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A gene that helps fruit flies develop alcohol tolerance has been found – and named “hangover”. The gene also controls the flies’ response to stress, and the researchers say that a similar pathway linking alcohol tolerance and stress probably functions in humans. The findings may explain why people who have been in a stressful situation often have a blunted response to alcohol and may drink more to feel inebriated, experts say, putting them at greater risk of becoming addicted. Ulrike Heberlein at the University of California at San Francisco, US, and Henrike Scholz from the University of Würzburg in Germany,...

America is suffering from a bunch of P.E.S.T.’s. Victims of Post Election Selection Trauma, or more commonly know as crazy liberals who have decided to hate democracy because George Bush beat them twice. Shortly after the November election, the American Health Association identified this affliction in Boca Raton, Florida, with some of its symptoms being: “feelings of withdrawal, feelings of isolation, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, nightmares, and pervasive moodiness, including endless sulking.” How Rob Gordon, Executive Director of the AHA, was able to differentiate these symptoms from the normal behavior of most liberals I have no clue, but none the...

A German man has been arrested after a marriage guidance counsellor advised him to run around naked shouting at trees.Dieter Braun, 43, from Recklinghausen said the stress release technique had worked perfectly until he was arrested. He told police that venting his anger on the trees had stopped him shouting at his wife. "If I didn't go to the woods and scream at the trees then my marriage would probably be over," he said. He added taking his clothes off at the same time made him feel more relaxed. "For me it's a type of relaxation therapy. Feeling the breeze...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Emotional stress may be a trigger of otherwise unexplained cases of cardiac arrest, a new study suggests. An international research team found that survivors of unexplained, or "idiopathic," cardiac arrest were likely to have been through a highly stressful event the day before suffering the often-fatal heart condition. Of the 25 survivors the researchers interviewed, 9 said they'd dealt with a severely or moderately stressful event during the 24 hours before they went into cardiac arrest. Only 2 of 25 adults in a comparison group that had a heart attack or chest pain requiring invasive...

Protandim May Slow Aging Process by Increasing Enzymes That Fight Free Radicals- Dr. Joe McCord's latest research may unravel the mystery of aging. And if he succeeds, the answer could come in the form of a little yellow pill called Protandim. The University of Colorado at Denver biochemistry professor has conducted decades of experiments into a special class of enzymes in the cell that some hope have the potential of extending lives and possibly preventing chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Much of his work has centered on oxidative stress -- which increases with age. TBARS, which are...

It is an unlikely solution, but here is the key to stay young: have short bursts of stress! This is a new revelation suggested by researchers at an anti-ageing conference in London. They say short bursts of stress can help you stay young. According to The Telgraph, Dr Marios Kyriazis, who led the conference, said this exposure to stress will prolong life and help prevent chronic illnesses, like arthritis, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Kyriazis, the medical director of the British Longevity Society, argued that moderate stress increases the production of proteins that help repair the body's cells, including brain cells,...

Stress kills 6 IT geeks The Asianage (3/29/2005 12:15:05 AM) Chennai, March 28: Six software professionals under the age of 33 have died and two top executives from renowned software companies have become paralysed because of stress-related heart ailments in the last six months in Chennai, says a study by Mitran Foundation, a Bangalore-based voluntary association of practising doctors. "All the six who died, and the two who became invalid, had no family history of heart attacks or any pre-history of heart ailments or paralysis. They were all in their prime, between 27 and 33 years, and handled challenging projects...

WASHINGTON, March 7 (Reuters) - A daily dose of laughter may be good for the heart because, like exercise, it makes blood vessels work more efficiently, U.S. researchers reported on Monday. Depression, on the other hand, can raise the risk of dying from heart failure, a separate study found. The two studies, presented at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Orlando, Florida, show how psychological factors can affect a person's health. "We don't recommend that you laugh and not exercise, but we do recommend that you try to laugh on a regular basis. Thirty minutes of exercise...

American soldiers traumatised by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be offered the drug ecstasy to help free them of flashbacks and recurring nightmares. The US food and drug administration has given the go-ahead for the soldiers to be included in an experiment to see if MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, can treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Scientists behind the trial in South Carolina think the feelings of emotional closeness reported by those taking the drug could help the soldiers talk about their experiences to therapists. Several victims of rape and sexual abuse with post-traumatic stress disorder, for whom...

