Stress Is Bad For Your Health(?)
Posted by Michelle Moquin on February 22nd, 2014
Good morning!
From Ted:
Kelly McGonigal: How to make stress your friend
Health psychologist Kelly McGonigal is here to talk about stress. In particular, she’s here to make the case that stress might not, in fact, be the enemy we tend to think it is. To do this, she asks those assembled in the conference hall in Edinburgh to indicate how much stress they’ve felt in the past year. Surprise surprise, the majority of the audience confesses they have suffered a good deal. Poor stressed lambs at TEDGlobal!
But now, a confession. “My fear is that something I’ve been teaching for the past ten years has been doing more harm than good,” says McGonigal. “Basically, I’ve turned stress into the enemy. But I’ve changed my mind about stress, and today I want to change yours.”
She cites the 2012 study that made her rethink her whole approach, “Does the perception that stress affects health matter?” by scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It turns out that thinking that stress is bad for you is … really bad for you. Incredibly, she says, over the eight years of the survey, 182,000 people died prematurely from the belief that stress was bad for them. She extrapolates for us: If that estimate is correct, then believing this is so would have been the 15th largest cause of death in the United States.
“You can see why this study freaked me out,” she adds wryly.
McGonigal cites another 2012 paper, “Improving Acute Stress Responses: The Power of Reappraisal,” published by scientists at Harvard’s department of psychology, and asks what might happen if we change the way we think about stress. “What if we thought about it as helpful?” she asks. Turns out, treating common stress responses as a positive might even be literally good for the heart. Why not recast the stress response as your body responding usefully to a challenge?
McGonigal also wants to talk about oxytocin, the much-hyped (and maligned) neuro-hormone that she describes as finetuning the brain’s social instincts. Amidst all the hype about the “cuddle hormone” and the much-ridiculed notion that we should snort it to become happier people, one fact we lose track of, she says, is that oxytocin is actually a stress hormone.
And she has one last study to show us, “Giving to Others and the Association Between Stress and Mortality.” This found that spending time socializing and caring for others can also create stress-related resilience.
“The harmful effects of stress on health are not inevitable,” McGonigal says. “How you think and how you act can transform your experience of stress. When you choose to view your stress response as helpful, you create the biology of courage. And when you choose to connect with others under stress, you can create resilience.”
So while she obviously wouldn’t ask for more stressful experiences in her own life, she does have a new appreciation of the condition. ”When you choose to view stress in this way, you’re not just getting better at stress, you’re actually making a pretty profound statement,” she concludes. “You can trust yourself to handle life’s challenges. And you’re remembering you don’t have to face them alone.”
Stanford University psychologist Kelly McGonigal is a leader in the growing field of “science-help.” Through books, articles, courses and workshops, McGonigal works to help us understand and implement the latest scientific findings in psychology, neuroscience and medicine.
Straddling the worlds of research and practice, McGonigal holds positions in both the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the School of Medicine. Her most recent book, The Willpower Instinct, explores the latest research on motivation, temptation and procrastination, as well as what it takes to transform habits, persevere at challenges and make a successful change.
She is now researching a new book about the “upside of stress,” which will look at both why stress is good for us, and what makes us good at stress. In her words: “The old understanding of stress as a unhelpful relic of our animal instincts is being replaced by the understanding that stress actually makes us socially smart — it’s what allows us to be fully human.”
“She is a leader driven by compassion and pragmatism.”
******
Readers: I found this so interesting. I am all about changing my mind set to thinking more positively, and using all of my assets to do this. Exercising our Oxytocin is one of them… And who doesn’t love releasing Oxytocin? We are all pretty stressed out. How about changing stress from an enemy to a friend instead? The stats seem to make it worth it…and don’t you think choosing to view our stress as “helpful” would be more “healthful and fun?” I like it.
Thanks McGonigal! And thanks to my new internist (I am so happy to have you as my Doctor!) for passing this video along to me!
Thoughts? Blog me.
Peace & Love: “Live it, Give it “
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February 22nd, 2014 at 9:44 pm
Yes, this is what I help others do, I call it ‘reframing’ an example is to shift anxious breathing (shallow and tends to be high in chest) to excited/anticipation breathing (deeper and count to 3 to fill lungs, hold for one count, release that exhale for a count of 3 and on that 4 count allow the tension to flow out also) – that’s for starters, often I assist in taking peeps through steps of what they need to do to reduce the stress of the situation and get them to stay in the moment.
Personally, re: Woody Allen, the man has always had some personal boundary issues so while his letter is well written it is/was designed to shut her communication down, again, and good for her, it didn’t, she rebutted/refuted his letter…so if he wants to keep his silence, that’ll be their ‘take it to the grave’ stalemate bc we will never know the truth really, and her truth and his truth are very different accounts of the same day.
I do think the 2 situations are isolated, mesmerizing and marrying a 19 year old is different than a very young child, the latter is pedophelia which is a criminal offense, the former is merely morally questionable, though *some* men do morally questionable things all the time…and it certainly wouldn’t be the first time a 56 year old man snagged a young one because they don’t know any better. Woody Allen strikes me as a man who sports, um, small shoes and gloves…that’s just me guessing ; )
Luv, Zen Lill
February 22nd, 2014 at 10:15 pm
Very well put Zen Lill
February 22nd, 2014 at 10:20 pm
Breathing exercise is more useful when the breath is taken through the nose and out through the mouth. ;)
February 22nd, 2014 at 10:20 pm
These are really good ideas and i think i will try a few of them myself, thank you.
February 22nd, 2014 at 11:15 pm
I have some stress, I would like to share with that hot sweet piece of ass that took me to dinner.
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:15 am
Lucy, you are correct, thank you, forgot to mention that…it also helps to shake it out of your body a bit and I’ll warn you that that can look pretty silly but I do it before I speak to a group bc it releases any excess tension or stress in my body before getting on ‘stage’ – I also use a visualization technique, I picture the audience enthusiastically clapping and nodding like they understood the info I released from my mind/universe right AFTER I finish speaking, that way I KNOW that the people who are listening are on my side, and believe it, your ‘audience’ wants to hear what you have to say, they’re not there to be haters (though 1-2% always will, who cares : )
Tristen, thank you.
Luv, Zen Lill
February 23rd, 2014 at 1:00 pm
Thanks Zen Lill that is something that I will remember.