00:00:12
I have a confession to make.
00:00:16
But first, I want you to make
a little confession to me.
00:00:23
In the past year,
I want you to just raise your hand
00:00:26
if you've experienced
relatively little stress.
00:00:29
Anyone?
00:00:32
How about a moderate amount of stress?
00:00:35
Who has experienced a lot of stress?
00:00:38
Yeah. Me too.
00:00:40
But that is not my confession.
00:00:42
My confession is this:
00:00:44
I am a health psychologist,
00:00:46
and my mission is to help people
be happier and healthier.
00:00:51
But I fear that something
I've been teaching
00:00:54
for the last 10 years
is doing more harm than good,
00:00:59
and it has to do with stress.
00:01:01
For years I've been telling people,
stress makes you sick.
00:01:04
It increases the risk of everything
from the common cold
00:01:07
to cardiovascular disease.
00:01:10
Basically, I've turned stress
into the enemy.
00:01:14
But I have changed my mind about stress,
00:01:17
and today, I want to change yours.
00:01:21
Let me start with the study
that made me rethink
00:01:23
my whole approach to stress.
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This study tracked 30,000 adults
in the United States for eight years,
00:01:30
and they started by asking people,
00:01:33
"How much stress have you
experienced in the last year?"
00:01:37
They also asked,
00:01:38
"Do you believe that stress
is harmful for your health?"
00:01:44
And then they used public death records
to find out who died.
00:01:48
(Laughter)
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Okay.
00:01:51
Some bad news first.
00:01:53
People who experienced a lot of stress
in the previous year
00:01:56
had a 43 percent increased risk of dying.
00:02:00
But that was only true for the people
00:02:04
who also believed that stress
is harmful for your health.
00:02:08
(Laughter)
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People who experienced a lot of stress
00:02:13
but did not view stress as harmful
00:02:15
were no more likely to die.
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In fact, they had the lowest risk of dying
00:02:20
of anyone in the study,
00:02:21
including people
who had relatively little stress.
00:02:24
Now the researchers estimated
that over the eight years
00:02:27
they were tracking deaths,
00:02:29
182,000 Americans died prematurely,
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not from stress,
00:02:33
but from the belief
that stress is bad for you.
00:02:37
(Laughter)
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That is over 20,000 deaths a year.
00:02:41
Now, if that estimate is correct,
00:02:44
that would make
believing stress is bad for you
00:02:47
the 15th largest cause of death
in the United States last year,
00:02:51
killing more people than skin cancer,
HIV/AIDS and homicide.
00:02:57
(Laughter)
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You can see why this study freaked me out.
00:03:02
Here I've been spending
so much energy telling people
00:03:06
stress is bad for your health.
00:03:09
So this study got me wondering:
00:03:10
Can changing how you think
about stress make you healthier?
00:03:14
And here the science says yes.
00:03:16
When you change your mind about stress,
00:03:18
you can change
your body's response to stress.
00:03:22
Now to explain how this works,
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I want you all to pretend
that you are participants
00:03:27
in a study designed to stress you out.
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It's called the social stress test.
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You come into the laboratory,
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and you're told you have to give
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a five-minute impromptu speech
on your personal weaknesses
00:03:41
to a panel of expert evaluators
sitting right in front of you,
00:03:44
and to make sure you feel the pressure,
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there are bright lights
and a camera in your face,
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kind of like this.
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(Laughter)
00:03:52
And the evaluators have been trained
00:03:55
to give you discouraging,
non-verbal feedback,
00:03:59
like this.
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(Exhales)
00:04:06
(Laughter)
00:04:09
Now that you're sufficiently demoralized,
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time for part two: a math test.
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And unbeknownst to you,
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the experimenter has been trained
to harass you during it.
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Now we're going to all do this together.
00:04:22
It's going to be fun.
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For me.
00:04:25
Okay.
00:04:26
(Laughter)
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I want you all to count backwards from 996
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in increments of seven.
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You're going to do this out loud,
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as fast as you can,
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starting with 996.
00:04:38
Go!
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(Audience counting)
00:04:41
Go faster. Faster please.
00:04:44
You're going too slow.
00:04:45
(Audience counting)
00:04:46
Stop. Stop, stop, stop.
00:04:48
That guy made a mistake.
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We are going to have to start
all over again.
00:04:51
(Laughter)
00:04:52
You're not very good at this, are you?
00:04:55
Okay, so you get the idea.
