Stress

This episode appears to contain dynamically inserted ads. Transcript timestamps may be approximate.
Stress may save your life if you're being chased by a tiger. But if you're stuck in traffic, it may be more likely to make you sick. This hour, a long hard look at the body's system for getting out of trouble.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
WNYC Studios is supported by WISE. WISE, the smart way to manage the currencies you need around the world. With a WISE account, you can send, spend, and receive in up to 40 currencies with only a few simple taps. Be smart, get WISE. Download the WISE app today. Terms and conditions apply. WNYC Studios is supported by Odu. When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odu solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odu is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out Odu at ODOO.com. That's ODOO.com. You are listening to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to radio lab. This is Radio Lab. I'm Chad Abumran. We're going to start today's program with a brief diversion to Midtown Manhattan. At the office of a neuropsychologist. Cameron Fallenbore, a well-dressed man with a calm voice, calming presence and uncanny ability to calm others. Which is why we're here. Are you going to be the volunteer? He walks me over to a small machine and asks for my left hand. Okay, what we're doing right now, we're just putting a couple of sensors that measure basically the flow of electrons between the two fingers here. That would be my index and middle fingers. And there are electrons going between my fingers? Oh, absolutely. Well, there are salts and minerals that are going to enable a very tiny electrical charge to travel from one finger to the other one. And he explains the more anxious I am, the more sparks fly between my fingers. In other words, this is a stress test. Okay, so I'm going to start it. Am I going to feel something? No, you're not going to feel anything. But I will hear something. That wine in the background. So if this goes up, it means that you are more stressed. So let me just make a couple of sounds here. You stressed me out, man. Okay, did you see that? Yeah, okay. Only with a couple of snaps near your ear. I got all the way to the top. Yes, that's not good. Well, that means that you need to relax and bring it down. Techniques to bring stress down. That is what Cameron Falapore has promised us. His theory is if you can hear your stress, you can control it. Okay, so what I like you to do is just to sit back. And when you're ready, just go ahead and close your eyes. And for now, I'm going to actually get rid of the tone here for you. You can monitor from here. And I want you to just get as comfortable as you can get right now. And gradually start to take deep, slow breaths through your abdomen. Okay, and continue to breathe slowly, and perhaps make your exhalations a little bit longer. And more sustain. And perhaps you can notice as you continue to breathe slowly, that perhaps with each breath, you feel a little bit more relaxed. And a little bit more comfortable. And for now, there is nothing in it to worry about. It's in the phone rings. Isn't that appropriate? While you're trying to de-stress, make your life a little better, the phone rings. Runes it all, one fell swoop, like life really. At any moment, a dirty bomb could go off. You know this, you could get downsized, dumped, dented by a mad stroller pusher as you cross the street, a street already swimming with naked hostility and fist-sized avian flu bugs. The point is, the phone could ring at any time. I'm already getting more stressed, it's like I can't stop. We can't control stress, but what we can do is understand it.
Transcription truncated.
Stress may save your life if you're being chased by a tiger. But if you're stuck in traffic, it may be more likely to make you sick. This hour, a long hard look at the body's system for getting out of trouble.