA. She and her team
analyzed over thirty thousand households and they found that those
with higher levels of unemployment were more likely to purchase
(30:43):
over the counter painkillers. So they looked into it a
little bit more and set up these experiments where they
discovered that simply thinking about financial insecurity was enough to
increase your pain. I'm going to quote Scientific American here.
It says people reported feeling almost double the amount of
physical pain in their body calling a financially unstable time
in their life as compared with those who thought about
(31:04):
a secure period. They also conducted an ice bucket challenge
where they prime kits to feel anxious about their future
employment prospects and saw that their pain tolerance was less
than those who weren't stressed about their financial futures.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
I mean, that's crazy, and it does make you wonder
if the opioid epidemic en sompard is related to like
financial stress and economic uncertainty.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
It's really interesting.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
So here's what I really like and it comes from
discover So the scientist Barry Marshall realized that ulcers weren't
caused by stress, which is what everyone thought forever. He
believed they were caused by this bacteria H. Pylori. But
he couldn't convince any mainstream gastorentrologists, and he couldn't prove
his point with labmaies either. But because he was prohibited
from experimenting on humans, he did the only thing he
(31:48):
ethically could. He used himself. So he pulled H. Pylori
from the gut of a sick patient, put it in
a broth, and drank it, and before long he developed
signs of an ulcer. And the good news is that
because it's bacterial, it can actually be treated with antibiotics
instead of the destressing things that doctors had been recommending.
And even better for him, at least, Marshall won a
(32:11):
Nobel Prize for the efforts.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Wow. All right, well here's a quick one. When forests
are overcrowded, squirrels will boost their stress hormone during a pregnancy,
and that leads to faster growing squirrel pups, which of
course increases their chance of survival.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
That's fascinating, so here's one I just learned. The day
that South Korean kids take their college entrance exam is
particularly stressful. It's an eight hour exam and there are
all sorts of traditions around it, like underclassmen will actually
form these cheering squads to greet the test takers at
the exam locations, and the stock market opens an hour later,
as do most businesses. Most parents can be found in
(32:48):
temples or churches just praying away the day. But the
biggest indication of how much stress is going on is
that South Korea actually cancels all flights on that day,
so the skies are completely quiet while the kids are concentrated.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
I have to say, of all the facts that we've
shared today, that one actually makes me the most stressed
just thinking about it. But I will say, I'm looking
over at Tristan, I'm seeing him raking his zen garden,
and it's making me calm down a little bit. So, Mengo,
I don't know about you, but I feel like, for
the first time, we should actually give Tristan the fact
Off Trophy.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
It is a big day for Tristan.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
So listeners, if we have forgotten any great facts about stress,
feel free. To pass those to us we love to
hear from. You can email us part Time Genius at
HowStuffWorks dot com, or you can call us on our
twenty four to seven fact hotline that's one eight four
four pt Genius, or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter.
But thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Congratulations Tristan, Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Part Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works
and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do
the important things we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
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Speaker 1 (34:01):
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Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
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Speaker 3 (34:13):
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Good job, Eves.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
you could leave a good review for us. Do we
forget Jason Jason, who
Guess what, mango, what's that?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Will?
Speaker 1 (00:01):
So you Now, sometimes you'll set your alarm clock really early,
like if you've got a flight or something like that,
and then the next morning you'll wake up right on time.
Does this never happen to you? Yeah, it does. I'll
either do that or I'll wake up at like two
and then three and then four and then whenever I
have to wake up. But more often than not, it's
so weird because you'll wake up like a minute before
your alarm goes off. And I was reading this study
(00:21):
from the University of Lubec and they got some student
volunteers to go to sleep, and they told them before
that that they'd wake them up at either six in
the morning or nine in the morning, and then they
lied and well, everybody up at six o'clock.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
So I'm guessing a lot of the people who were
told they'd wake up at six were like more awake
at that time, right.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, that's exactly what happens. And the kids who were
told they'd be getting up at nine were completely groggy
and just out of it. But what's interesting is that
they were monitoring their bodies the entire time, and so
for the sleepers who were told they'd be woken up early.
