Could Stress Make Your Memory Worse? from Huffington Post

Uh oh.

A new study shows that stress may do more than make you frazzled -- it could actually affect memory, according to a new study in mice.

Researchers from the State University of New York at Buffalo published a study in the journal Neuron showing that repeat exposure to stress in mice led to impairments in a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, Everyday Health reported.

The prefrontal cortex is known as the "CEO of the brain," according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, because it's in charge of abstract thoughts and cognitive analysis, not to mention the sense of how to act "correctly" in situations.

MedPage Today reported that the memory problems could come from interference with the signaling of glutamate -- glutamate signaling is very important for proper functioning of the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Researchers reported that when the mice were under stress, there was a loss of receptors for glutamate, which in turn had a negative effect on the brain's processes.

For the full article please go here.

Does Stress Accelerate Aging? Fact or Fiction from Huffington Post

Many of us see President Obama's graying hair and think, "it must be all the stress he's under." We view Hillary Clinton's furrowed brow and assume, "the weight of the world is adding years to her face." But do stress and anxiety actually accelerate the aging process? Is there scientific evidence to back this perception?

The fact is, the results from research are themselves pretty gray. Some studies studies suggest that stress has direct negative effects on our physical and emotional health, but its exact relationship is complex and not yet fully understood.

Here is what we know. Acute anxiety is our natural response to a real or perceived threat -- what we call the fight/flight reaction. It involves a two-way communication between our brain and body, resulting in activation of our cardiovascular, immune and other biological systems. It's our survival instinct at work.

For the full article please go here.

9 Things to Stop Worrying About from Health.com

Stress myths

By Dorothy Foltz-Gray

In the old days, health misinformation would spread slowly. Not today. "The Internet has given people the ability to send everyone on their email lists wild stories that end up mushrooming around the world in a matter of hours," says Rich Buhler, creator of Truthorfiction.com, a website devoted to debunking false email rumors. But relax: Most of those health scares hitting your in-box are a misreading of facts or a deliberate twisting of the truth.

For the full article please go here.

10 Secret Stressors from Yahoo News

By Sarah Jio

Got stress? Most of us do. And you're probably already aware of the usual suspects, like money, kids, work, rocky relationships and your health. But maybe you haven't considered the lesser-known stressors in your life. Without us even knowing it, there are plenty of unexpected causes of day-to-day worry and anxiety. Here, our experts discuss some sneaky sources of stress and exactly how to deal with them.

1. Your Doctor
You go to visit the doctor to feel better, right? But many women may find that certain doctors' interpersonal skills and lack of "bedside manner" can leave them feeling agitated and anxious. In fact, many women may leave the doctor's office feeling more stressed out than when they arrived. If this sounds familiar, it's time to find a new physician, says Phyllis Goldberg, PhD, a family and relationship expert practicing in Marina Del Ray, California. "This is a partnership, and the relationship has to work for you," she says. "So get in the driver's seat-talk to your friends, look online, make a list of what you want and interview until you find the doctor that you know is right for you."
Learn how to choose the best doctor.

For the full list please go here.

Yoga And The Brain: A Possible Explanation For Yoga's Stress-Busting Effects from Huffington Post

The health benefits of yoga are far-reaching, with studies demonstrating its effects on easing chronic back pain, aiding sleep and relieving menopausal symptoms, as well as its intriguing role in helping the mind, by bettering mood and taming stress.

A new look at the research, published in the journal Medical Hypotheses, sheds light on just how yoga might have such benefits for the brain.

"Western and Eastern medicine complement one another. Yoga is known to improve stress-related nervous system imbalances," study researcher Dr. Chris Streeter, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry at BUSM and Boston Medical Center, said in a statement. "This paper provides a theory, based on neurophysiology and neuroanatomy, to understand how yoga helps patients feel better by relieving symptoms in many common disorders."

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine, New York Medical College and the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons hypothesized that there are certain imbalances in the brain when a person has depression or stress-related conditions. Such imbalances include low activity of something called gamma amino-butyric acid (GABA); low activity of GABA is linked with epilepsy, chronic pain, depression, anxiety and PTSD, researchers said.

For the full article please go here.

Relaxing 101: Expert Tips To Reduce Stress And Anxiety from Huffington Post

By Ysolt Usigan for Shape.com

These days, everyone is "stressed out." There isn't a week that goes by that you don't hear the phrase. Margaux J. Rathbun, certified nutritional therapy practitioner and creator of nutrition website Authentic Self Wellness, points out the obvious sources of stress: deadlines at work, relationships, financial issues, etc.

