Surprise surprise, women have a different response to stress than men!

Finally science has proven that good quality relationships among women nurture our health, happiness and longevity!

Taylor, S. E., Klein, L.C., Lewis, B. P., Gruenewald, T. L., Gurung, R. A. R., & Updegraff, J. A.
Female Responses to Stress:Tend and Befriend, Not Fight or Flight
Surprise surprise, women have a different response to stress than men!
A UCLA study on the biological responses of humans to stress, have shown that the ‘fight or flight’ response in women is underpinned by the hormone oxytocins, which leads women to ‘tend or befriend’ . Shelley E Taylor, one of the researchers responsible for this ground-breaking study says that;
“...oxytocin prompts affiliative behaviour in response to stress, in conjunction with dopaminergic and opioid systems. This affiliative activity may serve tending needs, including protective responses toward offspring, and/or it may take the form of befriending, namely seeking social contact for one’s own protection and solace.”
A landmark UCLA study suggests that women respond to stress with a cascade of brain chemicals that cause us to make and maintain friendships with other women. It's a stunning find that has turned five decades of stress research---most of it on men---upside down. "Until this study was published, scientists generally believed that when people experience stress, they trigger a hormonal cascade that revs the body to either stand and fight or flee as fast as possible," explains Laura Cousino Klein,Ph.D., now an Assistant Professor of Biobehavioural Health at Penn State University and one of the study's authors. "It's an ancient survival mechanism left over from the time we were chased across the planet by saber-toothed tigers.”

Now the researchers suspect that women have a larger behavioural repertoire than just "fight or flight." "In fact," says Dr. Klein,” it seems that when the hormone oxytocin is released as part of the stress responses in a woman, it buffers the ‘fight or flight’ response and encourages her to tend children and gather with other women instead. When she actually engages in this tending or befriending, studies suggest that more oxytocin is released, which further counters stress and produces a calming effect. This calming response does not occur in men", says Dr. Klein, "because testosterone---which men produce in high levels when they're under stress---seems to reduce the effects of oxytocin. Estrogen", she adds, "seems to enhance it."

Very quickly, Drs. Klein and Taylor discovered that by not including women in stress research, scientists had made a huge mistake: The fact that women respond to stress differently than men has significant implications for our health, the "tend and befriend" notion developed by Drs. Klein and Taylor may explain why women consistently outlive men. Study after study has found that social ties reduce our risk of disease by lowering blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol. "There's no doubt," says Dr. Klein, "that friends are helping us live."

In one study, for example, researchers found that people who had no friends increased their risk of death over a 6-month period. In another study, those who had the most friends over a 9-year period cut their risk of death by more than 60%.
Friends are also helping us live better... The famed Nurses' Health Study from Harvard Medical School found that the more friends women had, the less likely they were to develop physical impairments as they aged, and the more likely they were to be leading a joyful life. In fact, the results were so significant, the researchers concluded, that not having close friends or confidantes was as detrimental to your health as smoking or carrying extra weight!

And that's not all! When the researchers looked at how well the women functioned after the death of their spouse, they found that even in the face of this biggest stressor of all, those women who had a close friend confidante were more likely to survive the experience without any new physical impairments or permanent loss of vitality. Those without friends were not always so fortunate.

Yet if friends counter the stress that seems to swallow up so much of our life these days, if they keep us healthy and even add years to our life, why is it so hard to find time to be with them?
That's a question that also troubles researcher Ruthellen Josselson, Ph.D., co-author of "Best Friends: The Pleasures and Perils of Girls' and Women's Friendships (Three Rivers Press, 1998)... "Every time we get overly busy with work and family, the first thing we do is let go of friendships with other women," explains Dr. Josselson. "We push them right to the back burner. That's really a mistake because women are such a source of strength to each other. We nurture one another. And we need to have unpressured space in which we can do the special kind of talk that women do when they're with other women. It's a very healing experience."

