Recently, Women’s Health Magazine published an article on how stress affects memory differently for men and women. Three types of stress were examined: acute stress, chronic stress and traumatic stress. We’re used to hearing that a little stress is good for memory, and a lot is bad; however this turns out to only be true for men.
New research suggests that gender matters when it comes to memory and stress, weather that stress is acute, chronic or traumatic.
Acute Stress: Stress that happens once and then goes way.
Acute stress is experienced in response to an immediate perceived threat that can be either physical, emotional or psychological. The threat can be real, or imagined. This stress triggers the initial fight-or-flight response.
A moderate to strong amount of acute stress tends to be good for memory according to Prof. Larry Cahill, Ph.D, a professor of neurobiology and behaviour at the University of California at Irvine. Over the years, the University of California’s research has supported the “inverted U” response: as stress levels increase, so does memory performance up to a person’s own optimal level of stress. If more stress is added, the memory function decreases. Prof. Cahill’s lab decided to test the memories of men and women after acute stress to determine how safe this general rule of the inverted U is.
It turns out that after acute stress, the stressful event enhanced the memories of the men, but not for the women. The levels of stress hormones were elevated equally in both genders. It was concluded that when women had high levels of estrogen, stress toyed with their recollection, but when they had high levels of progesterone, stress boosted recall (as it does for men). Women received the benefits of a memory lift from stress only when their estrogen levels were normal.
Chronic Stress: Stress that lasts at least a few weeks.
Chronic stress occurs when the body is experiencing so many concurrent stressors that our body rarely has a chance to activate the relaxation response. Chronic stress wears us down and causes us to become ill, either physically or emotionally.
New research demonstrates that men generally fail in the face of chronic stress and women fare well. Too much chronic stress prevents the brain from laying down new memories and remembering old ones; making it difficult to think clearly and remember crucial details-in men. Female brains are better able to handle chronic stress. In a 2009 study, Prof. Zhen Yan, Ph.D, a professor of physiology and neuroscience at the State University of New York at Buffalo, found that chronic stress in male rodents suppressed communication ability, impaired working memory (short-term information storage).
Apparently, this new research shows that if you chronically stress males, memory functions decrease. If you chronically stress females, they can function and memory continues to work. When put into the context of evolution, it all makes sense. What were the roles? Men were the hunters. Women were the…caregivers. Men were out hunting and put in situations of acute stress. Women adapted to chronic stress. What about today? Women are known to be expert multi-taskers. Enough said.
Traumatic Stress: A threat to one’s life or integrity, or to someone close, characterized by intense fear and helplessness.
Traumatic stress assaults the memory bank of the brain and causes it to shrink in size. We also know traumatic stress in the form of Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder, which can be brought on by such psychological traumas as childhood sexual abuse, car accidents, military combat, assault causing memory deficits that are not necessarily reversible.
Traumatic stress is characterized by intense fear and helplessness. The massive brain defects that traumatic stress leaves in its wake include deficits in declarative memory, meaning remembering facts or lists, fragmentation of memories, and disassociative amnesia (gaps in memory that can last from minutes to days). The brain damage from extreme stress destroys memories in the memory bank and impairs the creation of new memories. This type of damage is not likely to be reversed.
As with acute stress and chronic stress, sex hormones likely play a role in traumatic stress but this requires further research. Notably, PTSD affects two to three times as many women as men.
In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have to deal with stress, but we all know that isn’t possible. As women, face many challenges.
As Divas, we are fortunate to have a loving, caring network of women who are there to support us and teach us ways to relax!
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How Stress Messes With Memory…And Affects Women
Recently, Women’s Health Magazine published an article on how stress affects memory differently for men and women. Three types of stress were examined: acute stress, chronic stress and traumatic stress. We’re used to hearing that a little stress is good for memory, and a lot is bad; however this turns out to only be true for men.
New research suggests that gender matters when it comes to memory and stress, weather that stress is acute, chronic or traumatic.
Acute Stress: Stress that happens once and then goes way.
A moderate to strong amount of acute stress tends to be good for memory according to Prof. Larry Cahill, Ph.D, a professor of neurobiology and behaviour at the University of California at Irvine. Over the years, the University of California’s research has supported the “inverted U” response: as stress levels increase, so does memory performance up to a person’s own optimal level of stress. If more stress is added, the memory function decreases. Prof. Cahill’s lab decided to test the memories of men and women after acute stress to determine how safe this general rule of the inverted U is.
It turns out that after acute stress, the stressful event enhanced the memories of the men, but not for the women. The levels of stress hormones were elevated equally in both genders. It was concluded that when women had high levels of estrogen, stress toyed with their recollection, but when they had high levels of progesterone, stress boosted recall (as it does for men). Women received the benefits of a memory lift from stress only when their estrogen levels were normal.
Chronic Stress: Stress that lasts at least a few weeks.
New research demonstrates that men generally fail in the face of chronic stress and women fare well. Too much chronic stress prevents the brain from laying down new memories and remembering old ones; making it difficult to think clearly and remember crucial details-in men. Female brains are better able to handle chronic stress. In a 2009 study, Prof. Zhen Yan, Ph.D, a professor of physiology and neuroscience at the State University of New York at Buffalo, found that chronic stress in male rodents suppressed communication ability, impaired working memory (short-term information storage).
Apparently, this new research shows that if you chronically stress males, memory functions decrease. If you chronically stress females, they can function and memory continues to work. When put into the context of evolution, it all makes sense. What were the roles? Men were the hunters. Women were the…caregivers. Men were out hunting and put in situations of acute stress. Women adapted to chronic stress. What about today? Women are known to be expert multi-taskers. Enough said.
Traumatic Stress: A threat to one’s life or integrity, or to someone close, characterized by intense fear and helplessness.
Traumatic stress is characterized by intense fear and helplessness. The massive brain defects that traumatic stress leaves in its wake include deficits in declarative memory, meaning remembering facts or lists, fragmentation of memories, and disassociative amnesia (gaps in memory that can last from minutes to days). The brain damage from extreme stress destroys memories in the memory bank and impairs the creation of new memories. This type of damage is not likely to be reversed.
As with acute stress and chronic stress, sex hormones likely play a role in traumatic stress but this requires further research. Notably, PTSD affects two to three times as many women as men.
In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have to deal with stress, but we all know that isn’t possible. As women, face many challenges.
As Divas, we are fortunate to have a loving, caring network of women who are there to support us and teach us ways to relax!
Like this:
This entry was posted on December 17, 2010 at 4:07 am and is filed under In the news, News, Spirituelle Divas, We welcome your comments.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.