"Some people handle stress well, but for others it can be devastating. Stress can cause fatigue, chronic headaches, irritability, changes in appetite, memory loss, low self-esteem, withdrawal, teeth grinding, even cold hands," she says. "All of these symptoms can have an extremely negative effect on our quality of life, our health, and can ultimately lead to a shorter life span."

To cope with stress and anxiety, and improve your life, follow these expert de-stressing tips…

For the full article please go here.

Nurses, Don’t Let Stress Make You Gain Weight! from Nurse Together

Work, family, friends, bills, housework–all factors demanding your time and usually “stressing you out!” And as many of you nurses know all too well, when you get stressed, the first thing that suffers is your nutrition.

Nutrition can play a huge role in helping to manage the ill-effects of stress. Whether physical or emotional, stress can actually deplete vitamins and minerals from your body. It’s no wonder that stress is linked to an increased risk of illness and disease.

And of course it doesn’t end there. As many of us have found out the hard way, increased stress is usually accompanied by increased weight gain. Understanding the chemical response of your body can help you see why. Stress stimulates the breakdown of serotonin; it also triggers the release of cortisol from the adrenal glands, stimulating the production of the chemical neuropeptide Y (NPY) in the brain. Unfortunately, as levels of NPY rise and serotonin levels fall, carbohydrate cravings increase—and then, watch out potato chips.

For the full article please go here.

Just calm down, already! Here's how From MSNBC

It's only Tuesday, and yet the manic pace of this two-day-old week is already about to make you collapse. If you're seeking de-stressing strategies, you're in luck -- yoga instructor Wendy Rubin and TODAY's diet and nutrition expert Joy Bauer revealed the best poses to do and food to eat to keep yourself calm.

As Rubin puts it, stress isn't something that happens to you -- it's the absence of calm in your life. These poses are designed to relieve muscle tension, quiet the mind and calm the body. They can each be done at home using pillows and blankets you have lying around the house.

For the full article please go here.

Are Women Turned Off By Stressed-Out Men? from Health.com

WEDNESDAY, February 22, 2012 (Health.com) — Scientists have been trying to confirm what Hollywood has known for decades: Women are often attracted to men with chiseled cheekbones and lantern jaws.

These and other masculine facial features are associated with high testosterone levels, and women seem to know this fact intuitively. Studies suggest that women are especially drawn to rugged-looking guys when they’re in the mood to mate (i.e., when they’re ovulating), while at other times, when they’re more interested in companionship, they tend to prefer a softer, more delicate look—think Ryan Gosling versus Burt Lancaster.

For the full article please go here.

5 Tips to Stay Upbeat in a Stressful Work Environment from Nurse Together

Meds to pass, IVs to hang, patient care to deliver, vitals to take, charting to do, meetings to attend- all in a nurse’s stressful day!

Many hospitals around the country are hiring fewer nurses so current staff work longer and harder, doing more with less, once again.

How can a nurse stay upbeat in a stressful work environment? These five tips are easy, effective, and even fun!

For the full article please go here.

If You Want to Lose Weight, Calm Down -- 10 Stress-Management Strategies from Huffington Post

A number of studies show that stress not only leads to weight gain, but it also inhibits weight loss in people who are seemingly doing everything right. For example, a recent study published in the journal Hormones found that chronic stress leads to overeating, co-elevation of cortisol and insulin, and suppression of certain anabolic hormones that lead to abdominal fat and increased inflammation. Insulin spikes are also known to inhibit fat burning. Another study found that stress can make it difficult to lose weight because of the complex metabolic effects it triggers.

So if you want to lose weight or avoid weight gain, one step is to get a handle on your stress. Sounds good, but what do you do when you're facing a really difficult problem and it's stressing you out? Here are some simple ways to manage the stress, calm down, and turn your fat-burning machine back on.

For the full article please go here.

How to stop your kids from stressing from CNN

There is a good chance that my children (and yours) are stressed out on a daily basis.

Not necessarily from catastrophic burdens such as death, abuse or abandonment (though far too many children are dealing with those as well), but from the slow boil of everyday anxieties – a swell of unrelenting childhood stress that, in the long term, may bury our kids good and well in a tsunami of serious health problems.

More, faster, better

High on the list of stressors is the pressure many parents place on their kids: the mentality that the earlier a child does something – walks, talks, reads chapter books, excels in advanced robotics for kindergartners – the better.

For the full article please go here.

The Stress is Killing Me! 11 Tips to Cope at Work from Nurse Together

In these challenging times, nurses have to do more with less and often feel frazzled and frantic, instead of calm and efficient. Excessive stress can interfere with your productivity and deplete you physically, mentally and spiritually.

It’s good to remember that some stress is normal and healthy. Eustress is the “good” stress that every living biological life form has. It allows us to be productive when everything around us is changing. But the U.S. Surgeon General claimed 80% of non-traumatic deaths are stress related.

