Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Duh of the Day: Limit Stress for Better Health
As far as the Washington Post seems to be able to tell, the MacArthur Foundation gave Robert Sapolsky one of its Genius grants to discover that being rich and popular and well-adjusted makes it easier to deal with stress.
I presume that what he's done is take that obvious conclusion and look at the endocrine and immunological reasons behind it - like how prolactin and adrenaline, for instance, can modulate immune response - but the article only hints at this. It mainly proclaims stress-induced doom for those prone to anxiety and/or without strong social support systems, and suggests meditation and "taking stock of things" in passing as ways to help deal. If I was interviewing a prominent expert in the field, I would ask him to suggest a few specifics on how to deal while I was at it. Just saying 'meditation helps' is not useful, since most people don't likely have any idea what that actually means.
I presume that what he's done is take that obvious conclusion and look at the endocrine and immunological reasons behind it - like how prolactin and adrenaline, for instance, can modulate immune response - but the article only hints at this. It mainly proclaims stress-induced doom for those prone to anxiety and/or without strong social support systems, and suggests meditation and "taking stock of things" in passing as ways to help deal. If I was interviewing a prominent expert in the field, I would ask him to suggest a few specifics on how to deal while I was at it. Just saying 'meditation helps' is not useful, since most people don't likely have any idea what that actually means.