There's stress hormones kicked in at around four thirty in
the morning. You could actually see that their bodies were
using stress to anticipate these early mornings and prepare them
(01:02):
for the early day. And so today's episode is all
about stress. What does it do to our body and
how can we use it for good and what are
the best ways to relieve it? So let's dig in. Hey,
(01:32):
their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
Manges shut Ticketter and on the other side of the
soundproof glass raking this tiny zin garden. Oh it's so sweet,
but he's breaking pretty aggressively, actually really aggressively. That's our
friend and producer Tristan McNeil. I think you need to
go a little easier, Tristan, but he is getting pretty
(01:52):
zin with it, and he's raking the heck out of
this thing.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah I know, I mean, he does claim it helps
them to relax. So I think we ought to support
man for today's show. Especially, we should try to keep
an open mind to different approaches to dealing with stress,
because there really is no one correct way to cope
with it. For example, I was reading about the study
from a team out of Australia, these neuroscientists from the
University of Queensland, and apparently they figured out that when
(02:16):
grass is cut, it actually inhibits our brain's release of
stress causing hormones. So it turns out there's a good
reason why people love the scent of fresh cut grass
so much. It can actually help you calm down.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Huh, that's pretty interesting. So that's our first tip pretty
early in the day. So if you're feeling stress, just
mow your lawn or get an air freshener that smells
like mode lawn. And the truth is, there are a
ton of other offbeat examples that you know are there
to relieve our stress. But to start things off, why
don't we talk about what stress is and what kind
of effects it can have on our bodies?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
All right?
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Well, since stress is something that's always been a part
of life, I obviously don't have a great origin story
for this one, but the closest thing might be the
origin of the term. So I didn't realize this, but
prior to nineteen forty six, the word stress didn't mean
like a mental or emotional strain. Until that point, it
was just used to refer to the pressure applied to
an object, you know, not to a person's well being.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
So what changed in nineteen forty six specifically that that
kind of gave it this new meaning.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
So there's this Austrian physician named Hans Celier, and that's
the year he first coined the term stress while describing
his latest experiments. So, of course this comes back to
a rat study, because we love rat studies on this show.
But Celia had been monitoring the physical responses of rats
that have been injected with different hormones and also different
like tissues, and he found that the rats symptoms were
(03:37):
identical regardless of what they'd been injected with. And what
became apparent was that the rats were responding to the
trauma of the experiments themselves, and he called this trauma stress.
So I'm assuming the stress that Celia witnessed was involuntary,
like you know, a faster heart rate or an increase
in blood pressure. I actually looked into this fight or
flight response a little bit, and you know, that's the
(03:58):
feeling that gets triggered in your body when the brain
recognizes some sort of outside threat. So basically it starts
when the hypothalama sends signals to the pituitary glands and
the adrenal glands. And what that does is it triggers
the production of adrenaline and these other stress hormones like
cortisol and epinephrine. And then a few things happen when
all these chemicals are swirling around in our bloodstream. So
(04:20):
for starters, our reflexes and senses are heightened so we
can better deal with that perceived threat. The cortisol also
pushes glucose out of our tissues and into our blood,
and that gives our bodies this extra boost of energy
that you might experience if you're really really stressed. Yeah,
I'm always amazed by that sort of thing, Like we
think of stress as such a negative and yet it's
(04:41):
also this reaction that's supposed to help us deal with
these life threatening situations, like if our ancestors had to
like avoid running from a lion or something, that's when
stress kicks in and it's helpful. But obviously these sharpened
senses don't always help us deal with the more benign
things like trying to make a deadline or trying to
give a public speech, and you know, for someone like
me who is really used to avoiding public speaking, that
(05:05):
sort of stress can be debilitating. Like doesn't it feel
like overkill from the body to still be sending out
all these signals?
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah, it does, and the response to stress can be
a problem when all that extra focus and energy doesn't
really have a natural outlet. Part of that's because the
stress hormones actually begin to build up, and so that
not only keeps us on edge, but it also provokes
all kinds of unnecessary responses in our bodies. For example,
you know how stress can make some people feel nauseous
or sick to their stomach. Well, that's because stress hormones
(05:33):
push the blood away from the gastro intestinal system and
actually redirect it to the brain. And that makes sense
because it helps the brain better respond to threats. But
there are side effects, and that's when this redirection agitates
the microbes living in our gut, and that of course
makes you feel sick at your stomach.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
So I definitely feel that loss of appetite from anxiety.
