Feeling Holiday Stress? University of Iowa Research Looks into Ways to Cope

We cover Decorah because we love it. Show your love back — donate today. With the most wonderful — and for some, the most stressful — time of year underway, a University of Iowa researcher is working to discover pathways in the brain to help decrease the risks that come with chronic stress and promote resilience. According to a 2023 poll conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of the American Psychological Association, more than 40% of respondents reported their stress levels increasing during the holiday season, described in the report as the time between November and January. Jason Radley, a UI psychological and brain sciences professor who has spent a decade studying the effects of chronic stress "from the perspective of disease," said the stress responses developed in the body to help in enduring harsh environments are triggered in modern times by things that "aren't really immediately life threatening, like work pressure or financial problems." "The effects of stress on the brain and body can produce long-lasting changes in brain function and the pathways that regulate behavior," Radley said. Radley's research focuses on the reaction to stress, also known as coping, and how the brain controls how the body copes. In studying the stress hormone changes and manipulating brain activity in rats, Radley said he and researchers working with him have shown that the prefrontal cortex of the brain in these lab animals is "rewired by chronic stress exposure." The human's prefrontal cortex is the area of the brain "most strongly associated with higher mental functioning," Radley said, like the ability to focus on different tasks, plan and make decisions. Seeing how rats' brains respond to chronic stress should help in understanding how it can rewire humans' brains as well, and increase risks of stress-related diseases and other medical issues. Two pathways connect the prefrontal cortex to the brainstem, Radley said. Research has shown the pathways regulate what he called "active and passive coping." Radley described active coping as "taking steps to resolve or reduce the stress," like confronting tasks causing stress, while passive coping "can be more like withdrawing from the situation or procrastinating." "What we found is that if we activate this pathway that can increase active coping after chronic stress, we can reverse these physical changes and the adverse effects that we see with stress hormones and cardiovascular changes," Radley said. With these pathways identified, Radley said he and other stress researchers have grown more interested in resilience as a tool of decreasing risk. Radley has created a "behavioral task" for lab rats which he said is similar to training that first responders receive or soldiers go through in basic training, though on a much smaller scale, where people are exposed to milder forms of stress so they can learn to adapt in real stressful situations. The task, which Radley said some call a "model of stress inoculation," will hopefully unlock for researchers new pathways that they can activate in people to help mitigate risks of developing stress-related disease and promote resiliency. How to cope with high-stress holidays From the research Radley and others have compiled on stress and the brain and body's interaction with it, he said something people can take away is that active coping — or facing stressors head-on rather than avoiding them — will help reduce feelings of being overwhelmed. A June article from the Centers for Disease Control recommends caring for both mind and body to reduce stress, including taking breaks from social media, doing relaxing activities, practicing gratitude, connecting with others, getting enough sleep, moving your body and eating healthfully. When asked whether his knowledge of stress and resiliency has led to this — traditionally tricky — time of year being any more calm or easy, Radley joked that "stress researchers are really good at alleviating stress and living stress-free" just like how "all doctors are healthy and dentists have good teeth." While Radley said his default behavior leans more toward procrastination and last-minute work than not, conducting his research has led him to think more about how he can actively cope in stressful situations like holiday shopping or figuring out when to take time off work when "research never rests." He's gotten good at "getting things done at deadlines" after pushing things back, Radley said, but he can feel physical effects of the stress caused by his habits, especially as he gets older. "What I've been trying to do since I've been more mindful of our research with active coping is to try to plan better, and just try to do things little bit at a time and not wait till the last minute," Radley said. Your inbox, upgraded! Subscribe for free and enjoy handpicked stories, helpful advice, and local insights delivered weekly.