00:04:56
If you were actually in this study,
00:04:58
you'd probably be a little stressed out.
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Your heart might be pounding,
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you might be breathing faster,
maybe breaking out into a sweat.
00:05:05
And normally, we interpret
these physical changes as anxiety
00:05:09
or signs that we aren't coping
very well with the pressure.
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But what if you viewed them instead
00:05:15
as signs that your body was energized,
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was preparing you to meet this challenge?
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Now that is exactly
what participants were told
00:05:23
in a study conducted
at Harvard University.
00:05:26
Before they went
through the social stress test,
00:05:29
they were taught to rethink
their stress response as helpful.
00:05:32
That pounding heart
is preparing you for action.
00:05:36
If you're breathing faster,
it's no problem.
00:05:38
It's getting more oxygen to your brain.
00:05:41
And participants who learned to view
the stress response
00:05:44
as helpful for their performance,
00:05:46
well, they were less stressed out,
less anxious, more confident,
00:05:50
but the most fascinating finding to me
00:05:52
was how their physical
stress response changed.
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Now, in a typical stress response,
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your heart rate goes up,
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and your blood vessels
constrict like this.
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And this is one of the reasons
that chronic stress
00:06:06
is sometimes associated
with cardiovascular disease.
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It's not really healthy to be
in this state all the time.
00:06:13
But in the study,
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when participants viewed
their stress response as helpful,
00:06:17
their blood vessels
stayed relaxed like this.
00:06:21
Their heart was still pounding,
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but this is a much healthier
cardiovascular profile.
00:06:25
It actually looks a lot like what happens
00:06:28
in moments of joy and courage.
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Over a lifetime of stressful experiences,
00:06:35
this one biological change
00:06:39
could be the difference
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between a stress-induced
heart attack at age 50
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and living well into your 90s.
00:06:46
And this is really what the new
science of stress reveals,
00:06:49
that how you think about stress matters.
00:06:53
So my goal as a health
psychologist has changed.
00:06:56
I no longer want
to get rid of your stress.
00:06:58
I want to make you better at stress.
00:07:01
And we just did a little intervention.
00:07:03
If you raised your hand and said
00:07:05
you'd had a lot of stress
in the last year,
00:07:07
we could have saved your life,
00:07:09
because hopefully the next time
your heart is pounding from stress,
00:07:12
you're going to remember this talk
00:07:14
and you're going to think to yourself,
00:07:16
this is my body helping me
rise to this challenge.
00:07:22
And when you view stress in that way,
00:07:24
your body believes you,
00:07:26
and your stress response
becomes healthier.
00:07:30
Now I said I have over a decade
of demonizing stress
00:07:34
to redeem myself from,
00:07:36
so we are going to do
one more intervention.
00:07:38
I want to tell you
00:07:40
about one of the most under-appreciated
aspects of the stress response,
00:07:43
and the idea is this:
00:07:45
Stress makes you social.
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To understand this side of stress,
00:07:51
we need to talk about a hormone, oxytocin,
00:07:53
and I know oxytocin has already gotten
as much hype as a hormone can get.
00:07:58
It even has its own cute nickname,
the cuddle hormone,
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because it's released
when you hug someone.
00:08:04
But this is a very small part
of what oxytocin is involved in.
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Oxytocin is a neuro-hormone.
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It fine-tunes
your brain's social instincts.
00:08:15
It primes you to do things
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that strengthen close relationships.
00:08:21
Oxytocin makes you crave physical contact
with your friends and family.
00:08:26
It enhances your empathy.
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It even makes you more willing
to help and support
00:08:30
the people you care about.
00:08:33
Some people have even suggested
we should snort oxytocin...
00:08:39
to become more compassionate and caring.
00:08:43
But here's what most people
don't understand about oxytocin.
00:08:48
It's a stress hormone.
00:08:51
Your pituitary gland pumps this stuff out
00:08:54
as part of the stress response.
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It's as much a part
of your stress response
00:08:58
as the adrenaline that makes
your heart pound.
00:09:02
And when oxytocin is released
in the stress response,
00:09:04
it is motivating you to seek support.
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Your biological stress response
00:09:10
is nudging you to tell
someone how you feel,
00:09:13
instead of bottling it up.
00:09:16
Your stress response wants
to make sure you notice
00:09:19
when someone else
in your life is struggling
00:09:21
so that you can support each other.
00:09:24
When life is difficult,
00:09:25
your stress response wants you
to be surrounded
00:09:30
by people who care about you.
