Stress. (SIREN WAILS) The World Health Organization has declared it the health epidemic of the 21st century. Last year it accounted for nearly half of all sick days. The rush hour is very stressful. Families. Their children. Work relationships. Well, I'm losing my hair. (LAUGHS) Life is a constant battle, with traffic jams, trying to find parking spaces, losing keys, crowded trains, delays, juggling work and family, as well as trying to make ends meet. In our busy, 24/7 connected world, there is plenty to stress us out. (ALARM RINGS) (HORNS BLARE) (CRIES) In this programme, we're going to find out exactly what presses our stress buttons. What's going on here? Look, you can't come out like that. Are you gonna handle it? No way. And what we can do to help manage our levels of stress. It's very good if you're feeling quite anxious. Mm. I want to reveal the very latest scientific research on stress. That's incredible. The difference is stark. That's the mindful peak. I'll be putting myself on the front line to show you how stress affects our bodies and our brains. 42 divided by 5. I can't remember what you've said. And I'll be finding out if a very stressful chapter in my life has permanently damaged my health. I would like to say I'm looking forward to getting the results, but I'm really not. But what if the right kind of stress could actually be good for us? I'm going to show you how to turn stress into your secret weapon. Stress can be seen as something very positive and drive success. You're faking it till you make it. So, Fiona, say, 'I feel excited.' I feel excited! Whoo! (LAUGHS) I want to find out the truth about stress. Captions by Madison Batten. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017 There's a silent plague we all need to guard against. It's linked to a number of serious health issues ` anxiety, depression, cancer, and heart problems ` costing the economy billions of pounds. It's something we all suffer from. It's stress. According to the latest surveys, almost half of us feel we're too stressed. I am definitely one of those people. Yes, as rosy as my life might seem to others, I suffer from trying to do too much in too little time. And when I check the news, there's more stress ` war, famine, and political instability; events completely out of my control. And then I get these horrible stress feelings. You know the sort of thing ` churning, butterflies in your stomach, racing heart, sometimes sleepless nights, which makes us feel even more out of control. And I'm not alone. One study suggests that millions of us regularly feel close to breaking point. So why do we have all this stress, and where does it come from? (BIRDSONG) To discover the origins of stress, I've come to this zoo near Birmingham to get up close and personal with our primal past. (SNARLS) I'm being joined by three stressed-out volunteers ` Steve, a busy courier, Paulette, a single working mum, and Andy, a self-employed plumber. We're meeting stress expert Professor Anna Whittaker, who's going to demonstrate exactly what stress is. Hi. Hi, Anna. How are you? Yeah, not bad, thanks. Now, you're our stress expert. Yeah. And I see you're accompanied by some strange-looking thing there. Yes. What is that? The vest is our body rig. And it picks up through sensors your heart rate and also body temperature and breathing rate. And we can see all of that because it connects to the computer and we can see what's happening. OK, so we need to get the body suits on, don't we? Mm-hm. We're going to have an animal encounter. That's going to be the stress. So we have snakes and tarantulas. Mm. That goes through there? Anna is using the body rig to measure, to the split-second, exactly what happens when our volunteers are stressed in the most primitive way ` by being introduced to some of the zoo's most dangerous residents. LAUGHS: Oh my gosh. Their bodies have an immediate physical response. Whoa. (EXHALES) The heart rates start spiking,... OK, that was quite a big response there, Steve. Yeah. ...the breathing rate increases, and the body temperature rises ` all signs of acute stress. Are you gonna handle it? No way. If it moves, I'll be out, honestly. And we really physically heard your breath quickening, actually. This acute reaction lasts for just a matter of seconds. Ohh! It's all right. Stay nice and still. There you go. Ugh! No. Once our volunteers realise the threat has passed, their bodies start to return to normal. You might feel your heart racing and feel really anxious, but, actually, you're body's doing what it's built to do. So why does all of this happen? Well, acute stress is actually our body's primal emergency reaction, otherwise known as fight or flight. And it evolved for good reason ` to save our lives. It harks back to the days when we lived in caves and got stalked by predators. (ROARS) When we sense danger, the fear centre of the brain, the amygdala, sends a distress message to the control centre, which in turn tells the adrenal