Stress and Health

I recently watched a National Geographic documentary about stress and the harmful effects on health.  Robert Sopolsky has been researching the effects of stress on health for many decades and has received the McArther Fellowship genius grant for his research.  Every summer he would goes to Africa to study primates and their behaviors and found that the health of the Alfa baboons he was studying was particularly better than the more subordinate ones.  The weaker baboons, or the one’s lower on their social hierarchy had more fat around their abdomens, more buildup in their arteries and were in poorer health than the ones at the top.  Interestingly, the results seem to be duplicated when they studied the social hierarchy in people with Civil Service jobs somewhere in Britain.  The ones at the top, the ones with more autonomy and more control over their work -load and schedule, were in overall better health.  

Prolonged stress can also harm the hippocampus.  The hippocampus is the main place in the brain where learning and memory take place.  With the hippocampus being vulnerable, the cells are more susceptible to damage or death.  The dendrites in the hippocampus of chronically stressed people or primates shrink or die, thus, impairing memory or learning.  I was blown away by the research.  It seems very simple, very obvious.  People who are less stressed are happier, healthier, and maybe even smarter, but it provided the scientific evidence in such an interesting way.  I really recommend it.  Here’s a clip to tease you and encourage you to watch.  There were many different areas of research that are so intriguing but I do not have the capacity of knowledge to thoroughly explain them.  I encourage people to be aware of these things, and how science is so incredibly amazing.