Word: stress
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...researchers at the University of Southern California say they have a clearer understanding. In their study of nearly 2,500 non-asthmatic children ages 5 to 9 who lived in the area, researchers found that the level of stress reported by the children's parents had a significant impact on the kids' susceptibility to other common contributors to asthma - namely exposure to pollution from traffic and secondhand smoke. Scientists found that children whose parents described themselves as stressed and anxious were 50% more likely to develop asthma than kids with non-stressed parents - at least when these youngsters were also...
...Parental stress alone did not increase the children's risk of asthma, but the combination of living in a household with high stress levels and being exposed to pollutants from traffic in the environment was sufficient to trigger the disease. The study found similar results with exposure to tobacco smoke...
...results also shed light on how risk factors like stress can increase the vulnerability of the respiratory system to environmental pollution or allergens. Because asthma involves inflammation in the airways in response to particulates that enter from the air, a separate factor that also increases the body's inflammatory response - like stress - can help create especially fertile conditions for asthma to develop. So a child who feels anxiety in response to parental stress, for example, may already have inflammation in his airways, which makes him more likely to develop asthma because of exposure to environmental pollutants...
...postulates in the study. He and his colleagues found that when study participants used expletives, their heart rates were consistently higher than when they were repeating non-obscene control words - a physiological response that is consistent with fight or flight. But while it is typically fear that triggers the stress response, Stephens suggests the salient emotion in this case is not fear but aggression. "In swearing, people have an emotional response, and it's the emotional response that actually triggers the reduction of pain," says Stephens, whose next step is to research the relationship between induced aggression and reduction...
...harsh as it sounds, the equalizing nature of the entrance exam—which reflects the value Korean society places on hard work—makes the CSAT well worth the stress and heartbreak it visits on thousands of students each year. Sure, the thought of having your college admission and social cache based on a day of testing is terrifying for everyone already in the upper echelons of society. But, for those at the bottom, it’s a uniquely Korean opportunity that’s missing in so many other countries...