But what's weirder to me is that even though stress
can sap your desire to eat, it can also make
you gain weight at the same time. And I didn't
realize this before. But as stress hormones like cortisol circulate
through the body, they relay messages to our fat stores,
telling them to generate as much energy as possible, and
(06:09):
this call to action triggers the process called lipolysis, which
is basically when fatty acids called lipids are broken down
and circulated through the body as a source of energy.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
All right, so if the fat is being broken down,
it seems like that would cause us to lose weight
rather than gain it. So how does this work?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Yeah, I mean it should, except that these lipids also
signal the brain to release more stress hormones, which basically
tells the body to conserve its fat supplies. So it's
kind of this negative feedback loop like as one professor
of neuroscience explained it. He said, cortisol causes lipolysis to
release energy, but stimulates the growth of fat cells replenishing it,
(06:47):
which makes it a double edged sword. And basically, these
mixed messages are also a big reason why stress can
lead to obesity as well as certain kinds of diabetes.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Okay, I mean it makes sense. I'd actually never heard
that before. And when you were talk about await gain,
I just assume you were talking about like stress eating
or other responses like that.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yeah, I mean that's interesting to me too. I find
it bizarre because you know, I can't eat, but like
other people tend to chow down when they're stressed. And
that's really because stress responses are highly individualized to our
genetic differences, So you know, people can have wildly different
responses to the exact same stressor.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah, and it is probably worth mentioning that while we
know stress can make us feel sick, we aren't one
hundred percent sure of the physiological reasons behind that. Besign
us have made some headway on that over the past
decade or so. For instance, there was a study out
of UCLA. This was back in twenty twelve, and it
pointed toward the immune system as a possible answer to this.
So the researchers had a group of one hundred and
(07:40):
twenty two participants fill out questionnaires and they were answering
questions about their activities over the last week or so,
and including that was whether each social encounter they had
was positive or negative. And they also have participants undertake
a whole series of these very stressful lab tests, and
before and after these tests, the volunteers had their saliva
attested and what they were looking for was, you know,
(08:02):
indicators of inflammation called cytokines, and these are products of
the immune system. So cytokines are supposed to travel to
the side of the wound or you know, something like
that so they can help fight off infection. So the
researchers were trying to see if the stress would lead
to a rise in these cido kinds, and amazingly it did.
After the participants engaged in negatively stressful activities things like arguments,
(08:24):
their levels of cytokines went way up, which is pretty
wild when you think about it. It's like our immune system
is responding to an emotional or maybe a mental wound
in the same way that it would a physical one.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Oh that's crazy. So, I mean, are are there any
negative effects of this that? Like? Have scientists figured that
part out?
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Well, there definitely are. I mean, the reaction can lead
to some pretty major problems in the long term, including
stuff like heart disease and even cancer. You know, because
we mentioned these cytokines are looking for a wound to
work on, and when they don't find one. They just
keep circulating and inflame regions that really don't require their attention. Huh.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
So is there any way to prevent these unneeded side
of kinds from circulating? I mean, besides trying to avoid
any of these stressful situations we put ourselves in.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Well, I mean, that's pretty much the only solution. And
this was actually the takeaway of the study. I've got
a quote here from the paper's author, Shelley Taylor. She says,
the message is that the flautsam and jetsam of life
predict changes in your underlying biology in ways that cumulatively
could have a bad effect on health. What this tells
me is that people should be investing in socially supportive
relationships and they should not court relationships that lead to
(09:32):
a great deal of conflict.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
So don't hang out with enemies all the time.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yes, don't hang out with bad people. See, it's such
sound advice we're providing.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I also know from my own experience I'm not always
the best at evaluating my own stress levels. So it's
actually something I looked into. And did you come across this,
this scientist named Stephen.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Cole in your research.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I don't think, so it doesn't ring a bell.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
So Cole was basically bothered by our inability to measure
our own stress. So he wondered, like, what if our
brain's automatic stress assessment doesn't translate to a conscious awareness
of it?
