Stress
Parents less distressed than non-parents: survey
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Parents may complain that their kids “drive them crazy,” but results of a survey suggest that the opposite might actually be true.
The survey of more than 33,400 U.S. adults identified lower levels of anxiety, depression, or other measures of psychological distress among parents than among non-parenting adults of the same age.
Researchers find evidence linking stress caused by the 9/11 disaster with low birth weight
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Researchers have found evidence of an increase in low birth weights among babies born in and around New York City in the weeks and months after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Writing in the journal Human Reproduction [1], they suggest that stress may have contributed to the effect.
Professor Brenda Eskenazi and colleagues studied data from birth certificates of 1,660,401 babies born in New York between January 1996 and December 2002. They divided the babies into those born in New York City (NYC) – whose mothers would, therefore, have been living closest to the disaster zone – and those born in “upstate” New York, which they defined as anyone living outside NYC, including Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester Counties.
Anger, chronic stress tied to heart disease
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For men with borderline-high blood pressure, an angry disposition may worsen the problem and raise the risk of eventual heart disease, a study published Monday suggests.
What’s more, researchers found, long-term stress may do the same in both men and women.
Cancer Patients, Spouses Report Similar Emotional Distress
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A cancer diagnosis affects more than just the patient. A new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center finds spouses report similar physical and emotional quality of life as the patient.
The study found that what really impacted emotional distress - among both patients and their spouses - was whether the patient was newly diagnosed, facing a recurrence or living with advanced disease.
Stress of deployment increases risk of child abuse, neglect in military families, UNC study shows
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Rates of abuse and neglect of young children in military families in Texas has doubled since October 2002, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study shows, raising concerns about the impact of deployment on military personnel and their families across the country.
The study, published in the May 15, 2007 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, was designed by UNC School of Public Health researchers to measure the impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on military and non-military families. The researchers chose to study Texas because of the large military population there and the availability of data.
Stress may help cancer cells resist treatment, research shows
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Scientists from Wake Forest University School of Medicine are the first to report that the stress hormone epinephrine causes changes in prostate and breast cancer cells that may make them resistant to cell death.
“These data imply that emotional stress may contribute to the development of cancer and may also reduce the effectiveness of cancer treatments,” said George Kulik, D.V.M., Ph.D., an assistant professor of cancer biology and senior researcher on the project.
Stress-Related Adult Disease May Originate In Fetal Development
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According to a review in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, evidence is mounting that lifelong stress-related conditions such as depression and chronic pain may be linked to fetal growth and timing of delivery.
“During the past decade, a considerable body of evidence has emerged showing that circumstances during the fetal period may have lifelong programming effects on different body functions with a considerable impact on disease susceptibility,” says review author Eero Kajantie.
Chronic distress linked to higher dementia risk
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Older adults who are prone to emotional distress may have an increased risk of developing dementia, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that older men and women with chronic distress were more likely than their peers with low distress levels to develop dementia before they died. However, distress was not related to the plaques, tangles and other brain changes that mark Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
Fatigue in women is reduced in stress-related cortisol study
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Focus on healthy women is a first, may apply to many health conditions
Mattie Tops and colleagues are looking at strategies to target a mechanism possibly shared in numerous stress conditions in women.
Click here for more information.
A study of healthy women has harvested results involving fatigue and vigor that eventually may help researchers fine tune efforts to treat a multitude of illnesses and syndromes linked to low levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
Hostility and stress predict insulin resistance
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Individuals with high stress and high hostility levels have an increased risk of developing insulin resistance, which occurs when the body’s response to insulin begins to slow down and blood sugar levels begin to rise. People with insulin resistance have a high risk of developing diabetes.
Previous research has shown that insulin resistance is associated with stress and certain personality factors, including hostility. However, the association between hostility and insulin resistance has been inconsistent, Dr. Jianping Zhang explained to Reuters Health.
Zhang, of The Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, and colleagues hypothesized that hostility may interact with stress to affect insulin resistance. To investigate, the team studied 643 men, who were an average of 60.6 years old. The findings are published in the current issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.
Why stress exacerbates asthma in kids
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It is known that stress exacerbates the symptoms of asthma in children, but the biological reason for this has been unknown. Now, scientists in Canada have discovered that a stressful home life diminishes the expression of certain proteins on the surface of cells that regulate airway responses and inflammation.
“Collectively, these findings suggest that in children and adolescents with asthma, the quality of home life and family relationships are important determinants of health and well-being and appear to have stronger effects than other life domains, such as academics and peer relationships,” conclude Drs. Gregory E. Miller and Edith Chen, from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
They interviewed 39 children with asthma and 38 healthy children, ages 9 to 18, regarding acute and chronic stress over the preceding 6 months. Blood specimens were obtained to measure levels of the so-called glucocorticoid receptor and beta-2-adrenergic receptor.
Stress, not “sick” building, may make workers sick
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Work-related stress, rather than building conditions, may be what’s behind the constellation of symptoms known as “sick building syndrome,” according to researchers.
In a study of more than 4,000 UK government employees, researchers found that high job demands and perceptions of poor support were more closely related to sick-building symptoms than were the physical conditions of the workplace.
The findings suggest that “sick building syndrome” may in fact be a misnomer, the researchers report in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Genes play a key role in stress response
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Both nature and nurture - genetic makeup and the environment experienced through life - combine to influence health and well-being, Duke University Medical Center researchers and their colleagues have determined in four new studies.
The researchers showed that people’s genes play a key role in how they respond both biologically and psychologically to stress in their environment.
The Effect of Vacations, Retirement on Your Health
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Long hours and high stress on the job pump out stress hormones, raise blood pressure, and increase the risk for atherosclerosis and other heart problems. To counteract these factors, men need to work balance and relaxation into their lives. The February issue of Harvard Men’s Health Watch discusses whether vacations really have health value, and how men can make the most of retirement.
In one study, men who took the most vacations were 29% less likely to be diagnosed with heart disease and 17% less likely to die over the nine-year study period than those who did not take regular vacations. However, vacations are not equally good for all men. Psychologists in the Netherlands have identified a group of men with “leisure sickness,” a set of psychosomatic symptoms that are triggered by time away from work. Still, this condition is rare; for nearly every man, vacations are healthy, says the Harvard Men’s Health Watch.
Work Stress Leads to Heart Disease and Diabetes
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Chronic stress at work and the metabolic syndrome: prospective study BMJ Online First
Stress at work is an important risk factor for the development of heart disease and diabetes, finds a study published online by the BMJ today.
