The Stress Puzzle (Dr. Ryan L. Brown and the UCSF Stress Measurement Network)

Welcome back to the Stress Puzzle! For our third episode, I was joined by Dr. Michael Marmot who is an expert on social status and health. We discussed his seminal work on the Whitehall Studies of British Civil Servants, translating research into policy, and how he remains an "evidence-based optimist" through it all. Tune in next month to hear about complementary research conducted by Dr. Jenny Tung on social status and health in nonhuman primates!

Dr. Michael Marmot is a Professor of Epidemiology at University College London, Director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity, and Past President of the World Medical Association. He has led multiple longitudinal cohort studies that have massively impacted our understanding of how social conditions influence health and aging, including the Whitehall Studies of British Civil Servants and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Professor Marmot has also chaired the Commission on Social Determinants of Health for the World Health Organization and conducted a Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England to produce evidence-based policy recommendations to support population health. He was recognized as a global health hero at the World Health Assembly in 2019.

Topics Discussed:

• Social determinants of health / health disparities
• Impact of social policy on health equity
• Challenges of policy implementation
• Prevention science

Research Mentioned:

• Fair Society, Health Lives: The Marmot Review: https://www.instituteofhealthequity.org/resources-reports/fair-society-healthy-lives-the-marmot-review/fair-society-healthy-lives-full-report-pdf.pdf
• Whitehall I: Marmot MG, Rose G, Shipley M, Hamilton PJ. Employment grade and coronary heart disease in British civil servants. J Epidemiol Community Health (1978). 1978 Dec;32(4):244-9. doi: 10.1136/jech.32.4.244. PMID: 744814; PMCID: PMC1060958. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/744814/ 
• Whitehall II: Marmot MG, Smith GD, Stansfeld S, Patel C, North F, Head J, White I, Brunner E, Feeney A. Health inequalities among British civil servants: the Whitehall II study. Lancet. 1991 Jun 8;337(8754):1387-93. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(91)93068-k. PMID: 1674771. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1674771/
• Destitution in the UK: https://www.jrf.org.uk/deep-poverty-and-destitution/destitution-in-the-uk-2023

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and
supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which
aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the
measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support
stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at stresspuzzlepod@gmail.com and we may
feature your question in a future episode!

Welcome to the first episode of the Stress Puzzle!

For this episode, I was joined by experts in the field of stress, Dr. Elissa Epel and Dr. Wendy Berry Mendes. Dr. Elissa Epel has focused on linking chronic stress to health, and Dr. Wendy Berry Mendes has focused on characterizing acute stress responses. They've been working together for over 10 years and have been co-leading the Stress Measurement Network. In this conversation, we discussed challenges and opportunities in the field of stress science, as well as the goals of this podcast.

Dr. Elissa Epel is a Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California San Francisco, where she also leads the Aging, Metabolism and Emotion center. She's one of the most cited researchers across fields for her research examining how psychological stress affects biological aging processes. Learn more about her research: https://www.elissaepel.com/

Dr. Wendy Berry Mendes is the Charles C. and Dorathea S. Dilley Professor in the Department of Psychology at Yale University, where she also leads the Emotion, Health and Psychophysiology lab. She's an international leader in social psychophysiology and has trained generations of students. She's a rigorous experimentalist, which has led to dozens of discoveries about the human social stress response. Her research on stress often goes beyond thinking about the individual to characterize how one person's stress impacts another person's emotions and physiology. Learn more about her research: https://www.wendyberrymendes.com/

Topics Discussed:

• Acute vs. Chronic Stress Responses
• NIH Stress Measurement Network
• Scientific Networks
• Wearables/Wearable Technology
• Stress Interventions
• Mind-Body Practices
• Future of Stress Science

Papers Mentioned:

• Crosswell, A. D., Mayer, S. E., Whitehurst, L. N., Picard, M., Zebarjadian, S., & Epel, E. S. (2024). Deep rest: An integrative model of how contemplative practices combat stress and enhance the body's restorative capacity. Psychological review, 131(1), 247–270. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000453
• Lin, J., & Epel, E. (2022). Stress and telomere shortening: Insights from cellular mechanisms. Ageing research reviews, 73, 101507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2021.101507
• Newman, D. B., Gordon, A. M., Prather, A. A., & Berry Mendes, W. (2023). Examining Daily Associations Among Sleep, Stress, and Blood Pressure Across Adulthood. Annals of behavioral medicine: a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, 57(6), 453–462. https://doi.org/10.1093/abm/kaac074
• Bobba-Alves, N., Sturm, G., Lin, J., Ware, S. A., Karan, K. R., Monzel, A. S., Bris, C., Procaccio, V., Lenaers, G., Higgins-Chen, A., Levine, M., Horvath, S., Santhanam, B. S., Kaufman, B. A., Hirano, M., Epel, E., & Picard, M. (2023). Cellular allostatic load is linked to increased energy expenditure and accelerated biological aging. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 155, 106322. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2023.106322

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at stresspuzzlepod@gmail.com and we may feature your question in a future episode!

Welcome back to the Stress Puzzle! For our second episode, I was joined by Dr. George Slavich who is an expert on the conceptualization, assessment, and management of life stress. In this conversation, we talked about the history of how stress has been thought of and measured, the limitations of many of these approaches, and the kind of research we need moving forward to really be able to translate the science to be actionable in people's lives. 

Dr. George Slavich is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA where he is the Founding Director of the Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research. He is an expert with enthusiasm for bettering the conceptualization, assessment, and management of life stress and for identifying psychological and biological mechanisms that link stress to mental and physical health. He has received numerous awards for his research, mentorship, and teaching, and he brings this experience and passion for precision stress science to his role as an Associate Director of the Stress Measurement Network. Learn more about his research: https://www.uclastresslab.org/

Topics Discussed:

• History of Stress Science
• Stress Conceptualization Across Time
• Notable Figures in Stress Science
• Challenges in Measuring Stress
• Theories of Life Stress
• Stressnology
• Muti-omics

Research Mentioned:

Charles Darwin:

• Darwin CR. (1859). On the origin of species. London: John Murray

Sir Clifford Allbutt:

• Allbutt C. (1895). Nervous diseases and modern life. Contemp. Rev. 67:210–217.

Walter Bradford Cannon:

• Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage: An Account of Recent Researches into the Function of Emotional Excitement (1915)
• Cannon WB. (1929). Organization for physiological homeostasis. Physiol. Rev. 9:399–431.
• The Wisdom of the Body (1932)

Hans Selye:

• Selye, H. (1936). A Syndrome produced by Diverse Nocuous Agents. Nature, 138(3479), 32–32. https://doi.org/10.1038/138032a0
• Selye, H. (1973). The Evolution of the Stress Concept: The originator of the concept traces its development from the discovery in 1936 of the alarm reaction to modern therapeutic applications of syntoxic and catatoxic hormones. American Scientist, 61(6), 692–699. 

George Slavich:

• Slavich, G. M. (2019). Stressnology: The primitive (and problematic) study of life stress exposure and pressing need for better measurement. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 75, 3-5. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_BBI_2019.pdf
• Slavich, G. M., & Shields, G. S. (2018). Assessing lifetime stress exposure using the Stress and Adversity Inventory for Adults (Adult STRAIN): An overview and initial validation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 80, 17-27. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_PsychosomaticMedicine_2018.pdf
• Slavich, G. M., Stewart, J. G., Esposito, E. C., Shields, G. S., & Auerbach, R. P. (2019). The Stress and Adversity Inventory for Adolescents (Adolescent STRAIN): associations with mental and physical health, risky behaviors, and psychiatric diagnoses in youth seeking treatment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 60, 998-1009. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_JCPP_2019.pdf
• Slavich, G. M., & Irwin, M. R. (2014). From stress to inflammation and major depressive disorder: A social signal transduction theory of depression. Psychological Bulletin, 140, 774-815. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_Irwin_PsychBull_2014.pdf
• Slavich, G. M. (2020). Social safety theory: A biologically based evolutionary perspective on life stress, health, and behavior. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 16, 265-295. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_AnnualReview_2020.pdf
• Slavich, G. M., Roos, L. G., Mengelkoch, S., Webb, C. A., Shattuck, E. C., Moriarity, D. P., & Alley, J. C. (2023). Social Safety Theory: Conceptual foundation, underlying mechanisms, and future directions. Health Psychology Review, 17, 5-59. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_HealthPsychReview_2023.pdf