Speaker 1 (10:04):
So are there actually subconscious signs that we're feeling stressed,
like things we might not even notice in ourselves.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
So that's exactly what Colin and fellow researchers wanted to
find out, and to do it, they enlisted one hundred
and forty three volunteers and had them wear these audio
recorders for two days, and during that time, the recorders
would switch on automatically every couple of minutes, and they
actually gathered over twenty thousand audio clips. And from there
the researchers transcribed the recordings and started picking apart the
(10:32):
specific language, and in particular, they paid attention to these
things called function words, which are pronouns and adjectives that
I guess clarify meaning rather than providing it themselves. So
you think about the opposite of that, which is meaning
words nouns and verbs. Those are words a speaker might
deliberately choose, versus like these so called function words, which
are produced without thinking, and the idea is that maybe
(10:54):
these function words could theoretically give you a glimpse of
what's going on subconsciously, so.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Where the research is able to link certain words to
feelings of stress.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Yeah, the study found that a volunteers use of function
words was much more accurate prediction of gene expression than
even like an individual self report about his or her
stress levels. So, for example, participants who exhibited stressed out
gene expressions talked less overall, but when they did speak,
they used more intensifying adverbs such as like really or
(11:23):
very or incredibly, and they also used fewer third person
plural pronouns such as they are there.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
All right, all right, I'm writing all these down for
later us. It's good.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Well, I mean there's a reason, like, according to the researchers,
we use they are they're less, and that's because people
tend to focus inwards. And of course there's still much
more research to do on all of this, but if
these initial findings hold up, it could actually be a
new way for doctors or even like your phones or
your watches or your alexas to spot if you're stressed
(11:53):
out and all that by just listening to the words
you use.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
That is pretty incredible and also a little bit weird
to think about, but yeah, very interesting, and it reminds
me there are actually a few other symptoms of stress
that I wanted to talk about, and one of these
is is whether or not it can really make your
hair turn gray.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Well, as someone whose hair is all turned gray since
I've had kids, I'm very interested in who to blame
for this. But before we dig in, let's take a
quick break.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
You're listening to part Time Genius and we're talking about
all the different ways stress can affect our bodies and Mango,
I've got bad news for you. There's one thing stress
doesn't do, and that's turn your hair gray.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
So I'm definitely a little confused by this because I
look at Obama and George Bush and how their hair
turned color like pretty soon after they got into office,
and for some reason, our current president's hair has stayed
the exact same color. But are you saying stress makes
no contribut into these like Bonnie Rate streaks in my hair?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
You know, I've always wanted to tell you how much
you reminded me of Bonnie Rates. I'm glad you finally
brought it up. But you know, despite what many people think,
there's actually no clear scientific link between stress and going gray.
And it turns out it's actually a person's genes more
than anything else, that determine when their hair turns gray.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
So why is that, when like my kids started talking
a lot and bossing me around, that's when my hair
went gray.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
I think it's just getting older, man. I mean, it's
the same thing for the presidents that you talk about,
or most of our presidents. And you know, while we
don't know the exact genetic reason why most people go
gray as they age, we do know that it ultimately
comes down to these mellenocytes, which are these pigment cells
that give hair its color. So when you're younger, the
cells work to fight off damaging compounds like hydrogen peroxide,
(13:50):
and these would otherwise cause oxidation if they were allowed
to build up on the scalp. But as we get older,
our genes have a harder and harder time keeping that
oxidation at bed. And so, according to one theory, as
the hydrogen peroxide accumulates over time, our melanocytes start to
die off. So you know, once our follicles begin to
run low on their only source of pigment, they start
(14:11):
producing colorless or gray hair instead.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
So I mean, I'm going to accept that answer, but
I also feel like, you know, these old wives tales
have been going on for long enough that there has
to be some validity, right, Like, is there any truth
to any of it?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Well, there actually is one thing that kind of redeems
their tail, and that's because cellular strain that's brought on
by oxidation. It is actually known as oxidative stress, and
that's different from the kind of emotional stress that we've
been talking about, though it's still somewhat connected. So this
comes from Mary Seilberg of the Global Dermatology Institute, And
as she says, a very strong chronic stress is known
(14:47):
to increase oxidative stress, and there are studies that document
correlations between extreme emotional stress and increase cellular oxidative stress.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
I got it.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
No, you didn't let me finish here, mango. So this
is not to say that we gray every time that
we fight with our children or spouses. That was what
she said.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Well, well, family and work stress might not turn our
hair gray. There is one thing that does lead to
hair loss. Because oddly enough, losing your hair is a
coping mechanism when we're going through exceptionally hard times.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
So I do have my kids to blame. This is
good to know.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Well, for first, it helps to know the life cycle
of our hair includes three phases. I'm going to talk
through that, the last of which is this resting period
called the telligent phase, and hairs in this stage are
no longer connected to a blood supply, which means they're
no longer growing either. Now, usually about eight percent of
our hair is in this dormant stage at any given time,
and this is all completely natural, right, Like, hair is
(15:47):
in this in telligent phase they put for around three
months or so, and then they kind of just fall
out gradually as we go about our lives.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
All right, So then how does stress figure into this?
