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Health Check: 13/07/2011

13/07/2011

BBC World Service - Health Check, 13/07/2011

Stress – why  are some people better at coping with life's ups and downs than others?

Stress is how people respond to negative life events outside them – according to Angela Clow, a psycho-physiologist from the University of Westminster. She says that stress can disrupt the body's hormones – like cortisol, which can disrupt our sleep patterns. 

Bosses at work may be under pressure – but does the stress drive them to an early grave?  The Whitehall Study has followed UK Civil Servants for more than four decades, showing that other workers are more at risk. Professor Sir Michael Marmot from University College London found that those in lower-status jobs – who have less control over any pressures - were dying younger.

The BBC's Stress Test is available online now.  Clinical psychologist Professor Peter Kinderman from the University of Liverpool teamed up with the BBC’s Lab UK – to create the pioneering psychological experiment.  It gives feedback on your current levels of stress and how to deal with it better.  The test takes about twenty minutes and the researchers hope to discover what triggers depression in some people and not others. 

Rumination – where you worry away about the same things over and over – often happens at night.  So what can be done to stop it and help you get back to sleep?  Clinical Psychologist from Oxford University, Professor Mark Williams describes a three-step "mindfulness" technique which can help.  First you need to concentrate on the present moment.  The second step is to focus on your breathing.  Then finally you expand your attention to the rest of your body.  The idea is that concentrating on the "here-and-now" rids us of the extra meanings we add to our worries.  Other tips from our experts include regular exercise, talking to friends and trying to change how we look at the world – catch the thought, check it's what we want and if not - change it.

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