Stress May Be Good for You : Life without emotional highs may lead to early death

Canadian researchers announced last week in the journal Science their success at prolonging the life span of the nematode, a microscopic, transparent worm. By altering its genes, they were able to slow its metabolism and thus give it a more relaxed, leisurely lifestyle--a quasi Club Med, wormwise. This may also be the key to human longevity, the ebullient Canadian team said, for we share many of the same genes as this lowly ancestor, and these genes have been shown to affect us similarly.

Lest we conclude that science has begun to tap from the fountain of youth, it should be pointed out that other recent research has shown something of the opposite: that animals who experience periods of stress, followed by stress resolution, are less likely to suffer from brain, heart or immune system disorders than animals subject to either consistently low stimulation or consistent stress.

Molecular geneticists have shown that “hormesis,” the low-level exposure of an organism to a stress agent that is harmful at higher levels, can actually extend life span in mice and fruit flies. And a study published in the February edition of the British medical journal the Lancet argues that people deprived of emotional social encounters are more likely to die early, and in particular to have heart attacks.

Evolutionary biologists say this makes sense: An animal that dillydallies in its den long after hibernation season, or a kid who becomes inexorably glued to the tube, is unlikely to maximize his or her chances of meeting the demands of the social world we are all obliged to join. As Cary Cooper, a British professor of organizational psychology, put it, “With a certain amount of pressure, we thrive. We keep going, we keep interested in the world and we stay alive.”

The idea of stress emerged out of physics. Subject a bridge to repeated stress--waves lapping against its pillars or cars pressing down on its pavement--and it will start to exhibit strain. Bodies, however, are not bridges, and so it’s not surprising that the keys to keeping us as “continuous as the stars that shine,” as Wordsworth put it, would be different.