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Well, when people go through something that's emotionally draining, like illness,
or like the loss of a loved one, or even
something positive but still taxing, something like childbirth, our bodies
will sometimes prompt much of our hair to enter this
intelligent phase prematurely. And it's actually the body's way of
conserving energy to be used elsewhere during like a period
of extended stress.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
All right, So let me get this straight. Not only
do you have to get through a tough time, but
when you finally get to the end of it a
few months later, all your hair falls down. I mean,
it kind of feels like a raw deal to me.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
But you know, we've been concentrating on the negative here,
which is a little uncharacteristic for us. But the truth
is not all of stress's effects on the body are
bad ones. They're actually upsides to emotional or mental pressure.
And you know, for one thing, experiencing stress better prepares
us to handle it in the future. And the reason
for that really comes down to mental conditioning. You know,
(16:48):
whenever we encounter a stressful situation, our prefrontal cortex takes
notice of this. And remember this is the part of
the brain that handles executive functions that help us cope
with different threats. So the next time we're faced with
a mild stress or that we've handled before, the prefrontal
cortex is able to overrule those warnings and that makes
the stress much easier to bear than it was the
(17:09):
last time.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
I'm actually glad you're pointing out how stress can make
is more resilient because one of the things I found
out this week is that having a well rounded view
of stress can actually help you live longer.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
So why is that?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
This is According to a study from nineteen ninety eight,
when researchers asked about thirty thousand adults in the US
about their opinions on stress, and the participants were asked
to report how much stress they'd experienced in the past
year and whether or not they believed that stress was
negatively impacting their health. Then, eight years later, the researchers
determined that high levels of stress had increased the risk
(17:42):
of dying by forty three percent, but only in the
people who had said stress was making them less healthy.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So what about the people who reported high stress levels
but didn't think it was hurting them.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
I mean, that's the craziest part. Not only were those
people less likely to die prematurely, they actually had the
lowest risk of death of all the participants, including those
who'd reported low stress levels. So it really seems like
stress itself isn't the problem. It's kind of how we
think about it or deal with it that makes or
breaks this.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Well, that sounds right, and of course there's a little
caveat there. I mean, simply being exposed to stressful situation
doesn't equip us to handle them better next time. I mean,
if you get really stressed before presentation and then you
crack under pressure, it's not like you're going to feel
stress free the next time you have to give a presentation.
And on the other hand, like if you overcome those
anxious feelings and give a solid performance despite all that stress,
(18:33):
then of course the next time you'll feel a whole
lot less stress going up again mm hmmm.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
I mean, there's definitely no quick fix for stress. But
like we've been saying, maybe that's not such a bad thing.
I mean, I think about the people from the study
who reported high stress levels but didn't actually consider it
a problem, and I'd wager what they were experiencing is
something called ustress or healthy stress. And this was another
term coined by that scientists we talked about earlier, Hans Cellier,
(18:57):
and it refers to the range of stress where people
actually feel motivated or more productive. It was just fascinating
to think about it, and it makes sense. But what
separates this good stress from the bad stress?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Again, it really comes down to perceptions.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
So like if you think about like an employee who's
been given a reasonable amount of work and a realistic deadline,
then it's likely that person will feel engaged but not overwhelmed,
you know, like the goal seems achievable, so they know
that any stress they feel is temporary or you know, surmountable,
and that usually results in motivation and focus rather than
(19:32):
I guess what would be discouraging feelings, you know, when
you feel like it's just too much to cope with.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Well, that does make sense. And obviously not all stress
is going to be healthy stress, I mean, sooner or
later we have to deal with the bad kind. And
while you mentioned how working through distress can make you
more resilient in the long run, sometimes you just want
relief from it, you.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Know, absolutely, So let's check out a few offbeat ways
to cope with stress. But before we do, let's take
another quick break. Okay, well, so why don't you go first?
