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National Geographic
Stress: Portrait of a Killer
We live in a stressful world and although
the blurb on the back of this DVD states, "discover the secrets to a
stress-free life", it's actually more around what causes stress and more
particularly a comprehensive study on primates and the effect of stress
on them.
Stress is one of the biggest killers on the
planet and its always been with mankind that been hard wired into our
brains as a survival mechanism. However as he studies have indicated,
too much stress leads to a variety of diseases and it wasn't until the
1950's that doctors and scientists began to notice the harm of stress
within our community. This documentary explores stress with not only our
modern way of life but also out animal cousins, the primates.
Professor Sapolsky in his stress free
environment
The main scientist in this documentary is
Robert Sapolsky, a professor at Stanford University who has spent a
majority of his time studying this disease. Apart from research at
Stanford, Sapolsky takes us to the Serengeti plains of East Africa in
order to study stress of primates. These is very fascinating to watch!
As Sapolsky indicates, the alpha males of
the pack are the least stressed animals in their society and this study
was also mirrored by the British who studied those employed in the
public service sector. Therefore if you're a boss, your stress levels
are quite low compared to those on the lower pecking order. One
interesting study of Sapolsky is that he studied one particular troop of
monkeys whose alpha males all died out. The result, a perfect troop, one
with a minimal amount of stress that could almost be called a Utopian
society. Perhaps Marx was onto something?
Stress...a monkey attempting to push a
weaker male into the water
Joining Sapolsky are other scientists that
include Michael Marmot and Elizabeth Blackburn whose research into
stress is quite insightful and in turn a little frightening to those
connected to society. How so? Stress actually has the power to unravel
our chromosomes and even shrink our brains. Then you have the added
level of fat added to our body and stress is not a pretty creature at
all.
In the end, this 52-minute documentary may
make some stress more about their lives but for what it's worth, it's a
must see documentary and a warning to modern living. Presented in 16:9
widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, National Geographic and Madman
once again give the viewers a well made documentary (albeit a little
short) from start to finish. Check it out! |
