Breathe deep, reduce stress, and don’t even think about a stress vaccine

Crazy calm

Can a few deep breaths really help calm down your stress level?

Absolutely. And scientists have even studied how it works…

Deep abdominal breathing stimulates the vagus nerve, which runs from your brain stem down through your abdomen. This is the main nerve of the relaxation response.

Once stimulated, the vagus activates a chemical compound called acetylcholine–a neurotransmitter that reduces inflammation and sends messages from your brain throughout your body.

And the messages all say, “Relax.”

As an added bonus, new research shows that the stimulated vagus nerve also activates stem cells that actually repair brain tissue damaged by inflammation.

All of that, just from taking deep breaths.

Or…you could get a stress vaccine that contains modified genes attached to a herpes virus (I swear, I’m not making that up) that neutralizes stress hormones.

And you should probably know that those hormones that get “neutralized” also play important anti-inflammation and anti-cancer roles in the immune system.

Now what could possibly go wrong with THAT plan?

Stepford world

This stress vaccine is not quite ready for prime time. In fact, it’s still in the animal-testing stage. But it already has a nickname–the “Sapolsky shot”–named after Dr. Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford University neuroscience professor.

But as Dr. Sapolsky himself admitted to the Daily Mail, “To be honest, I’m still amazed that it works.”

Well…it works in rats. Let’s not go jumping to the conclusion that it will work SAFELY in humans.

The vaccine tampers with brain chemistry to produce a state Dr. Sapolsky calls “focused calm.” So the hope is that chronically stressed-out individuals will be able to cruise through a stress-filled life with a relaxed demeanor.

A Stanford colleague of Dr. Sapolsky’s explained to the Daily Mail that the engineered virus would “short-circuit the neural feedback caused by stress, that lingering feeling of tension after a crisis has passed.”

Okay, but what about crisis situations that take years to pass? Long-term problems with health, finances, and the relentless demands of a career and family life are the factors that fuel chronic stress.

For those who are mired in one or more of these circumstances, would the Sapolsky shot actually produce a focused calm and a Stepford Wife smile?

If so, that’s pretty scary.

Dr. Sapolsky’s colleague boldly predicts: “This could change society.”

But who wants to live in a society of calmed-out zombies injected with herpes?

The opening line of the Daily Mail article suggests that we forget age-old stress remedies like yoga and meditation. And yet, just a few years ago, Dr. Sapolsky addressed a conference on science and meditation.

At that conference, he and others (including the Dalai Lama) discussed research that shows how meditation supports immune function, manages depression, and reduces levels of cortisol, which is known as the “stress hormone.”

I’m not sure how Dr. Sapolsky got from a conference like that to a genetically modified vaccine that uses herpes virus to mess around with hormones in the brain. But this we do know: You can’t make a fortune by telling stressed out people to close their eyes, breathe deeply, and wait for their focused calm.

Oh, and we also know this: If you do tell them that, it actually works.

Sources:
“Jab that could put a stop to stress without slowing us down” Rachel Quigley, Daily Mail, 8/2/10, dailymail.co.uk
“Dalai Lama Gets Meditation Lesson” Dan Orzech, Wired, 11/30/05, wired.com