(20:13):
What's your favorite time tested way to de stress?
Speaker 1 (20:17):
All right, So this isn't anything I've tried before, but
I came across this study on acupuncture, and I've always
been curious about acupuncture, and this study was from a
few years back, and it really shed some light on
why the practice might be so effective at relieving certain
people's stress. Now, acupuncture is of course a big part
of traditional Chinese medicine, and it actually dates back several
thousand years, but for all that time, the treatment has
(20:40):
largely been seen as really more of a placebo in
the eyes of western medicine. And it seemed to work
as a form of pain management, but you know, researchers
weren't sure exactly why.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
So I've actually done a course of acupuncture for this
arm injury I had, and I was really skeptical going in,
and then I found it really helpful. But I was
also curious whether it was just like a placebo thing.
But you're kind of saying that someone's cracked the case
on why it might work.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Well maybe, I mean, there was a team at Georgetown
that took on this challenge back in twenty fifteen, and
they found that acupuncture might actually work by suppressing some
of those stress hormones that we talked about earlier. So,
in humans, our central stress response is called the HPA
and this stands for the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis, and
believe it or not, this complex feedback system is linked
(21:28):
to an acupuncture point on our shins of all things. Now, Luckily,
there appears to be a similar point on the pause
of what else but rats, right, And so researchers were
able to use them for a study instead. And so
first they stressed out the rats by exposing them to
cold conditions, and then they tested how these cold rats
responded to stimulation on that specific pallpoint. And so it
(21:50):
turns out the acupuncture greatly reduced the activity in the
rats HPA axis and it was blocking the production of
stress hormones. And this is much like the anti anxiety
medication might do. So, you know, while there's still more
research to be done, the evidence does suggest that acupuncture
holds more water than many people give it credit for.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Well, for those of you out there who have no
interest in like poking yourself or prodding yourself before a
big speech or game or whatever, you can actually make
do with stress toys. And this is anything from fidget
widgets to paper clips, to stress balls to silly putty,
even that little zen garden that Tristan's been raking the
heck out of for half an.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Hour, and he's he's only getting more aggressively, I know.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
But the strange thing is it really works, so There's
this pair of researchers from Polytechnic Institute at NYU, and
they've been doing a study on these kinds of objects,
and they claim that stress toys function as quote, playful
secondary interactions that are able to engage bodily movement, effective states,
and cognition to support primary serious tests.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
I mean, that feels like a high falutint way to
talk about paper clips, but I get it, and I'm curious.
I mean, have there been any studies just on stress balls,
because it feels like there was a time when these
things were the most popular thing in the world, Like
you remember this, and everybody was giving away these stress balls.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
I know, I feel like I came back with like
three stress balls a week just from walking around campus
or whatever. But there's actually no definitive research on it.
I did find one study that showed that brief distractions
actually helped people concentrate. So you think about like checking
your email or watching a short YouTube clip or you know,
all that type of thing can serve as a mini
(23:29):
vacation for your brain and it kind of resets your
attention span, which makes sense unless you get back to
work and when you do your focuses more readily there.
But this is where the team from NYU comes in, because,
according to them, fidget widgets have an advantage over these
other kinds of diversions. And that's because stress toys are
typically used just for the enjoyment of the experience itself.
(23:49):
So with something like a smartphone game, like you might
find relief from work, but you're also setting a new
kind of goal as you're playing it, like you got
to beat this level or you've got to get this
high score. And yeah, on the other hand, like when
you're squeezing a stress ball, all you're doing is squeezing
a stress ball, right right, I mean it's something that's
done just as a simple form of mindless fun. Then
(24:10):
it actually stands a better chance of relieving your stress
than any of the other stuff we mentioned. But there's
actually this other great study I have to bring up
because it involves fake smiles.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Oh fake smile. Sorry, well tell me about it.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
So you remember that episode we did on exercise a
while back where there was this one study about how
when you smile when you're running, it can improve your endurance.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yeah, I remember that one, But it was only if
the smile was like truly genuine though.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Right, Yeah, so apparently fake smiles are actually good for
something else. So this is an experiment I'd actually paid
to witness, But researchers use chopsticks to manipulate participants' faces
into one of three expressions. Like they use the chopsticks
to press their faces into like a neutral expression and
a standard smile, and then the so called genuine smile,
(24:57):
where it also pressed the muscles around their eyes. And
once their expressions were set, the volunteers were asked to
complete a series of stressful multitasking activities. All will continue
to hold the chopsticks in place.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
See this is where I'm jealous of scientists, because even
if you didn't actually believe there was something you could
find for this, you could just say, like, we're trying
to study for this for science, so I'm going to
stick some chopsticks in your face and move your face around.
