Stress & fat

New research suggests that stress is correlated to abdominal fat. The more stress you are under the more the fat.

“It makes sense that, in a stressed environment, an animal would want to make and store fat for a future ‘fight-or-flight’ response,” said neuroscientist Adrian J. Dunn of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, who was not involved in the study. “Unfortunately, in modern society, we are not doing much fighting or fleeing,” and the fat remains.

Stress and alzheimer’s linked?

A new study from the Salk Institute links repeated emotional stress and “neurofibrillary tangles” (a precursor to Alzheimer’s).  Be warned, the article is rather technical

“A long-term study of about 800 members of religious orders had found that the people who were most prone to stress were twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, but the nature of the link between the two has been elusive,” says Paul E. Sawchenko, Ph.D., a professor in the Neuronal Structure and Function Laboratory, who led a phalanx of Salk researchers contributing to the current study.

Caregivers

An insightful article in the L.A Times appears about a middle age woman who is caught caring for her ill mother and trying to raise her 5 year old daughter.

“There are times when I’m so stressed I know [my blood pressure] has to be high,” says Wood. “I feel trapped sometimes; on the bad days I feel trapped.”

Moms are stressed

A new study reveals that mothers who lack emotional support are three times the risk of mental health problems.

Follow the Reuters article here. Links to CNN.

Mothers of small children are known to face a substantial risk of mental health problems and their mental health has a “strong influence” on their child’s health and development, the researchers note.

Study examines brain’s own marijuana

Endocannabinoid, I have never heard of it before. Apparently we make it in our brain. Endocannabinoids are made to regulate stress, anxiety and stress related behavior. The University of Buffalo will be studying how these endocannabinoids function in the brain.

“It is widely accepted that one of the major reasons that people use and abuse marijuana is to relieve stress,” according to Samir Haj-Dahmane, Ph.D., neuroscientist and principal investigator on the RIA study. “However, because marijuana can be addictive, it cannot be used to treat stress-related mood disorders such as anxiety. An alternative strategy may be to directly target the ‘brain’s own marijuana.’”

Happy Mother’s Day

In a report issued by congress, mothers in the U.S. Military are stressed, poorly paid and need more help in caring for their children. Women make up about 14.3 percent of the active-duty military, according to the report, and about 40 percent of women in the active-duty force have children.