Keely Muscatell: 

• Muscatell KA, Inagaki TK. (2021). Beyond social withdrawal: New perspectives on the effects of inflammation on social behavior. Brain Behav Immun Health, 16:100302. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8474589/pdf/main.pdf
• Feldman MJ, Jolink TA, Alvarez GM, Fendinger NJ, Gaudier-Diaz MM, Lindquist KA, Muscatell KA. The roles of inflammation, affect, and interoception in predicting social perception. Brain Behav Immun. 2023, 112:246-253. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10528976/pdf/nihms-1914636.pdf

Holmes and Rahe:

• Life Change Stress Test: https://www.dartmouth.edu/eap/library/lifechangestresstest.pdf 
• Holmes, T. H., & Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11(2), 213–218. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(67)90010-4

ME Seligman:

• Maier SF, Seligman ME. (2016). Learned helplessness at fifty: insights from neuroscience. Psychol.Rev. 123:34967.

Lazarus and Folkman:

• Lazarus R. S., Folkman S. (1984). Stress, Appraisal and Coping. New York: Springer 

Aaron Beck: 

• Clark DA, Beck AT.1999. Scientific Foundations of Cognitive Theory of Depression. New York: Wiley

George Brown and Tirill Harris:

• Allan O. House, Harry B. Andrews, Life events and difficulties preceding the onset of functional dysphonia, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Volume 32, Issue 3, 1988, Pages 311-319, ISSN 0022-3999, https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(88)90073-6.
• https://www.amazon.com/Life-Events-Illness-Brown-Harris/dp/0898627230/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341329487&sr=1-1&keywords=Life+events+and+illness 

Paul Gilbert: 

• Gilbert P. 2005. Social mentalities: a biopsychosocial and evolutionary approach to social relationships. In Interpersonal Cognition, ed. MW Baldwin, pp. 299–333. New York: Guilford Press.
• Gilbert P, Allan S. 1998. The role of defeat and entrapment (arrested flight) in depression: an exploration of an evolutionary view. Psychol. Med. 28:585–98.

Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN):

• Overview & Articles: https://www.uclastresslab.org/projects/strain-stress-and-adversity-inventory/
• Adolescent STRAIN: Slavich, G. M., Stewart, J. G., Esposito, E. C., Shields, G. S., & Auerbach, R. P. (2019). The Stress and Adversity Inventory for Adolescents (Adolescent STRAIN): associations with mental and physical health, risky behaviors, and psychiatric diagnoses in youth seeking treatment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 60, 998-1009. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_JCPP_2019.pdf
• Adult STRAIN: Slavich, G. M., & Shields, G. S. (2018). Assessing lifetime stress exposure using the Stress and Adversity Inventory for Adults (Adult STRAIN): An overview and initial validation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 80, 17-27. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_PsychosomaticMedicine_2018.pdf

Multi-Omics:

• Mengelkoch, S., Miryam Schüssler-Fiorenza Rose, S., Lautman, Z., Alley, J. C., Roos, L. G., Ehlert, B., Moriarity, D. P., Lancaster, S., Snyder, M. P., & Slavich, G. M. (2023). Multi-omics approaches in psychoneuroimmunology and health research: Conceptual considerations and methodological recommendations. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 114, 475-487. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Mengelkoch_BBI_2023.pdf
• Mengelkoch, S., Gassen, J., Lev-Ari, S., Alley, J. C., Schüssler-Fiorenza Rose, S. M., Snyder, M. P., & Slavich, G. M. (2024). Multi-omics in stress and health research: Study designs that will drive the field forward. Stress, 27, 2321610. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Mengelkoch_Stress_2024.pdf

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and
supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which
aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the
measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support
stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at stresspuzzlepod@gmail.com and we may
feature your question in a future episode!