While we can certainly ‘catch’ stress off those around us, there are some strange kinks in how it is transmitted.
“When we are afraid, when we are threatened in any way, our cortisol levels go up.”
“When we are afraid, when we are threatened in any way, our cortisol levels go up.”
Stress can literally shrink your brain, research suggests.
Middle-aged people with high levels of the ‘stress hormone’ cortisol also perform worse on memory tests than those with average levels of the hormone.
Common approaches such as mindfulness, moderate exercise and better sleep can all help reduce stress.
Professor Sudha Seshadri, who led the study, said:
“In our quest to understand cognitive aging, one of the factors attracting significant interest and concern is the increasing stress of modern life.
One of the things we know in animals is that stress can lead to cognitive decline.
In this study, higher morning cortisol levels in a large sample of people were associated with worse brain structure and cognition.”
The study involved brain scans of 2,231 people who also had their cortisol levels tested.
Cortisol is a hormone that rises in the body with stress levels.
The tests revealed that those with higher levels of cortisol had smaller brain volumes and worse memory.
However, no one in the study had signs of dementia.
Dr Justin B. Echouffo-Tcheugui, the study’s lead author, said:
“Cortisol affects many different functions, so it is important to fully investigate how high levels of the hormone may affect the brain.
While other studies have examined cortisol and memory, we believe our large, community-based study is the first to explore, in middle-aged people, fasting blood cortisol levels and brain volume, as well as memory and thinking skills.”
Professor Seshadri said:
“The faster pace of life today probably means more stress, and when we are stressed, cortisol levels increase because that is our fight-or-flight response.
When we are afraid, when we are threatened in any way, our cortisol levels go up.
This study adds to the prevailing wisdom that it’s never too early to be mindful of reducing stress.”
The study was published in the journal Neurology (Echouffo-Tcheugui et al., 2018).
The level of stress linked to greater activity in parts of the brain involved in working memory.
This age-group deal better with stressors and experience fewer of them.
Major depression, mood disorders and anxiety are 56 percent more common in the city.
Stress can provide a kind of ‘inoculation’ against the symptoms of mental health problems.
Humans probably have a natural, in-built tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life.
There may be a way to counter-balance the effects of this emotion on the immune system.
Choking under pressure is when the stress of a situation means people cannot access their normal skills.
How jobs can be adjusted to improve people’s mental and physical health.
How jobs can be adjusted to improve people’s mental and physical health.
Jobs that give employees control over their work are better for mental and physical health, research reveals.
When employees are given control over their work, even in the face of high demands, their health is improved.
Typical ways of giving employees control are to let them set their own schedules and allow them to decide how the work gets done.
However, jobs that put huge demands on employees without giving them control are damaging to mental health.
The study shows the importance of control at work for both mental and physical health.
Dr Erik Gonzalez-Mulé, the study’s first author, said:
“When job demands are greater than the control afforded by the job or an individual’s ability to deal with those demands, there is a deterioration of their mental health and, accordingly, an increased likelihood of death.”
The study included 3,148 people in Wisconsin who were tracked over 20 years.
Dr Gonzalez-Mulé explained the study’s aim:
“We examined how job control—or the amount of autonomy employees have at work—and cognitive ability—or people’s ability to learn and solve problems—influence how work stressors such as time pressure or workload affect mental and physical health and, ultimately, death.
We found that work stressors are more likely to cause depression and death as a result of jobs in which workers have little control or for people with lower cognitive ability.”
Being given control at work, though, improved physical and mental health.
Smarter people were also able to adapt to more stressful jobs without letting it affect them.
Dr Gonzalez-Mulé said:
“We believe that this is because job control and cognitive ability act as resources that help people cope with work stressors.
Job control allows people to set their own schedules and prioritize work in a way that helps them achieve their work goals, while people that are smarter are better able to adapt to the demands of a stressful job and figure out ways to deal with stress.”
Dr Gonzalez-Mulé has this advice for managers:
“Managers should provide employees working in demanding jobs more control, and in jobs where it is unfeasible to do so, a commensurate reduction in demands.
For example, allowing employees to set their own goals or decide how to do their work, or reducing employees’ work hours, could improve health.
Organizations should select people high on cognitive ability for demanding jobs.
By doing this, they will benefit from the increased job performance associated with more intelligent employees, while having a healthier workforce.
COVID-19 might be causing more mental health issues, so it’s particularly important that work not exacerbate those problems.
This includes managing and perhaps reducing employee demands, being aware of employees’ cognitive capability to handle demands and providing employees with autonomy are even more important than before the pandemic began.”
The study was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology (Gonzalez-Mulé et al., 2020).
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