Growing Pains

My 3 year old (nearly 5, he keeps telling me) son has been complaining about sore legs and feet lately, and as a busy Mum I brushed it off as wingeing or laziness (he wants me to carry him everywhere). But it turns out that even at 3 kids can experience growing pains. So after a bit of asking around here is the remedy I've found to be effective;

Age appropriate doses of magnesium - for muscle development
Arnica rubbed into his legs paying particular attention to joints, ie knees and ankles.
A good kids multi-vitamin, there are lots on the market, I just kept trying different ones until my kids found one that they like the taste of - they are called vitamin-lollies in my house!

Hope that helps!

Good Time to Grow your Own!

I found this article today while skimming the news headlines;
Australia has fastest-rising food prices of any major developed nation
By John Rolfe
The Daily Telegraph
AUSTRALIANS are paying the fastest-rising food prices of any major developed nation.

The cost of feeding a family has shot up more than 40 per cent this decade, new OECD figures reveal.

That is a quarter quicker than prices have risen in Britain, twice as fast as in France and nearly three times the speed at which German groceries have increased, The Daily Telegraph reports.

Experts say the explanation for our pricey produce and soaring staples is not drought, currency movements or transport costs.

University of NSW associate professor Frank Zumbo said comparing costs over 10 years eliminated such variables and exposed our "cosy" supermarket duopoly as the main reason.

"When you look internationally, it is our market concentration which explains why our grocery prices are rising faster," he said.

Woolies of course defends itself by claiming Australia has a very competitive market. I shop at the local IGA I have to admit, and I've been so happy with the produce and prices that I am loathe to set foot in a Woolies or Coles ever again.

Got me thinking though that now might be a good time to start a vegie patch. I've always had pots of herbs and tomatoes growing and even a little lemon and mandarin tree (unfortunately every year my boys pull the budding fruit off before it gets past marble size), but I noticed at Bunnings the other day that they have some nifty wooden vegie patch wooden box things that are about 1m x 1m. There is something to be said for growing edible plants from seed.

Guinea pig or DS….what is the best birthday present for a 7 year old?

Being an old-fashioned-values woman living in a fast paced modern world makes for some interesting choices sometimes. Like recently when my daughter asked me for a DS for her birthday. At first I was all for it, after all she enjoys using the computer and I thought it would give her something to occupy herself with other than tormenting her brothers and pestering me. But when I asked around my female friends who have children with DS’s the general consensus was that they were more of a curse than a blessing. One friend pointed out that every time she asked her daughter to do something she was always met with resistence along the lines of “I’ll do it when I get to the next level/after I beat my high score etc” and when getting jobs done required forcible removal of the DS from said childs pincer grip, it was only through sheer size advantage that my friend was able to stave off full blown mutiny!

Another friend of mine who has twin 9 year olds said that while her son was able to take reasonable care of his and use it fairly frequently her daughters devil-may-care attitude towards material possessions had meant that her pale pink DS was looking like it had taken a ride back up the proverbial sooty chimney to Santas sack from whence it came.

So after giving it some thought I decided to give my daughter a variation on another gift she has been hankering after for ages. She wanted a small fluffy white dog that she could carry around in a handbag a la Paris Hilton style. So I got her a guinea pig....not just any guinea pig mind you, this one is special, it has long luxurious blonde hair that my daughter can brush and style to her little hearts content. The rest of it however looks like an overstuffed sausage! I figured this will play to her strangths - she loves animals and is very nurturing and caring, she is learning all about responsibility and consequences, and her business-savvy is possibly going to get a boost too, as she has already asked me if she can breed babies and sell them!

When I told members of my family about this decision it was met with a collective groan and reminders of the other small animals that didn't make it out alive (several siamese fighting fish, a budgie and 2 finches). But I think that Guinny the guinea pig looks robust enough, and even though a few of them even suggested buying her "robotic pets" I refuse to believe that that is a healthy way for a child to learn how to care for something/one that is dependent on her (ie me in my declining years- I can see it now "I'm going away for a few days Mum, I'll just switch off your life support and pop you in a cupboard till I get back").

Stay tuned for Life Lessons from Guinny the guinea pig!