A groundbreaking study on women, and stress

[Mari333]

I recieved this via email, but imho I think it states what women knew all along, and just puts it into a scientific perspective . Makes one go HMMMMM when thinking of why the world has gone mad with men in powerful positions who isolate themselves and lash out in anger. To be fair, many women (see: Condi Rice), seem to embrace the power hungry hiearchy also. Nonetheless, here is the study.

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An alternative to fight or flight

by Gale Berkowitz

A landmark UCLA study suggests friendships between women are special. They
shape who we are and who we are yet to be. They soothe our tumultuous inner
world, fill the emotional gaps in our marriage, and help us remember who we
really are. By the way, they may do even more. Scientists now suspect that
hanging out with our friends can actually counteract the kind of
stomach-quivering stress most of us experience on a daily basis. A landmark
UCLA study suggests that women respond to stress with a cascade of brain
chemicals that cause us to make and maintain friendships with other women.
It's a stunning find that has turned five decades of stress research--- most
of it on men---upside down.

Until this study was published, scientists generally believed that when
people experience stress, they trigger a hormonal cascade that revs the body
to either stand and fight or flee as fast as possible, explains Laura Cousin
Klein, Ph.D., now an Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health at Penn
State University and one of the study's authors. It's an ancient survival
mechanism left over from the time we were chased across the planet by
saber-toothed tigers.

Now the researchers suspect that women have a larger behavioral repertoire
than just fight or flight. In fact, says Dr. Klein, it seems that when the
hormone oxytocin is release as part of the stress responses in a woman, it
buffers the fight or flight response and encourages her to tend children and
gather with other women instead. When she actually engages in this tending
or befriending, studies suggest that more oxytocin is released, which
further counters stress and produces a calming effect. This calming response
does not occur in men, says Dr.Klein, because testosterone---which men
produce in high levels when they're under stress---seems to reduce the
effects of oxytocin. Estrogen, she adds, seems to enhance it.

Link below, in next post!
=)

[Moderator]

1. Here's the link to the original

http://www.postpartum.net/friendship%20and%20stress%20research.htm

By the way, you should trim that post down to 4 paragraphs now that we have a link for it.

BareKnuckledLiberal
DU Moderator

[izzie]

3. This seems to fall in with the old one on this......

What happened when the cities broke up and people, mostly women, lived alone in these houses settlements. And what happen in the poor part of cities when the people were moved into the large housing units

[marzipanni]

2. Hi Mari333

Let's you and I meet the other ladies down at the river tomorrow to do our laundry, talk, and laugh..:)
oops, I forgot, washers and dryers in our individual houses are more convenient. I guess I'll throw the wash in and catch a soap opera :(.