According to a new study led by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania (USA), the way we handle stressful situations has more influence on our state of health than stress itself. “Until now, positive emotions, and how those can help people under stress, have really been overlooked,” says Pennsylvania State University post-doc Dr Nancy Sin. and lead author of this study which has just been published in the journal Health Psychology.
To reach this conclusion, the researcher and her team worked with 872 American adults and asked them, for eight days, to report all their daily stressors (quarrels at home or at work, stress in public transport, disturbing news…) and to report on their reactions to these different stressful situations. They also took blood samples to discover possible markers of inflammation.
And the results were final. For Dr Sin, it appears that women are more likely to react negatively to daily stressors than men. And these negative reactions lead to a high level of inflammation. However, this inflammation due to stress can, in the long term, lead to cardiovascular disease or cancer.
According to the doctor, “this study is the first to link inflammation biomarkers with positive mood responses to daily stressors. And the results highlight the need for a positive attitude in the unavoidable stressful situations.”
So, to reduce adrenaline rushes, we learn to manage stress in the office, we test anti-stress self-massage and we calls on plants.
And you, how do you react to the stress of everyday life? Share your advice on the forum.
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