Psychology Blog » Stress

Gender differences in immune responses

Cara Flanagan — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 08:47:22 +0000

A recent study by Ramona Scotland (just published) is described on a recent edition of Healthcheck (listen here). The study did involve animals but points clearly to significant gender differences – females have stronger immune systems which means they become less ill and recover faster. There is a downside because women are also more susceptible to more autoimmune diseases because their immune systems are more sensitive.

Such differences are important because most research is conducted using men and the assumption is made that the findings apply to all people. For example if a drug is tested on men it may not function in the same way with women.

Relationships are good for you!

Evie Bentley — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:01:56 +0000

Women in our culture generally have richer social networks than men, and this observation has been used as part of the explanation for women coping better with stress and living longer. Now a meta-analysis has shown that a low number of friends, family, colleagues etc. in a person’s social network has similar negative effects on health and longevity as smoking, obesity, sedentary lifestyle or over-use of alcohol. The researchers say that their analysis was not able to differentiate between positive and negative social relationships, so having a good number of positive ones might give an even stronger effect on living healthier and longer!

Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB. Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLoS Medicine, 2010; 7 (7):

INFORMATION IS BEAUTIFUL

Adrian Frost — Sun, 02 May 2010 17:01:05 +0000

There really are some beautiful charts and diagrams here…. truly ‘descriptive statistics’. I can’t really do any of it justice by cramming it into a tiny blog post, but it’s well worth having a look at this venn diagram about drugs, for example. Or this interactive representation of the link between stress and work.

New study shows clear link between stress and heart disease

Cara Flanagan — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 07:36:36 +0000

A team at the University of London have just published a report of their study linking stress to atheroschlerosis (narrowing of the arteries), which is a major factor in heart attacks. Hamer et al. (2010) worked with 514 healthy men and women (mean age 62.9 years). The participants were given various tasks to increase their stress levels (such as the Stroop task). Cortisol levels in the saliva were measured before and after the stress tasks (cortisol is a hormone produced when we are stressed). Coronary artery calcification (thickening) was also assessed. The study found that only 40% of the participants had raised cortisol levels after the task but of this group there were significantly more people with thickened arteries. These results support the idea that hypothalamic pituitary adrenal activity (which produces cortisol) is a risk factor for CHD.

Diathesis-Stress and cancer

Evie Bentley — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:09:05 +0000

Diathesis-stress is an example of nature AND nurture, as it can be interpreted as a gene or genes switched on by environmental factors. Recently it’s been suggested that being lonely and stressed could affect the expression of cancer-linked genes, triggering their action. The research has been done in the USA on rats, comparing those kept in isolation with those living in groups. The former group had over three times the frequency of breast tumours than the latter group, and their breast tumours were also more aggressive and deadly. The isolated rats also produced more stress hormones and were more reactive to stressful situations. Rats, like ourselves, are social animals and so being isolated is likely to cause stress.

Stress, Health and Relationships

Evie Bentley — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 08:33:56 +0000

Research due to be published this autumn in the USA journal Cancer suggests that too much stress can impact on surviving cancer. This stu dy was a meta-analysis of 3.8 million people, cancer sufferers diagnosed between 1973 and 2004. Married people were found to have a 5 year survival rate of 63% compared to a 45% rate for those who were separated. The explanation offered is that the stress of a break-up in a serious relationship interferes with healing and recovery, and hence survival rates. The researchers suggest that the love and support of a partner is a key factor in battling illness, even one as serious as cancer, and their findings are supported by many previous studies. Of course, important other factors are also relevant – how many can you think of?

Stress: Which comes first SAM or HPA?

Cara Flanagan — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:10:20 +0000

We recently received the question above from Claire Matthews of The Castle School in Bristol and thought some of you would be interested in the answer: The SAM system concerns the adrenal medulla and the release of adrenaline/noradrenaline which has the effect of creating physiological (sympathetic) arousal and producing the fight or flight response. The HPA access concerns the adrenal cortex which produces corticosteroids such as cortisol, which help the body to recover after stress but also have negative effects e.g. reduced immune function. Now to the question – do they happen simultaneously or does the SAM system come first and the HPA second?

The answer is both. Essentially both systems are triggered by a stressor but one (SAM) is an instantaneous response like lighting a match, whereas the other (HPA) is much slower and doesn’t happen very easily (like lighting a fire). It is harder to achieve (needs a continuing stressor) and is only activated in more extreme circumstances. So in a sense the HPA response does come second because, even though it is triggered at the same time as the SAM, its response is seen some time later – well after the fight/flight response.

EWT in the Labyrinth of the Lost

Cara Flanagan — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 08:09:00 +0000

The London Dungeon offers you to chance to be transported back ‘to the darkest moments in the capital’s history … live actors, shows, two rides and interactive special effects ensure that you face your fears head on in this unique ninety minute experience.’ Two psychologists (Tim Valentine and Jan Mesout of Goldsmith’s College, University of London) had the great idea to utilise this experience as an opportunity to ethically test EWT in a stressful context.In the Labyrinth of the Lost a hooded actor jumps out on unsuspecting visitors, blocking their path – which offered the psychologists the opportunity to ask people, after they emerged from the labyrith, if they could identify the man from a set of photographs. In total they interviewed 56 people and found that those who reported feeling more anxious about the labyrinth experience were less accurate in their identification – 17% of high anxiety participants were correct compared with 75% of low anxiety participants. This demonstrates the negtive effects of anxiety on EWT.A separate investigation showed that self-reports of anxiety were positively correlated with physiological arousal in the labyrinth.

Nature IS Nurture ?

Evie Bentley — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:58:00 +0000

Nature – the great outdoors, trees, sky, flowers, water – has a psychological and physiological effect which can help lower stress levels; at least that is what researchers at the University of Washington have demonstrated. They had student participants who completed quite difficult mental tests. During these tests some had a view of trees and grass through the window, whilst others had the same view but on a huge plasma screen. The students were also linked up to heart monitors. All the students glanced up at the real life or televised view, but those with the real view through windows lowered their heart rates, which relate to their stress levels, the most.

So why don’t we all try and get a glimpse of the natural world, especially if we are working hard, anxious or worried, generally stressed, and see if this can help us manage our stress better?