Stress. In the beginning it saved human lives. It’s what made them run from predators and enabled them to take down prey. Today, humans are turning on that same life-saving stress response to cope with 30-year mortgages, four-dollar-a-gallon gas, difficult bosses and traffic jams — and we can’t seem to turn it off. As a result, people are constantly marinating in corrosive hormones triggered by the stress response.
Now, scientists are showing just how measurable and dangerous prolonged exposure to stress can be. Stanford University neurobiologist, MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient and renowned author Robert Sapolsky leads a new National Geographic special that reveals the latest answers to why and how stress is killing people. Killer Stress: A National Geographic Special airs Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 8/7 p.m. CT on KET2 and KET HD and Sunday, Sept. 28 at 2/1 p.m. CT on KET1.
Throughout the film, discoveries occur in an extraordinary range of places: with baboon troops on the plains of East Africa, in office cubes of government bureaucrats in London and in neuroscience labs at the nation’s leading research universities. In each location, scientists are discovering how stress works and how lethal it can be. Years of ground-breaking research by multiple scientists are revealing surprising facts about the impact of stress: It can shrink the brain, add fat to the belly, even unravel chromosomes. Yet, understanding how stress works can help people figure out ways to combat it and how to live a life free of this present-day plague.
Killer Stress: A National Geographic Special is produced by National Geographic Television & Film. More information about KET programming and education services, as well as how to support KET, can be found at www.ket.org.
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