glands to start pumping stress hormones into the bloodstream. (BLOOD RUSHES, HEARTBEAT THUDS) This makes our heart beat faster, pumping blood to the muscles and increasing our breathing to get extra oxygen into the brain to sharpen our senses. This primal response happens so quickly that before our brain has even seen the threat, the body is primed, ready to fight... (ROARS) (GASPS) ...or run away. Our ancient stress mechanism can give us superhuman powers to be faster and stronger and surprise us with what we're capable of achieving. So stress is one of the most extraordinary and vital survival mechanisms we possess. In fact, without it, we probably wouldn't be here. The thing is that in the modern world, we no longer face the occasional threat of a wild animal. Instead, we're constantly bombarded by a host of triggers, none of them life-threatening but all launching the same stress response. (DRILLING) (BLEEPING) We've asked our volunteers to use the body rig so we can track their typical day. The on-board camera is synchronised with the rig to record every moment so we can see exactly what's causing them to spike. Courier Steve is driven by deadlines. At 7.30, his heart rate is already spiking. I might go to London. I might go to Glasgow, Edinburgh. He can spend up to 12 hours a day stuck in his van. Most of these jobs are time-sensitive, so that generates stress. The body rig records a heart rate rise as Steve gets stuck in traffic. Well, I've now gone down to 10 miles a bleedin' hour. This sort of stress can lead to spiking blood sugar levels and higher cholesterol. Where does he think he's going? What's going on here? Look, you can't come out like that. (HORN BEEPS) It's 11.55. Another spike as his technology lets him down. Hi. Have you got any idea where this place is? Hold on. Argh, what's happened to this? PAULETTE: Farah. BOY: Yes? You getting ready? It's 7.50 in the morning, and single mum Paulette is already under pressure. I did have �5 somewhere, son, but I don't know what's happened to it. I'm always losing stuff. Paulette enjoys her job, but it comes with demanding patience and lots of paperwork. It's a busy GP practice. Some days you can't sit down for five minutes. But it's money worries that really make her feel stressed. I hate looking at my bank account. Trying to make ends meet, it's a struggle. Finances are a cause for concern for many of us, which, over time, can lead to anxiety and depression. Life isn't any calmer for our final volunteer, Andy. He's a self-employed plumber and father of four kids. With this trade, you're only ever as good as your last job. So I often do brilliantly on one job and struggle on another, and it is stressful. It's 8.33, and his day starts off badly. (BLEEP) Flat tyre. (BLEEP)in' hell. Already his stress hormones are pumping. (GROANS) Come on. Like many of us, Andy's mobile is a blessing and a curse. (GROANS) Hello. Hello? All right, mate. With each call, his heart rate spikes. Soon as the phone starts ringing, you stop what you're doing and you're on the phone cos you can't do two things at once. His jobs are over-running. (BLEEP) Yeah, hang on. (GROANS) Right. There were some instructions with that sink, wasn't there? Cos this is like a Meccano set, that is. And it's another late night, leaving less time to see his family. (UPBEAT MUSIC) So how did our volunteers get on? The data from the body rig showed both Paulette and Steve having multiple and very familiar stress triggers ` time management issues, financial fears, workplace worries. (EXHALES) A minute to spare. One minute. But it was plumber Andy who displayed the highest levels of stress. (GROANS) (BLEEP)in' shoulder, man. Including his moments of physical exertion, he was stressed for a massive 44% of the day. 9 With our bodies experiencing so many stress triggers throughout an average day, what sort of effect can this have on our brains? To find out, I've been invited back to school to be put on the spot in a very public way. Hi, Fiona. Hello. How are you? Um, all right at the moment, thank you. We're gonna give you a maths test today to see how your brain copes under pressure. Thank you. OK. So I'm gonna give you some questions. And I'm gonna give you, like, three seconds` Three seconds?! Three seconds to answer them. But no paper to do my sums or anything? No paper, no pen. Number 1: 12 x 6 - 18. Hang on. (MUMBLES) 15... 54. ...divided by 3 + 11. Oh, my brains going 'luh'. That's easy as well. 14 - 8 x 12. 72. Flooded with stress hormones, I lose the ability to focus. 47 - 3... My brain's going. (CHUCKLES) ...divided by 4. I didn't even hear that. I've completely... We'll go to the next one. 28 + 42 � 5. No, I've lost` I can't remember what you said. My brain's really... ahh. 95 - 35... Oh! ...times 3. 