00:09:33
Okay, so how is knowing this side
of stress going to make you healthier?
00:09:37
Well, oxytocin doesn't only act
on your brain.
00:09:40
It also acts on your body,
00:09:42
and one of its main roles in your body
00:09:44
is to protect your cardiovascular system
from the effects of stress.
00:09:49
It's a natural anti-inflammatory.
00:09:52
It also helps your blood vessels
stay relaxed during stress.
00:09:55
But my favorite effect on the body
is actually on the heart.
00:09:59
Your heart has receptors for this hormone,
00:10:03
and oxytocin helps heart cells regenerate
00:10:06
and heal from any stress-induced damage.
00:10:10
This stress hormone
strengthens your heart.
00:10:15
And the cool thing
is that all of these physical benefits
00:10:18
of oxytocin are enhanced
by social contact and social support.
00:10:23
So when you reach out
to others under stress,
00:10:26
either to seek support
or to help someone else,
00:10:30
you release more of this hormone,
00:10:32
your stress response becomes healthier,
00:10:34
and you actually recover
faster from stress.
00:10:37
I find this amazing,
00:10:39
that your stress response
has a built-in mechanism
00:10:43
for stress resilience,
00:10:46
and that mechanism is human connection.
00:10:51
I want to finish by telling you
about one more study.
00:10:54
And listen up, because this study
could also save a life.
00:10:58
This study tracked about 1,000 adults
in the United States,
00:11:01
and they ranged in age from 34 to 93,
00:11:06
and they started the study by asking,
00:11:08
"How much stress have you
experienced in the last year?"
00:11:12
They also asked,
00:11:14
"How much time have you spent
helping out friends, neighbors,
00:11:18
people in your community?"
00:11:22
And then they used public records
for the next five years
00:11:24
to find out who died.
00:11:27
Okay, so the bad news first:
00:11:30
For every major stressful life experience,
00:11:33
like financial difficulties
or family crisis,
00:11:36
that increased the risk
of dying by 30 percent.
00:11:40
But -- and I hope you
are expecting a "but" by now --
00:11:44
but that wasn't true for everyone.
00:11:46
People who spent time caring for others
00:11:50
showed absolutely no stress-related
increase in dying.
00:11:55
Zero.
00:11:56
Caring created resilience.
00:12:00
And so we see once again
00:12:01
that the harmful effects
of stress on your health
00:12:04
are not inevitable.
00:12:06
How you think and how you act
00:12:09
can transform your experience of stress.
00:12:12
When you choose to view
your stress response as helpful,
00:12:17
you create the biology of courage.
00:12:22
And when you choose to connect
with others under stress,
00:12:25
you can create resilience.
00:12:29
Now I wouldn't necessarily ask
for more stressful experiences in my life,
00:12:35
but this science has given me
a whole new appreciation for stress.
00:12:41
Stress gives us access to our hearts.
00:12:45
The compassionate heart
that finds joy and meaning
00:12:49
in connecting with others,
00:12:51
and yes, your pounding physical heart,
00:12:54
working so hard to give you
strength and energy.
00:12:59
And when you choose to view
stress in this way,
00:13:03
you're not just getting better at stress,
00:13:05
you're actually making
a pretty profound statement.
00:13:09
You're saying that you can trust yourself
to handle life's challenges.
00:13:15
And you're remembering
that you don't have to face them alone.
00:13:21
Thank you.
00:13:22
(Applause)
00:13:32
Chris Anderson: This is kind
of amazing, what you're telling us.
00:13:35
It seems amazing to me
that a belief about stress
00:13:39
can make so much difference
to someone's life expectancy.
00:13:43
How would that extend to advice,
00:13:45
like, if someone is making
a lifestyle choice
00:13:47
between, say, a stressful job
and a non-stressful job,
00:13:51
does it matter which way they go?
00:13:54
It's equally wise to go
for the stressful job
00:13:56
so long as you believe
that you can handle it, in some sense?
00:13:59
KM: Yeah, and one thing
we know for certain
00:14:02
is that chasing meaning
is better for your health
00:14:04
than trying to avoid discomfort.
00:14:06
And so I would say that's really
the best way to make decisions,
00:14:09
is go after what it is
that creates meaning in your life
00:14:12
and then trust yourself to handle
the stress that follows.
00:14:15
CA: Thank you so much, Kelly.
It's pretty cool.
00:14:18
(Applause)
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