Stress is literally killing us.

For the full article please go here.

Stress Management: An Inexpensive Necessary Modality for Nurses from Nurse Together

Most nurses, as most people, often pay little or no attention to the cumulative effects that chronic daily stress has on their bodies, which materially affects their ability to care for themselves and, in turn, relate to and care for their patients, until it is too late.

Chronic daily stress also creates a significant threat to the emotional health of nursing staff, and since the degree to which a nurse is emotionally healthy affects the extent to which he or she can meet job expectations, hospital administrators, as well as the individual, must find modalities to manage these threats. Doing nothing will lead to increased insurance premiums for health insurance, workersʻ compensation insurance and general liability insurance, all of which materially affect the “bottom line” for the hospital, and greatly impact the “quality of life” of the nurse.

For the full article please go here.

7 Reasons Working Too Much Is Bad For Your Health from Huffington Post

If you're the last one to leave the office, or constantly picking up an extra shift, you may see the benefits in that paycheck, but all those extra hours are also affecting your health.

A study released this week found that workers clocking at least 11 hours a day have a higher risk of depression than people working a standard seven- or eight-hour day. And that finding joins a host of others suggesting a link between clocking long hours and serious health problems.

Luckily, the weekend offers us a two-day respite from the stresses of all those long days. Below, we've compiled some of the ways working too much hurts your health, as well as a few of our favorite ways to

For the full article please go here.

Working Long Hours Doubles Depression Odds from Health.com

WEDNESDAY, January 25, 2012 (Health.com) — Working long hours appears to substantially increase a person’s risk of becoming depressed, regardless of how stressful the actual work is, a new study suggests.

The study, which followed 2,123 British civil servants for six years, found that workers who put in an average of at least 11 hours per day at the office had roughly two and a half times higher odds of developing depression than their colleagues who clocked out after seven or eight hours.

The link between long workdays and depression persisted even after the researchers took into account factors such as job strain, the level of support in the workplace, alcohol use, smoking, and chronic physical diseases.

For the full article please go here.

Nurses Coping with Daily Stress: 10 Strategies from Nurse Together

In an ideal world, the nurse would arrive to work well rested, would have all of her personal affairs intact so as not to interfere with her work, and she would never need to go out for a smoke break. She would have an ideal body weight with a healthy and consistent diet. The nurse in the ideal world would always have the opportunity to take a lunch break, would be successfully climbing the career ladder, would not need to take prescriptions to help with mood, sleep or stress, and would endure a whole shift without any physical pain. In this imaginary utopia, nurses would watch out for each other and would always be there to assist one another, they would encourage each other routinely, and they would also be immune to being scoffed at, ignored or demeaned by any other healthcare worker.

For the full article please go here.

Nurses, Take the Stress and Expense Out of Fitness from Nurse Together

NurseTogether.com has partnered with Tanya Stroh Training Solutions to bring you NurseTogether.GetInShapeForFREE.net, a brand new fitness and exercise website that features our national “6 Week Shape UP Challenge for Nurses.” This complete fitness program was created and designed by certified personal trainer and fitness expert Tanya Stroh with her Sequential Progression approach to fitness. The website is completely FREE and available to nurses who have the desire to be fit and healthy. Tanya's philosophy has always been that a fit and healthy lifestyle is a process that you build upon; that is why her approach to exercise is so effective. Her clients have successfully improved and achieved their health and fitness goals because of this approach. And now with NurseTogether.GetInShapeForFREE.net, so can YOU! Log on everyday to get your brand new fitness routine and your daily ‘fitness facts videos!’

For the full article please go here.

In denial: Why we’re still stressed

Stress in America, the American Psychological Association’s annual survey, came out last week.

The results were not particularly shocking. Large numbers of Americans are stressed out. Many, extremely so. And far too many are failing to take adequate action to alleviate the stress in their lives.

All of which led my editors to wonder: If we recognize the negative health implications of high stress levels - heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and depression, among others - then why are so many of us doing such a poor job at managing it?

The answer, according to the experts I consulted, may be a sort of willful blindness known as the “optimism bias.”

For the full article please go here.

Gossip Could Lower Stress And Prevent Exploitation, Study Suggests from Huffington Post

Gossip may not be as evil as society makes it out to be, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, found that gossiping can actually lower stress, stop exploitation of others and police others' bad behavior.

The study included four experiments, all of which included a game with a cheater who hoarded points.

Researchers found that when people in the study saw someone acting badly, their heart rates increased. But researchers found that it helped their heart rates when they were able to share what they witnessed with someone else, particularly to warn them of the potential exploitation.

For the full article please go here.