180. Oh dear. (CHUCKLES) I am really good at mental arithmetic, I promise you. If I'd have done it under a different situation, it would have been brilliant. No, actually, my brain just froze. It seems there's a mismatch between the way we're programmed to deal with stress ` to run or to fight ` and the kinds of stress we face in our modern lives. Small amounts of acute stress keep our bodies in a super alert state to deal with whatever life throws at us. But too much stress means the rational part of our brain is hijacked by the primal part and our ability to think clearly becomes overwhelmed by our emotional response. This means that we can lose control, triggering an emotional outburst or a complete meltdown. (TEARS BUBBLE) Like most people, I wouldn't tend to put myself in a situation that would make me panicky or stressed. I think we tend to fear stress and maybe start avoiding situations that might make us feel stressed, like job interviews or public speaking. So is there a way of changing the way we deal with our stress so this sort of response doesn't happen and we feel more in control? I've come to this activity centre in Thetford to meet Professor Ian Robertson, a neuroscientist and clinical psychologist who's been studying the brain for over 40 years. You must be Ian. Fiona. Fiona. Nice to meet you ` I think. Nice to meet you. Yeah. I hear you've got something rather nasty up your sleeve. I'm going to get you a bit anxious and a bit stressed, cos you see that zip line there? Yeah. You're going to be coming down that. Oh no. How does it make you feel? That's just made my stomach lurch. You feel it in your stomach, yeah? Yeah. Are you a wee bit nervous? Yeah, and I can feel my heart. The heart's going. Yeah. It was that zip wire word that did it. It's very high. 30m. Thank you, Ian. (!) Yeah. (CHUCKLES) So have you got ways of me coping with this? I've got a way you can master this. So will we go up? If we have to. Will we try it? Yeah. Yeah. If we have to. Let's do it. WOMAN: Right, if you hold on to here. OK. Are you sure this is gonna keep me in? Yes, this is gonna keep you nice and safe. Aah! The technique that Ian wants me to try is based on the idea of being able to change my perception of the threat from negative to positive. I don't understand how people pay to do this, I really don't. I just think if you've got a nice life, why ruin it? (CHUCKLES) All right, you're good to go. So, Fiona. What do you want? (LAUGHS) Fiona, look at you now. Yes, look at me now. You're going to be hanging from this. Thank you (!) OK. Beating heart, twisting stomach, dry mouth, sweaty skin. What are these symptoms of? Stress, I guess. Acute stress? No? No. No. Yeah. But they're also symptoms of excitement. Are they? Of excitement. Really? Our emotions ` excitement, anxiety, anger ` they're all the same bodily symptoms. Oh. That's true. So you can perform magic. You can change these from one emotion... OK. From anxiety... Anxiety into excitement. OK. Just by writing that little line of code in your mind. Stand up straight. Power pose. The Superman pose, OK? OK. And say, 'I feel excited.' STRAINED: But I don't, Ian. OK. Tell yourself. I feel excited. OK? Yeah. I feel excited. You do! You do. I really feel excited. And when you stand up straight like that, you're faking it till you make it. You're tricking your brain into creating a different emotion. OK. So 'I feel excited.' Say it once more. I feel excited. Great. You're going to go up there. Head for it. (LAUGHS NERVOUSLY) OK. Oh gosh. Even this bit I really don't like. Oh my God. Ian's method relies on the fact that, as far as our body is concerned, anxiety and excitement are the mirror image of one another. Oh, I really don't want to do this. Ugh. I can feel my stomach lurching, lurching, lurching. I'm gonna attach myself behind you. My legs are going now too. They both make our hearts race and we breathe faster. The difference is all in the mind. So according to Ian, this means it's possible to control your anxiety with three simple words. OK, OK. I feel... I feel excited! (GRUNTS) Ooh! Aah! I did it! I did it! I did it! Whoa-ho! Ooh! Hey. Oh my God. Oh! Actually now I am excited. (CHUCKLES) Now it's over. Can I give you a hand up? Ian, you are a genius. Cos, honestly, I was up there, and I was thinking, 'I really don't think I can this.' And then I did that thing. And it worked. And I said, 'I feel exci`' and I just went. Well done. That's fantastic. Fantastic. Good. So how did I manage to face one of my fears, control my stress, and enjoy it? One of the hormones released into our brain when we are anxious or excited is noradrenaline, produced in a tiny area called the locus coeruleus. This part of the brain is sensitive to how much carbon dioxide is in our blood, so we can regulate it by taking a few slow breaths. And we can control it further by adopting a confident, head-up posture, which not only helps deepen the breath but also affects our mood. Too little or too much of this stress hormone, and our brain underperforms. But once we hit that sweet spot where we're challenged but not overwhelmed, we're capable of performing at our best. It's all about tapping into the energy of a stressful situation. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) (UPLIFTING MUSIC) Harnessing stress to your advantage can be key to feeling less anxious. Successful athletes, performers, and businesspeople do this all the time. But how do they optimise their stress to turn out world-class performances? (EXCITING MUSIC) To discover their secrets, I've come to this athletics stadium in Birmingham. (ENERGETIC MUSIC) On the track is Ellie Stevens, a middle-distance athlete. After being unable to compete through illness and injury, she lost confidence in herself, and stress hampered her performance. That's when she called in sports psychologist Tom Bates. So, Tom, when Ellie first came to you, when you first met her, what sort of state was she in? Well, she was just in quite a stressed state because there were some challenges that she was going through which were essentially preventing her, blocking her, from doing what she loved. And so my job with Ellie was to help her to realise that she can go on to achieve what she aspires to achieve. Tom's taught Ellie to think about her stress in a more positive way. It's such a key phrase now, isn't it? 'I'm stressed out. I'm really stressed.' You hear people say that all the time. And what you think, you will become. Absolutely, yeah. We can't exceed our own self-image. And the way that we see ourselves becomes our reality. If I expect that it's gonna be a hassle for me today at work, if I expect there's gonna be lots of pressure, if I expect to get stressed every time I get in that traffic jam and I can't cope with that, then I'll live out my expectations. Over the last few months, Ellie's performance has improved dramatically. Tom believes that by changing our perception of stress we can all perform at our peak. You know, elite athletes performing at the highest level don't perform in the absence of stress. They have learned ways to reframe and use stress as a sign that their bodies are getting ready to perform when their best is needed. It's not possible to be able to control what the crowd think or what the TV pundits are saying about us. You know, we can't always control the situations that we find ourselves in, but we can always control our response. Mindset defines performance. Stress can be seen as something very positive, and stress can drive success instead of becoming a hindrance, and it's all to do with the way that we see it. Well, I've learned a loud, clear lesson about stress today. It's the way we use it that matters. It can mean the difference between a bad performance, say, and a gold medal or an A in your maths exam or a D. Stress can be a really empowering tool. It's down to us. It can empower us as long as we learn to use it properly. (POIGNANT MUSIC) This is the very moment... Audrey understood that more than 20,000 Kiwis were paying the actual wholesale price of their power, but she was still paying whatever fixed price her power company felt like. (LIGHT MUSIC) We've seen how stress can help improve our performance, but some brand-new research suggests we might also be able to use it to treat serious health issues. It's all to do with using our reserves of something called 'brown fat'. I've come to the Big Chill Swim in the Lake District to meet Professor Michael Symonds to find out about this extraordinary new research. Michael, brown fat. It sounds horrible. What is it? Well, brown fat, I suppose it gets a bad press because it's called fat. And brown. And brown. But, actually, it's a really good fat. Without it, I doubt if you and I would be here, because brown fat is switched on when you're first born, and it's switched on then because it has a unique capacity to produce really large amounts of heat. And just to put it in context, if you compare, say, 1g of brown fat with 1g of muscle or 1g of white fat, it can produce 300 times more heat. (HORN BLARES) (UPBEAT MUSIC) All of us have reserves of brown fat. Michael's theory is that when we're stressed, the brown fat is activated, which in turn burns calories. And what better way to stress the body than jumping into a lake of freezing water? Using a thermal imaging camera, Michael scanned the bodies of the swimmers before they took the plunge. Our swimmers are there... That's it. ...in freezing temperatures. So what's going to be going on with their brown fat? I think the temperature of the water is about 7 degrees C. Not far off the temperature we have our fridges at. That's right, yeah. And swimming up and down for about 10 minutes, that's gonna switch on your brown fat, because if it doesn't, I think you'd be struggling to cope with the cold. Now the thermal imaging camera is used to look at the heat produced by the swimmers' bodies after they've been subjected to the short, sharp stress of the cold water. If, as expected, the cold has switched on their brown fat, then it should show up as two white patches either side of the neck. So, Michael, can we see the brown fat from our swimmers? So, we'll start off by