But I'm with you, I want to see this experiment too.
But I'm curious here, like how was their stress level
monitored or was this really just some elaborate hoax, like
(25:30):
I said, to get, you know, to get to be
able to press these chopsticks into people's faces.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
No, it was a real thing, and researchers actually tracked
the volunteers' heart rates through the experiment, and they also
had each person give a self report of how stress
they felt at different times. And in the end, the
people who maintained the neutral expressions had the highest heart
rates of all the participants. And granted, the people with
the genuine smiles were the most relaxed and gave the
most positive reports, but even the people who were forced
(25:55):
with standard smiles, they responded more positively than those who
didn't smile at all.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I mean, that is pretty amazing. So I'm going to
try that the next time I'm stuck in traffic. I'm
going to keep some chopsticks in my glove compartment and
then when I get stressed, I'm just gonna pull them
out and just shove them into my cheeks.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Well, I don't know if that'll make you feel better,
but it's definitely gonna make me feel better.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
All right, Well, I do want to talk about one
other aspect of stress, and that's the fact that it's
on the rise in our country now, according to a
twenty seventeen national survey. This was conducted by the American
Psychological Association. The US is currently undergoing a statistically significant
increase in anxiety, and this is the first time since
the annual survey launched back in two thousand and six,
(26:37):
so we're talking over a decade now. And that may
sound vague enough to not worry about it too deeply,
but when you couple that with research from Harvard and
Stanford Business schools which report that health problem stemming from
job stress end up killing about one hundred and twenty
thousand people each year, you know, it becomes clear pretty
quickly that we can afford for stress levels to get
(26:57):
much higher. I mean, it's literally killing us.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Yeah, it's hard not to worry when you hear stats
like that, which is another problem in itself, because even
stressing about stress is bad for you. I read about
the study back in nineteen ninety one where over seven
thousand civil servants in London were asked to rank how
much they thought their stress level affected their overall health,
and then nearly two decades later, the researchers took those
answers and compared them alongside a list of participants who
(27:20):
wound up having fatal or non fatal heart attacks in
the years since the servant and this is where things
get weird. So The Atlantic reported on this a few
years later, and this is how they summarized the findings.
Eight percent of the participants had reported that stress affected
their health either a lot or extremely and by the
end of the study, those same people were over twice
(27:40):
as likely to have suffered a heart attack as those
who believed it didn't impact their health at all. This
was independent of how much stress they actually experienced. So
while psychological, biological, and behavioral factors are all probably in
play here, the takeaway is simply that if you feel
like stress is killing you, there's a good chance it is.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
And thankfully they're all kinds of effective ways to manage stress,
and it's much harder for some than others, but people
turn to things like exercise and controlled breathing as well
as chronic stress treatments like therapy and you know, even
certain medications.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Yeah, and I also want to circle back to something
we talked about near the top of the show, which
is that idea of investing in socially supportive relationships. There's
actually a good deal of evidence to suggest that a
lot of the stress we feel today is made worse
by some of the more isolating aspects of modern culture. So,
you know, if this world has you feeling anxious, I'd
recommend indulging in some good old fashioned camaraderie because you know,
(28:34):
while other people are often a major cause of stress
in our lives, in some cases, they can also be
a way to relieve it.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, it's definitely true. And if all else fails, yet
yourself a zen garden. All right, why don't we start
the fact off?
Speaker 3 (28:53):
So here's when to kick this off. You don't want
to separate a cow from their best friend cow. According
to research from north Hampton University, when cows are penned
in with their best cow friends a pallad they've grown
up around, their heart rates and stress levels go down.