After a passenger is critically hurt, experts say stress is fueling problems. January 5, 2005 Central Florida's latest reported road-rage incident involved female drivers, which doesn't surprise behavioral experts who say women, succumbing to media influences and the everyday pressures of work and family life, are being more combative on the roads. "Men are usually more aggressive, but that doesn't mean they are the only ones who are aggressive," said Jim Hoffheimer, president of the American Institute for Public Safety, a marketing company in North Miami that offers the RoadRageous Aggressive Driver Course as an instructional tool. The incident Monday...

Men were 80 percent more likely to have a heart attack if they had experienced a conflict at work within the preceding 12 months. For women, a change in financial circumstances tripled their risk. Men were six times as likely to have a heart attack if they had taken on increased responsibilities at work. Working in a high-pressure environment on tight deadlines can cause a six-fold increase in the risk of having a heart attack. The research, published today, found that short-term intense pressures have a greater impact on the heart that prolonged periods of accumulated stress. Work-related stress plays...

Everyone knows that stress can make you age before your time - but everyone knows is folk wisdom, not science. What science has established so far is that people under chronic stress tend to have weak immune systems and run an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease. But that doesn't necessarily prove that stressed-out people are actually aging prematurely, even if they look older than their years. But an important new study shows that folk wisdom and subjective judgment may, in this case, be right. Writing in last week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of scientists reported...

It's stuff like this that makes me confident that the Republican party will lead this nation for the next few generations. Is it bad for me to laugh at this?

Some stressful events seem to turn a person's hair gray overnight. Now a team of researchers has found that severe emotional distress - like that caused by divorce, the loss of a job, or caring for an ill child or parent - may speed up the aging of the body's cells at the genetic level. The findings, being reported today, are the first to link psychological stress so directly to biological age. The researchers found that blood cells from women who had spent many years caring for a disabled child were, genetically, about a decade older than those from peers...

It's been a rough few years for Kirstie Alley, 53, and not just because her career has been in a slump. On the episode of Oprah Winfrey's show that aired Nov. 12, Kirstie made a shocking revelation that she hasn't had sex in four and a half years, confessing, "I don't want to have fat sex!" About 10 months ago, Kirstie told Oprah she faced the fact that she had blown up: At last count her weight was about 260 pounds. Kirstie recalled stripping down and looking at herself in a mirror: "I have seen myself naked.... I couldn't believe...

WASHINGTON — A U.S. Marine being investigated for allegedly killing an unarmed, wounded Iraqi was acting under extreme combat stress, comrades said yesterday. It was also disclosed that the Marine had just returned to duty after being shot in the face the previous day. [snip] Marines interviewed yesterday said the shooting wasn't a scandal, but evidence of how soldiers react under extreme circumstances. "I can see why he would do it," said Lance Cpl. Christopher Hanson. "He was probably running around being shot at for days on end in Fallujah. There should be an investigation, but they should look...

LONDON — Stress at work is now officially a hazard in Britain. Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor government last week introduced a tough new code of standards to deal with the problem. In the nation's ever-growing "compensation culture," the risks of letting employees get too frazzled are evident: $135,000 here for a stressed-out mathematics teacher, $740,000 there for a depressed prison worker, $230,000 for an ordnance worker who suffered post-traumatic stress after he breathed in toxic fumes. Mr. Blair's government is cracking down on all kinds of stress at work through a set of standards issued by its Health and...

Cats can suffer from stress-related illness like humans, a study by animal experts suggests. Rivalry with another cat is the biggest source of feline anxiety closely followed by moving home or the arrival of a new member of the owner's family. Experts compared 31 cats with bladder disease to 24 healthy cats in the same households and used a control group of 125 other healthy cats. Sick cats generally got more stressed by other cats in the house, they said. Stress trigger Dr Danielle Gunn-Moore, senior lecturer in feline medicine at Edinburgh University's school of veterinary studies, said feline lower...

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John Edwards, Sitzblinker Did anyone else notice that John Edwards was blinking like crazy? To find out what that means, we consulted a March 1988 article from Psychology Today: Increased blinking is often a sign of physical or psychological stress. People blink more when angry or excited, for example. And one of the earliest studies in blink research determined that anxiety can increase the blink rate: While courtroom witnesses were under hostile cross-examination they blinked much more frequently. Richard Nixon is a case in point, says Stern, who first became interested in blinking during the Watergate era. "President Nixon's blink...