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Talking To Mom Can Reduce Stress Levels According to New Study (Call your Mother!)
Tech Jackal.net ^ | May 13, 2010 | Staff Writer

Posted on 05/13/2010 12:07:25 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin

When kids are hurt, stressed or emotionally upset and want their mommy, it is for a valid reason. A new study reveals that talking with one’s mother actually helps lower the level of cortisol, a stress hormone. The soothing effect of the mother’s voice is believed to release oxytocin into the brain. Oxytocin is a feel-good chemical that naturally enhances a person’s mood.

Seth Pollak of the University of Wisconsin-Madison led the study. Pollak and his team asked 61 girls between the ages of 7 and 12 to deliver a speech or complete a set of math problems in front of a group of people with the intention of causing the girls to become stressed. The girls were then split into three groups.

The girls in the first group were given 15 minutes to see and talk to their mothers. The second group talked with their mothers over the telephone for 15 minutes. The third group was asked to watch a neutral, 75 minute movie. The first two groups watched an hour of the same movie after interacting with their mothers.

The team took saliva and urine samples from the girls before and after the test to evaluate oxytocin and cortisol levels. Amazingly, the girls who were given time to interact with their mothers had a dramatic, immediate drop in cortisol and were back to normal after just half an hour. The group that was denied their mother’s attention, saw an increase in cortisol and the level continued to rise after the test was completed.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: captainobvious; mom
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1 posted on 05/13/2010 12:07:25 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Fathers need not apply. Because i the nanny state no one knows who the farther is?


2 posted on 05/13/2010 12:09:31 PM PDT by Tarpon (Obama-Speak ... the fusion of sophistry and Newspeak. It's not a gift, it's just lies.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Or increase them!


3 posted on 05/13/2010 12:09:55 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Spoke to Mom this morning. Wished her a Happy Birthday. Sadly, she passed in ‘01.


4 posted on 05/13/2010 12:10:07 PM PDT by Roccus (......and then there were none.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

The folks left this world some years ago, but still I have the reflex to make the call, especially when we have good news.

The parents and the house where they lived were home base for the whole family tree for 50 years. For the grandchildren, the old farm was their favorite place on earth.


5 posted on 05/13/2010 12:10:22 PM PDT by lurk
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To: Roccus

My Grandma (who raised me for a good part of my life) died in 1986. I ‘talk’ to her every day. :)


6 posted on 05/13/2010 12:11:49 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (Save the Earth. It's the only planet with Chocolate.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
Now we will replace the mother with the mother-in-law and see if there are any differences.
7 posted on 05/13/2010 12:13:43 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (I am so immune to satire that I ate three Irish children after reading Swift's "A Modest Proposal")
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

That depends on what Mom and I are talking about. :)


8 posted on 05/13/2010 12:13:47 PM PDT by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (Just leave this long-haired conservative alone.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

I love talking to my mommie. She’s always asking me if I’m cleaning and oiling my guns properly so their performance doesn’t degrade. Oh, and health stuff too.


9 posted on 05/13/2010 12:14:08 PM PDT by LoneStarGI (Vegetarian: Old Indian word for "BAD HUNTER.")
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To: KarlInOhio

LOL! I’m one of the lucky few who has an AWESOME MIL. She is one special woman. :)


10 posted on 05/13/2010 12:15:56 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (Save the Earth. It's the only planet with Chocolate.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

My mother at age 88 needs her kids to talk to her now. She is the child now in so many ways. She is still strong in her opinion and tells it like it is. You don’t dare cross her for sure. I’d love to see her give Nobama a talking to. He wouldn’t stand a chance.


11 posted on 05/13/2010 12:17:05 PM PDT by timeflies
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To: LoneStarGI
She passed away 2 years ago. So many times I've wanted to call her like when she was here.

Really feel bad that I made her worry so much during my teen years.

"Wait till you have your own".

12 posted on 05/13/2010 12:17:37 PM PDT by Sacajaweau (What)
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To: Roccus

So sorry to hear this.

My mom’s birthday also, She’s 84 today.
Saw her Sunday too.

She’s only about 5 ft. tall, survived Normandy, and untold horrors, and she has the heart of a Saint.


13 posted on 05/13/2010 12:18:38 PM PDT by Frenchtown Dan
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To: LoneStarGI

You’ll like this one, then:

Dear Mom and Dad,

Our scoutmaster told us to write to our parents in case you saw the flood on TV and were worried. We are OK. Only one of our tents and two sleeping bags got washed away.