just looking at the image before. You can see here there's a small white area here that corresponds to where the brown fat is. Yeah. And then we'll go and look at the image after. You can see that this area is bigger. It's bigger, yeah. Yeah, definitely. All the swimmers who were tested showed the same result ` that the stress induced by the cold water activated their brown fat. So when the newspaper headlines say, 'Stress can help you lose weight!' they're correct? In terms of acute stress, yeah. Michael is currently researching ways to switch on brown fat without such extreme measures. If successful, it might be that stress could help people who are obese or have diabetes to manage their weight. So acute stress can be invigorating and sharpen our performance. But when we're permanently stressed, it not only causes uncomfortable physical and mental sensations, but it can tip over into the real killer ` chronic stress. Acute stress now and then is fairly normal. But when we're constantly stressed, it can lead to the overproduction of cortisol. Also known as the steroid hormone, cortisol has an effect on our blood sugar levels to give us more energy. When we're chronically stressed, our cortisol tap is turned on all the time, and this can have a serious effect on our health. (HEARTBEAT THUDS) It weakens parts of our immune system, making us more vulnerable to disease. It increases our blood pressure, which puts a strain on our arteries, and that can lead to heart disease. And it's been linked to serious mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression. (LIGHT MUSIC) I have suffered from this type of stress ` the type that you can't get away from because it's totally out of your control and that can go on for weeks or months or even years. I remember a period in my life... where I went up into my office, sat at my computer screen, and literally sort of rocked back and forth and back and forth because everything had become too much. I was getting up at 3.30 in the morning for breakfast television. I had two very small boys. One was a baby, one a toddler. And also my mum and dad were, within a few couple of years of each other, diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's, and I was trying to care for them at a distance and look after the children and keep my job going and sometimes speak to my husband. I wouldn't be surprised at the impact that all that stress in the past has had on me. To find out if my long-term health has been damaged, I'm having a sample of my blood taken for analysis. It's gonna be sharp scratch, yeah? OK. Are you OK? Mm-hm. It'll be sent to Newcastle University's Institute of Ageing, where they'll examine my white blood cells. I'll be getting the results in a couple of weeks. (HORNS BEEP) Lots of stress, as we all know, can often lead to bad lifestyle habits, which can further damage or health. Like many of us, what I reach for may be doing me more harm than good in the long term. First of all, chocolate. Yup. Chocolate, definitely. A Scotch egg. A Scotch egg. An old favourite. And then I'll go for a burger or French fries. I've got a bag full of hot and spicy chicken wings. And a milkshake, definitely. When we're feeling stressed out, lots of us comfort eat. We eat not because we're hungry, but to boost our mood. The problem with most comfort foods is they tend to be packed full of sugar and fat. That is so tempting. Not good for your health, though, never mind your waistline. So why is it, I wonder, that we tend to crave sweet, fatty foods when we're feeling stressed out? To tackle this question, we're going to do an experiment involving one of the most stressful hobbies in the UK ` being a football fan. Supporting a football team can be a stressful old business, you know? I'm a Chelsea fan, and even if we're winning, there's a lot of stress involved over disputed penalties, corners, fouls, or, of course, if the other side wins. So I'm on my way to meet a scientist who's been using the emotional highs and lows of sports fans to research how that can affect how we taste our food. Now, they don't realise it yet, but these football fans from Doncaster and Grimsby Town are going to be guinea pigs for a special taste test devised by Professor Robin Dando of Cornell University. What we're interested in looking at is if there's a link between how we're feeling and our sense of taste. So today people are gonna be very heavily invested in the score line. The home team is doing very well, and they're playing their local rivals. So what we're hoping to do today is give the same sample to fans of the home team and fans of the away team and then see if they perceive it differently. This, of course, relies on` we're keeping our fingers crossed that at least somebody wins and it's not a draw. And what are we going to be giving them, food-wise? They're gonna be trying lemon curd-flavoured doughnut. Ooh, nice. That's made me feel better already. (BOTH CHUCKLE) According to Robin's research, how we