Study reveals Goldilocks stress formula is ‘just right’ for coping with life
How you respond to stress may determine your physical health, with people who react very strongly facing heart disease, while those who are too calm are at risk of obesity and mental illness.
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Like Goldilocks finding the porridge that’s just right, there’s a healthy middle ground to how we respond to stress.
Deakin University research reveals there is a health danger in a too-hysterical or too-calm reaction to psychological stress.
People who react strongly face heart disease, people who are too Zen are at risk of obesity and mental illness, and those with a “just right” response” are likely to thrive, the researchers from the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition found.
“Recent findings are showing a ‘blunted response’ is also related to future health and disease outcomes,” stress expert Anne Turner said.
“Everyone had previously thought the lower your stress response the better, but actually no, that’s not the case.”
Like in the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears — where porridge that is too hot and too cold is tried before Goldilocks finds a bowl that is “just right” — a “medium” response to stress was the healthiest, Dr Turner said.
“That sweet spot, right in the middle, where it’s just right, that’s the most adaptive and with the least risk of future health and disease outcomes.”
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The research was the first of its type and looked at nervous system responses including heart rate and blood pressure, together with endocrine system responses such as the stress hormone cortisol.
“Activation of both systems is integral to our response to physical stress in order to prepare the body to deal with the threat,” Dr Turner said.
Factors that could influence a person’s stress response included their physical activity levels, amount of fat carried around the waist, early life adversity and genetic makeup.