Living in stressful times: Prominent scientist and author talks about coping with stress to stay healthy Living in stressful times: Prominent scientist and author talks about coping with stress to stay healthy (April 09, 2003)

By Larenda Roberts
Special to the Almanac

What were you doing on September 10, 2001?

If you're like the majority of people, you have no recollection of what you did that day. Chances are excellent, however, that you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing on September 11, 2001, when you first learned about the attacks on New York and Washington.

The reason for this, according to Stanford University researcher Robert Sapolsky, is because significant stress enhances your memory.

Dr. Sapolsky, who received his doctorate in neuroendocrinology from Rockefeller University, studies the effects of stress on the brain. In addition to being a regular contributor to Discover, Science, Scientific American, Harper's and The New Yorker magazines, he is the author of "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers," "The Trouble with Testosterone," and most recently, "A Primate's Memoir," which chronicles his many years conducting stress research among baboons in Kenya.

The stress response

The stress response has evolved to work when, for example, a zebra is running for its life, Dr. Sapolsky notes. When the same response is instead turned on due to psychological turmoil, social conflict, or ambiguity, it becomes a problem.

"If you turn [the stress response] on for purely psychological reasons, you're going to get sick," Dr. Sapolsky says. "A stressor can be defined as anything that throws your body out of homeostatic balance -- for example, an injury, an illness, subjection to great heat or cold," he explains.

"The stress response, in turn, is your body's attempt to restore homeostatic balance."

A stressor may also be the anticipation of an event, he adds. "If your body sees disaster coming in advance, and you can do some preparation, then that's great; on the other hand, if you feel you are about to be knocked out of homeostatic balance, and you're really not, and if you feel that way on a regular basis, you are being neurotic or anxious or paranoid or hostile."

Moderate stress OK

On the other hand, moderate stress can actually be a good thing, according to Dr. Sapolsky. "A moderate elevation [of stress hormones] enhances learning and memory. ... A moderate stress response is what we call stimulation, and when it's either too big or too severe and goes on for too long, you get the other side of it, where it is deleterious.

"If there are zero [stress] hormones in the bloodstream, learning and memory don't work very well, and you're half asleep."

On the other hand, he says, "If you are psychologically stressed, you've got a variety of hormones you are putting into your circulation." These hormones, in turn, affect body functions, emotions, behavior, and disease.

The vividness and intensity of the September 11 attacks, Dr. Sapolsky notes, are what caused people to consolidate, or "file away," that particular stressor. A feature of what are called "flashbulb memories" -- a single shot that remains in your mind -- are powerful due to your emotional intensity at the scene; however, the accuracy of that particular memory is not very good, he adds.

This is an issue of particular importance for witnesses or victims of crime, who may have extremely vivid memories that may not be accurate.

Learned helplessness.

One example of the effects of continual psychological stress is the condition known as learned helplessness, which is often found among abused children and adults.

"This is a classic sort of thing," Dr. Sapolsky says. "What we call an abusive upbringing is a setting in which whatever a child does, it's not enough -- it's wrong. They're stupid, they're disappointing, whatever."

The disapproval at the time is stressful in and of itself, he says, but the fact that the child has no sense of control over the situation makes him give up. "When the child knows that no matter what they do, they're going to be punished and denigrated, and realizes that no matter how competent they become, they're going to be viewed as incompetent, they reach the conclusion that no one will ever love them and they will be judged as a 'screw-up' with anyone.

"In a sense, learned helplessness is taking the realm over which you have no control or culpability -- but that's not the whole world -- and deciding instead that it is actually everything [a conclusion known as globalization]." Dr. Sapolsky explains that the victim of learned helplessness experiences relief from stress when he concludes, "Why bother? I'm hopeless, I'm helpless."

Managing stress

Neuroscientists have proven that stress is the result of lack of control and predictability over one's situation. One popular method of stress management involves injecting some control and predictability into the stressful situation.

Dr. Sapolsky gives the example of a rude boss who continually barges into your office and wastes your time. In this case, it is not only the boss, his voice, and his interruptions that cause the stress, but the fact that you never know when he might pop in and interrupt you.

One solution, says Dr. Sapolsky, is to tell the boss that you would like to meet with him or her every day at a specific time to go over anything that might need to be addressed that day. By doing this, you can write off 30 minutes of your time every day, but at least you have some control over it, he says.

For blue collar workers on a stressful assembly line, having control over the music they can play winds up being extremely effective in reducing stress, he points out.

With Silicon Valley residents, who tend to be overachievers in a high-tech world, Dr. Sapolsky has found that instead of figuring out what can be predicted and controlled, many need to come to terms with the fact that they cannot control or predict everything, as much as they might like to do so.

Stress outlets

Scientists have also proven that in addition to control and predictability, having designated outlets for stress helps to manage it, according to Dr. Sapolsky. Studies on such activities as prayer, meditation, aerobic exercise, music and the arts indicate "that if you do them regularly, they can lower blood pressure and cholesterol -- they work," he says. But, he adds, such an outlet doesn't work if it's something you don't enjoy doing.

For example, there is scientific proof that aerobic exercise raises beneficial HDL cholesterol levels, but if aerobic exercise is the most miserable, unpleasant thing you can imagine doing, then the stressful elements that result will override the beneficial ones.

"If I had to meditate each day, I would get a stroke after just one week," he says. "That's so far from what works for me; nonetheless, that's life-saving for some people."

It is also clear, according to studies, that you should not save your outlets for the weekend, but you need to set some time aside for them every day. "When you get people who are as crazed and busy as everybody is here (in Silicon Valley)," he says, "if you've taken this seriously enough and feel like you need to re-prioritize your life sufficiently that you can take out 30 minutes a day, that's a big chunk of it right there."

Stress management techniques typically involve a sort of rhythmic slowing down of your tempo, Dr. Sapolsky says. He notes that it is important to seek accurate information about the source of your stress.

Terror alerts

"For the last year," he says, "we've all been driven crazy by the absolute opposite of a clear, predictable situation. On a regular basis, we're told by our government we're having a high security alert. 'We can't tell you why, and we can't tell you what to do about it, but just be very, very careful.' You couldn't define a better way of getting people frazzled and stressed," he says.

Dr. Sapolsky's advice is to keep concentrating on the fact that the vast majority of these alerts are false alarms, and remind yourself that no matter how bad the situation seems to be getting, the odds are it will not touch us. "We're all walking around spending all our time being terrified of smallpox or anthrax or chemical weapons," he says. "It's pretty psychologically corrosive."

Social outlets

Another proven effective outlet for stress reduction is social support. "Probably amid that list of outlets -- control, predictability, social outlets, etc. -- social support is the most important thing," Dr. Sapolsky says.

Studies prove that you get extensive benefits from having a significant other, an intimate group of friends, or a community that you're intensely involved in, he adds. "When you find an effective outlet, whether it's a social outlet, someone's shoulder to cry on, or some sort of activity that's actually reducing stress, and you want to change and are willing to dedicate daily time to the outlet, you're already halfway there.

"Figure out what you control and can't control, and don't try to control the uncontrollable; don't try to control what's already happened -- you cannot master everything that comes your way."

Whatever you do, Dr. Sapolsky stresses, it is vital to your health to lower your stress responses, or you will end up with many of the diseases that plague modern humans in the 21st century, such as ulcers, colitis, adult-onset diabetes, cardiovascular and other diseases, in addition to a host of psychological disorders.

"It's not by accident that roller coaster rides are three minutes long and not three weeks long," he notes.