taste our food is altered by our emotions, including how stressed we feel. What we're interested in is what effect stress actually has on how food tastes and whether this explains why we choose certain types of comfort food. (WHISTLE TRILLS, INDISTINCT SHOUTING) At the end of the match, Robin's plan is to carry out a taste test with both sets of fans. What we're expecting is that the fans whose team have lost will be more stressed out. All that's needed is a goal. Free kick. This is a good opportunity. (CHEERING) That was a great goal. (CHEERING, CHANTING) (WHISTLE TRILLS) So will the fans from the losing side taste Robin's doughnuts differently to those on the winning side? All right, guys. Who fancies a doughnut? Would you fancy a doughnut at all to celebrate your win today? Yeah? We invited fans from both sides to eat a lemon curd doughnut and rate how sweet it tastes and also how sour it tastes. Yeah, and you're a Rovers fan. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Guys, sorry, you're on the losing side. Do you want a doughnut, yeah? I'll have a doughnut, thank you. Have a doughnut. We then asked the fans how stressed they feel. So what were the results? This is to help you get over your sad defeat today. The fans on the losing side rated the doughnuts as tasting more sour and, crucially, less sweet than the winning side, who literally experienced the sweet taste of victory. These results are consistent with a large-scale study that Robin's done with sports fans in America. Being stressed seems to make food taste less sweet. And would that be, then, why we would crave sweet things as comfort food? Yeah, so that would mean that when we consume something, you know, moderately sweet, it's not as pleasant any more. Not satisfying, yeah. You don't get the same positive feeling from it, and you're likely to instead go for something that's much more intensely sweet, something like a classical comfort food, which unfortunately tend to be much worse for you. 1 When we tracked a typical day with our three volunteers earlier in the programme, we found that the most stressed individual, Andy, was powering his way through the day with the help of sugary snacks and coffee. When we tested his levels of cortisol, the damaging stress hormone, they indicated that he was starting to show signs of chronic stress. Work is the main trigger for Andy, so it's difficult for him to escape that pressure. But he can make some simple lifestyle changes to stop his stress level spiking unnecessarily throughout the day. (GROANS) (LIGHT UPBEAT MUSIC) To help Andy cope with his stress better, I've brought him along to meet nutritionist Christine Bailey. Oh! Hello! Hi there. How are you? Nice to see you, Fiona. Good to meet you. Christine believes there are certain foods that can satisfy both our comfort eating cravings and reduce our stress response. We need you to tell us ` don't we, Andy? ` Yup, yup. ...foods that are good for stress cos I know when I'm stressed out` Like, for example, this morning, rushing around, I grabbed a cinnamon bun. And, Andy, what would you do? Uh, fried chicken. (GASPS) I just crave fried chicken. I shouldn't, but I do. When you are struggling with stress, then really what you need is foods that are actually gonna keep your energy levels and your blood sugar stable. Sugary comfort foods cause our blood sugar levels to spike and then dip, which can make us feel more anxious, not less. Christine's got some alternatives. Blueberries are very high in vitamin C, full of antioxidants, very protective, and are going to give you that sort of sweet, you know, taste in the mouth without a craving for sugar without upsetting the blood sugar levels. They are nice. Yeah. Mmm. But what about snacks that help alleviate some of the symptoms of stress, that help to dial down the amount of cortisol our bodies are releasing? So we've got... BOTH: Pumpkin seeds, almonds, walnuts. All of them very good source of protein, so they're gonna help stabilise your blood sugar. And the walnuts, they contain omega 3 fats as well, so very good for the brain, very good if you're feeling quite anxious. And these are great sources of magnesium. Now, we know magnesium is very good to help us keep calm, so very good for anxiety. And these would be a good portable snack. Yup. So when you're working, you could take some of these with you, couldn't you? Yeah, yeah, definitely. Little Tupperware box. You will be so laidback you won't know yourself. (ALL CHUCKLE) Nice and chilled. Great for the brain as well. Christine has another suggestion for Andy ` to back on coffee. If you're already stressed, flooding your system with caffeine will just make you feel even worse. Too much caffeine can cause insomnia, nervousness, and an increased heart rate ` in fact, all the symptoms of stress. Christine recommends a healthier alternative. So green tea is very high in something called L-theanine. It's an amino acid. And what we know from the research is that it actually