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> Dealing with stress over time can break down the body’s ability to deal with short bursts of stressful situations, he says. For what I could get from the art

> Dealing with stress over time can break down the body’s ability to deal with short bursts of stressful situations, he says. For what I could get from the article, under (mild) stress your thinking becomes sharper, but as it lasts longer, it breaks you down and you can't handle stressful spikes. So, perhaps, not being stressed all day long is the key? I mean, just surf the stressful spikes, don't have a light stress constantly, because you won't be able to deal with those hard moments of stress (and yes, they will come someday and all you've gained from the light-stress-boost will be thrown away because you'll burn out).

alexgotoi 10y ago
I think it's a price you decide to pay or not. If you want to think sharper, you need to pay with the side affects. Very similar to Limitless (the movie and tv show), if you saw it.
Swizec 10y ago
Acute stress is good (adrenaline -> fight or flight), chronic stress is bad. So, worrying about money or being fired or <insert real life problem> all day every day will wear you down and limit your ability to reason. There's not much brainpower left over. This is why it's, for example, difficult to be super productive at work when you're going through a divorce or dealing with a breakup. And why it's never a good idea to launch a new product while moving house. But, going bungee jumping or downhill mountain biking or racing cars or just driving too fast on the freeway. That's relaxing. Gives you focus, gets you away from the chronic stressors and into the immediate. Wonderful.
- eeZah7Ux 10y ago
  > Acute stress is good (adrenaline -> fight or flight) citation needed
  - erikbye 10y ago
    Acute stress keeps you alive. It's a response to esp. novel and potentially harmful events. Its effects on cortisol/insulin -> diabetes however, seems to be contentious.
  - aivosha 10y ago
    https://www.amazon.ca/Why-Zebras-Dont-Ulcers-Stress-Related/dp/0805073698 https://www.amazon.ca/Why-Zebras-Dont-Ulcers-Stress-Related/...
  - simosx 10y ago
    The purpose of stress is to quickly adapt the body to survive a fight. A set of changes happen to the body. For example, the blood becomes thicker in order to clot faster when you are bleeding. However, with chronic stress, this can cause thrombosis. Under stress, the stomach stops the digestion so that the energy goes into running to flee the danger. With chronic stress, your stomach is messed up and you get all sort of indigestion. And so on. Many examples of changes that have a simple explanation but are hazardous in chronic stress situations. For reference, read the Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers or anything by Robert Sapolsky.
    - eeZah7Ux 10y ago
      In the context of the article it looked like "Acute stress is good" was referring to episodes of acute stress on the workplace.
allemagne 10y ago
The implication I see (I am not an expert) is that stress was/is used to get our ancestors and other mammals out of short-term problems, i.e. to escape a predator. It's not useful or healthy as a lifestyle, or else evolution would have favored the "baseline" of modern humans to be closer to what our "stressed" state is. It seems to follow that stress is useful when it's really needed to make you sharper, but one should prioritize getting out of that state as soon as possible.

alexgotoi 10y ago

I think it's a price you decide to pay or not. If you want to think sharper, you need to pay with the side affects. Very similar to Limitless (the movie and tv show), if you saw it.

Swizec 10y ago

Acute stress is good (adrenaline -> fight or flight), chronic stress is bad. So, worrying about money or being fired or <insert real life problem> all day every day will wear you down and limit your ability to reason. There's not much brainpower left over. This is why it's, for example, difficult to be super productive at work when you're going through a divorce or dealing with a breakup. And why it's never a good idea to launch a new product while moving house. But, going bungee jumping or downhill mountain biking or racing cars or just driving too fast on the freeway. That's relaxing. Gives you focus, gets you away from the chronic stressors and into the immediate. Wonderful.

eeZah7Ux 10y ago
> Acute stress is good (adrenaline -> fight or flight) citation needed
- erikbye 10y ago
  Acute stress keeps you alive. It's a response to esp. novel and potentially harmful events. Its effects on cortisol/insulin -> diabetes however, seems to be contentious.
- aivosha 10y ago
  https://www.amazon.ca/Why-Zebras-Dont-Ulcers-Stress-Related/dp/0805073698 https://www.amazon.ca/Why-Zebras-Dont-Ulcers-Stress-Related/...
- simosx 10y ago
  The purpose of stress is to quickly adapt the body to survive a fight. A set of changes happen to the body. For example, the blood becomes thicker in order to clot faster when you are bleeding. However, with chronic stress, this can cause thrombosis. Under stress, the stomach stops the digestion so that the energy goes into running to flee the danger. With chronic stress, your stomach is messed up and you get all sort of indigestion. And so on. Many examples of changes that have a simple explanation but are hazardous in chronic stress situations. For reference, read the Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers or anything by Robert Sapolsky.
  - eeZah7Ux 10y ago
    In the context of the article it looked like "Acute stress is good" was referring to episodes of acute stress on the workplace.

allemagne 10y ago

The implication I see (I am not an expert) is that stress was/is used to get our ancestors and other mammals out of short-term problems, i.e. to escape a predator. It's not useful or healthy as a lifestyle, or else evolution would have favored the "baseline" of modern humans to be closer to what our "stressed" state is. It seems to follow that stress is useful when it's really needed to make you sharper, but one should prioritize getting out of that state as soon as possible.