ANNA WHITTAKER is a health psychologist and professor of behavioural medicine at the University of Birmingham. Her research centres on healthy ageing and stress responses, with expertise in the immune and cardiovascular reactions to stress
We’ve all suffered a touch of burnout, all experienced a mental wobble or two. But cases of stress are rapidly rising nationwide, with modern life only exacerbating the situation. And women stand to come off worse. A major study found that women are twice as likely to suffer from severe stress and anxiety as men – a phenomenon put down to juggling work, children and family, where the burden of care often falls to women.
When we perceive a stressful situation, we trigger a chain reaction, resulting in the hormones cortisol and adrenaline being released into the bloodstream by the hypothalamus in the brain. Cortisol boosts blood sugar, while adrenaline increases the oxygen flow to major muscles, priming us for fight or flight.