Luckily, none of us got drowned because we were all up the Mountain looking for Chad when it happened. Oh yes, please call Chad’s mother and tell her he is OK. He can’t write because of the cast. I got to ride in one of the search and rescue jeeps. It was neat. We never would have found him in the dark if it wasn’t for the lightning.

Scoutmaster Walt got mad at Chad for going on a hike alone without telling anyone. Chad said he did tell him, but it was during the fire so he probably didn’t hear him. Did you know that if you put gas on a fire, the gas can will blow up?

The wet wood didn’t burn, but one of the tents did. Also some of our clothes. John is going to look weird until his hair grows back.

We will be home on Saturday if Scoutmaster Walt gets the car fixed. It wasn’t his fault about the wreck. The brakes worked OK when we left. Scoutmaster Walt said that a car that old you have to expect something to break down, that’s probably why he can’t get insurance. We think it’s a neat car. He doesn’t care if we get it dirty, and if it’s hot, sometimes he lets us ride on the fenders. It gets pretty hot with 10 people in a car. He let us take turns riding in the trailer until the highway patrolman stopped and talked to us.

Scoutmaster Walt is a neat guy. Don’t worry, he is a good driver. In fact, he is teaching Terry how to drive on the mountain roads where there isn’t any traffic. All we ever see up here is logging trucks.

This morning, all of the guys were diving off the rocks and swimming out in the lake. Scoutmaster Walt wouldn’t let me because I can’t swim, and Chad was afraid he would sink because of his cast, so he let us take the canoe across the lake. It was great. You can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood.

Scoutmaster Walt isn’t crabby like some scoutmasters. He didn’t even get mad about the lifejackets. He has to spend a lot of the time working on the car so we are trying not to cause him any trouble.

Guess what? We have all passed our first aid merit badges. When Dave dove in the lake and cut his arm, we got to see how a tourniquet works. Wade and I threw up, but Scoutmaster Walt said it probably was just food poisoning from the leftover chicken. He said they got sick that way with food they ate in prison. I’m so glad he got out and became our scoutmaster. He said he sure figured out how to get things done better while he was doing his time. By the way, what is a pedophile?

I have to go now. We are going to town to mail our letters and buy bullets.

Don’t worry about anything. We are fine.

Love,
Danny


14 posted on 05/13/2010 12:19:20 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (Save the Earth. It's the only planet with Chocolate.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

What about a MILF, does she count? ;)


15 posted on 05/13/2010 12:22:49 PM PDT by Perdogg (Nancy Pelosi did more damage to America on 03/21 than Al Qaeda did on 09/11)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
You talk to her. She won't listen to me.

.

16 posted on 05/13/2010 12:28:10 PM PDT by Daffynition ("Play it, Sam, for old times' sake, play 'As Time Goes By'.")
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Glad to know so many of you have/had happy mother/child relationships....not all of us do, and I for one can say that “talking to my mom” increases my stress levels exponentially!


17 posted on 05/13/2010 12:28:34 PM PDT by HanneyBean
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To: KarlInOhio
Now we will replace the mother with the mother-in-law and see if there are any differences.

LOL! I am having hip replacement surgery at the end of the month and my 71 y.o. Mom is coming down to "help". My Hubby, who will have to chauffer her around and deal with her alone when she isn't at the hospital with me, is considering asking his doctor for anxiety medication ; )

18 posted on 05/13/2010 12:36:13 PM PDT by ravingnutter
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To: KarlInOhio

“Now we will replace the mother with the mother-in-law and see if there are any differences.”

My mother-in-law died four years ago. I still miss her. She could raise my wife’s stress level exponentially without a blink — my brother-in-law’s, also. Never pushed my buttons, because they weren’t in the same place as her kids’. Eventually my wife moved hers to where I had mine and got along great with her mom.

My wife gets along great with her mother-in-law. Partly because mom had the mother-in-law from hell, swore she would never treat her daughter-in-laws that way and stuck to the pledge.


19 posted on 05/13/2010 12:44:55 PM PDT by No Truce With Kings (I can see November from my house.)
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To: Tarpon
I don’t know I’m always yelling at my kids.
20 posted on 05/13/2010 12:45:34 PM PDT by angcat (GOD SAVE US!)
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