Chronic Stress Could Lead To Depression and Dementia, Scientists Warn (independent.co.uk) 60
schwit1 writes: A major review of published research suggests that chronic stress and anxiety can damage areas of the brain involved in emotional responses, thinking and memory, leading to depression and even Alzheimer's disease. Dr Linda Mah, the lead author of the review carried out at a research institute affiliated to the University of Toronto, said: 'Pathological anxiety and chronic stress are associated with structural degeneration and impaired functioning of the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, which may account for the increased risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression and dementia.'
Stress is a killer (Score:2)
Of course stress is a killer. Although I do not know if there is a real correlation between them, I have seen women developing breast cancer after long periods of stress so who knows what else it could be bad for. Stress seems like a general malfunction that screws up everything.
Re:Stress is a killer (Score:5, Informative)
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Well, that's a stressful thought
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I like to remember that cortisol, a stress hormone, is also the one that kills salmon after their long stressful swim to their home river.
Well, that's a stressful thought
and you're not even a salmon! ...ad infinitum)
One shot at sex and they're done...
I wonder what's more stressful to them
Transitioning from salt to fresh water
Climbing mountains via fish ladders and waterfalls
Knowing they have one shot at reproducing (do these scales make me look fat? do I have something stuck in my teeth? I hope I don't screw up the salmon dance {curse you, Chemical Brothers}, What if he/she doesn't like the color I'm wearing?
Talk about stress!
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Just do what everyone else is doing and spray your stuff around everywhere.
But first you tell the lady salmon it's good for her complexion...
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Cortisol and, for some of them, bears :)
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Is workplace stress killing you? Have you been employed and now suffer from depression and dementia? Has someone you know been employed and then died? We can help! Call 1-800-SUE-THEM now! Once again, the number is 1-800-SUE-THEM.
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*Chronic* stress is a killer. Acute stress, below a certain threshold, is thought to be beneficial for living organisms.
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Jesus Christ, I thought saying in my OP "long periods of stress" was clear enough.
So let's say "long periods of stress" or even better: "long periods of stress caused by the same topic" == *Chronic*. OK?
See my other post about the definition of stress. Short term normal stress doesn't qualify because you do not end up in endless loops:
http://slashdot.org/comments.p... [slashdot.org]
Thanks for the clarification anyway. It might help some.
What is stress? (Score:2)
What is stress? Seriously. I mean physiologically.
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Stress is when parts of your brain get caught in endless loops eating all your CPU.
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So you need to strace the runaway program, eh?
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or just kill it and never run shitty code from that source ever again.
Re:What is stress? (Score:4, Interesting)
I mean physiologically.
Anything that strains or exhausts the body. So there are 2 types of stress: eustress, or stress that has short-term benefits like exercise and sex. Then there's distress that has short term damage to the body like minor drug use or a panic attack. Modern living is fairly consistent in its demands on the body, which is usually a good thing allowing the problems of civilization to be structured and compartmentalized. The problem comes when all compartments of modern living cause stress. Then the body (and mind) cannot repair and refresh (and learn). Now people tend to say they're stressed even while doing minor activities, like talking to (polite) strangers. Scientists have determined that the brain in normal use is exhausted before the muscles are, in normal use. So the question becomes: Is this a misnaming of a minor activity which normal people can handle, or do mental tasks cause more distress than physical tasks?
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do mental tasks cause more distress than physical tasks?
2-3 hours of hard thinking can exhaust me more than a 12 hours of physical labor.
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Yeah, I worked as an IT consultant for almost 10 years where I would encounter different network and computer problems daily.
It was one of those situations where if I didn't have a solution there was no solution so I was always doing interesting things and learned a ton about different network configurations.
Anyway, even though I was primarily sedentary, I would come home exhausted every single day.
I have worked some very physical jobs in my life as well. Most notably, I worked as a loader at UPS for many y
Dammit (Score:2, Funny)
Well, there's yet another thing to worry about.
stress is the systemic killer in modern workplace (Score:5, Insightful)
Stress is known to cause systemic problems, ranging from weight gain, endocrine disruption, hair loss, and now neurodegernative conditions.
However, the actual costs of these ill health effects is not factored into the cost benefit analyses of major employers in nearly all conditions, as something other than just a potential source of losing valuable worker resources.
Seems to me that since the US has an endemic problem with stress and mental illness, at the same time also lacking good mental health infrastructure, that those causing the endemic problem (major employers who saddle on way more hours of work per employee than is sane or reasonable) should be made to pay this real cost, by being found culpable for causation of the very real health effects that thier high stress work environments induce, by means of having to pay for adult care in appropriate facilities for dementia patients, and for the costs of antipsychotics, psychoactive drugs, and mental health therapy for those they have harmed and are actively harming.
By introducing this new liability, the profit motive of forcing people into those situations will evaporate, and better working conditions should come forward naturally.
Of course, the reality is that these employers will seek radical outsourcing first, but if they all try that all at once, congress would have no choice but to intervene and introduce new labor and subcontracting laws.
Other than forcing employers to bear the weight of their own shit, (and thus reducing profits), I dont see the downside.
There is catharsis in FEAR (Score:2)
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Wait a minute... how is Trump or Sanders not the 1%?
We hate the 1% so let's vote for the 1%?
Re:stress is the systemic killer in modern workpla (Score:5, Insightful)
Secondly, nobody is forcing the employees to work in such condition. The stressed out employees are always free to use the door and switch employer.
People always make that sound so easy. For entire categories of workers, the ones often under the highest stress because they are being eaten up by not one but two jobs to keep themselves afloat, are the ones least likely to have the kind of job mobility that would result in any tangible improvement.
Back in the 90's when I was a young buck and had every employer convinced of my high technical prowess, combined with an employment market that was seriously in the engineer's favor, I used to think that way too. And for me, I did have that kind of freedom. Several decades later, along with many changes to my life circumstance and the job market in which I inhabit, I have a much greater appreciation for limitations of how much control one has over their career. And that's if you're lucky enough work in a field where "career" is an appropriate term
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If it doesn't he's still fluent in C and there's a lot of unfilled tech jobs around these parts. Not what he dedicated years to getting a degree in but defeinitely much preferable to unemployment.
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That is because it isn't the employers cost. "If you don't like it, quit"
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and for the costs of antipsychotics, psychoactive drugs, and mental health therapy for those they have harmed and are actively harming.
Most of the types of drugs you mention are worse than doing nothing. There are some good therapists out there, but they are uncommon.
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It greyed my hair by 45 @ work... apk (Score:2, Interesting)
See subject: "Salt & Peppered" here because of it as a programmer-analyst/software-engineer & before it could ruin me I backed off "semi-retiring" early as far as working for others (had to, wasn't born rich etc.) deciding to start a business of my own (which has its stresses but it's not nearly as bad/constant as designing w/ analysis + coding & testing - plus, I get ALL the gravy minus overheads instead of "peanuts percentages" as compared to the entire cake that was possible by making others
Here's the actual article (Score:3)
this begs the question... (Score:2)
how can you tell if your boss stressed and suffering from dementia or just stupid? ;)
In other words, duh? (Score:3, Insightful)
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