But when they're putting a pen for thirty minutes with
a cow stranger they get more stressed out, which you
know sounds silly, but the buddy system is relevant to
(29:16):
farmers because that stress can actually decrease the cow's milk production.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
All right, So you know how people who are stressed
sometimes want to sleep away that stress, Like even the
stress of a big argument can make you sleepy sometimes. Well,
there's a reason for this. Researchers at the University of
Pennsylvania stressed out a bunch of roundworms, and then they
found that there's a gene that helps repair damage DNA
by making them sleepy, and that helps sedate them when
they were stressed. And according to the Atlantic, the idea
(29:43):
is that some types of stress and does sleep occur
because the body may be trying to patch up its genes. Huh,
that's fascinating.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
So, for no particular reason, I looked up celebrities and
how they relieve stress. So Keanu Reeves has a very
Buddhist approach. He says too much money in worrying about
your bank account can cause stress. So his advice is
to give lots of your money away and live simply,
mostly out of a suitcase in hotels. If selling everything
and living in a hotel doesn't calm you down, you
can also follow Kendall Jenner's approach. She says, my way
(30:13):
to distress is to either listen to music or talk
to my sister Courtney Kardashian, which is good advice. I'm
going to talk to Courtney the next time I'm stressed too.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah, I'm glad. We're turning to Kendall and Keanu for
our stress relief ideas, or well, here's something I didn't realize.
Financial stress can hurt you physically. This comes from Aileen Chow,
a public policy professor at UVA. She and her team
analyzed over thirty thousand households and they found that those
with higher levels of unemployment were more likely to purchase
(30:43):
over the counter painkillers. So they looked into it a
little bit more and set up these experiments where they
discovered that simply thinking about financial insecurity was enough to
increase your pain. I'm going to quote Scientific American here.
It says people reported feeling almost double the amount of
physical pain in their body calling a financially unstable time
in their life as compared with those who thought about
(31:04):
a secure period. They also conducted an ice bucket challenge
where they prime kits to feel anxious about their future
employment prospects and saw that their pain tolerance was less
than those who weren't stressed about their financial futures.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
I mean, that's crazy, and it does make you wonder
if the opioid epidemic en sompard is related to like
financial stress and economic uncertainty.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
It's really interesting.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
So here's what I really like and it comes from
discover So the scientist Barry Marshall realized that ulcers weren't
caused by stress, which is what everyone thought forever. He
believed they were caused by this bacteria H. Pylori. But
he couldn't convince any mainstream gastorentrologists, and he couldn't prove
his point with labmaies either. But because he was prohibited
from experimenting on humans, he did the only thing he
(31:48):
ethically could. He used himself. So he pulled H. Pylori
from the gut of a sick patient, put it in
a broth, and drank it, and before long he developed
signs of an ulcer. And the good news is that
because it's bacterial, it can actually be treated with antibiotics
instead of the destressing things that doctors had been recommending.
And even better for him, at least, Marshall won a
(32:11):
Nobel Prize for the efforts.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Wow. All right, well here's a quick one. When forests
are overcrowded, squirrels will boost their stress hormone during a pregnancy,
and that leads to faster growing squirrel pups, which of
course increases their chance of survival.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
That's fascinating, so here's one I just learned. The day
that South Korean kids take their college entrance exam is
particularly stressful. It's an eight hour exam and there are
all sorts of traditions around it, like underclassmen will actually
form these cheering squads to greet the test takers at
the exam locations, and the stock market opens an hour later,
as do most businesses. Most parents can be found in
(32:48):
temples or churches just praying away the day. But the
biggest indication of how much stress is going on is
that South Korea actually cancels all flights on that day,
so the skies are completely quiet while the kids are concentrated.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
I have to say, of all the facts that we've
shared today, that one actually makes me the most stressed
just thinking about it. But I will say, I'm looking
over at Tristan, I'm seeing him raking his zen garden,
and it's making me calm down a little bit. So, Mengo,
I don't know about you, but I feel like, for
the first time, we should actually give Tristan the fact
Off Trophy.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
It is a big day for Tristan.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
So listeners, if we have forgotten any great facts about stress,
feel free. To pass those to us we love to
hear from. You can email us part Time Genius at
HowStuffWorks dot com, or you can call us on our
twenty four to seven fact hotline that's one eight four
four pt Genius, or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter.
But thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Congratulations Tristan, Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Part Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works
and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do
the important things we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Christan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
mixy sound thing. Jerry Roland does the exact producer thing.
Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
research army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Adams and Eves Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears.
Good job, Eves.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
you could leave a good review for us. Do we
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