helps improve your concentration, your focus, and keeps you feeling calm. So very good when you're feeling anxious, Andy. Yeah. What do you reckon? I think it's an acquired taste. (LAUGHS) So the advice for Andy ` and, actually, all of us ` is avoid comfort food and opt instead for healthy, nutritious foods that can genuinely help your body cope with stress. And here are some other tips. Don't skip breakfast. Studies show that if you do, your cortisol levels will rise to increase your blood sugar levels. Carry a bottle of water with time markings to make sure you keep hydrated throughout the day. Dehydration puts your body under more stress, and that means more cortisol. Eat vitamin C-rich produce, like oranges and berries, which will all help to boost your immune system. Stress is part and parcel of our daily lives, and few of us can escape it. But there are some simple ways to keep unwanted stress under control. Steve and Paulette are joining Andy on a three-week stress-reduction regime using three manageable techniques. They're all working at improving their diet, and they're all going to increase the amount of physical exercise they do. STEVE: I'm not spending mega bucks on the gym. I just walk around the block three times through this lovely park. At the end of the third lap, I go up and down the stairs three times then go round the block again twice. Regular exercise releases feel-good hormones ` endorphins. These counteract our negative feelings and anxiety, which means we release less cortisol. Like Steve says, you don't have to spend money or take up marathon running. Simple things like walking more briskly, doing a few steps and stretches in the park, or using a skipping rope for five minutes a day can all make a big difference. Morning. Morning. Not only will our volunteers be doing more exercise and eating better, they'll also try out mindfulness. Take our attention to the movement of the breath around the belly or the chest. It's a technique that has its roots in meditation. Its ability to treat various health issues is gaining momentum in the scientific community. I want to find out why it's being raved about as an effective stress buster. (UPBEAT MUSIC) (BELL RINGS) These days it's not just adults that complain about stress. Increasingly, youngsters are affected by it too. I've got two teenage sons, and I honestly think school life these days is harder than it's ever been, with constant tests, assessments, assignments, exams, all the way through from primary school to sixth form. Now, I've heard that mindfulness is being used in some schools as a way of helping pupils cope with exam stress. And I'm at one school now which is doing just that. WOMAN: You can maybe feel your heels, the backs of your legs on the floor. Really feel in to the different sensations. And when you breathe out, I want you almost to imagine as best you can as though any stress is just now melting away down on to the floor. Rates of depression and anxiety amongst teenagers have increased by 70% in the past 25 years. In an attempt to reduce these figures, over 5000 teachers are being trained in mindfulness techniques. Just focusing in on your breath, breathing in, you go up you finger, out, down your finger. Well, mindfulness is a technique, really that helps you anchor your attention on the present moment. It's amazing how much time we spend either reminiscing about the past or racing forward to the future. And both of those two things can cause stress. And that's what we're trying to avoid or we're trying to kind of duck under. So mindfulness is all about paying attention to the present moment on purpose ` so making an effort to do it ` and without judgement. How are your toes moving? Being a teenager has always been a tricky time. But what's changed is the fast-paced environment we now live in and the strains of living your life on social media. Now, girls, how do you think mindfulness helps? Well, I tend to procrastinate a lot when I'm doing homework or revision. And mindfulness really helps me to focus in so I'm not thinking about what I'm gonna do tomorrow or what happened today. So you can really stay in the moment and focus. Yeah. I found that doing sit-down practices before revising really helped me absorb more information. And what sort of sit-down practices would you do? I would sit down, and I would just think about how my back feels, how my legs feel, how my hands feel. And then that really helped me focus in on myself so I could absorb everything that I needed to for the exams. 1 It's been six weeks since we tested our volunteers' responses to stress. Although their stress triggers have stayed much the same, they're hoping that some of the techniques they've been trying to help them cope better with stress have worked. We've tested them again, and our stress expert, Professor Anna Whittaker, has assessed the results. First up is single mum Paulette. You all right? Yes, thank you. When we look at your questionnaire results, they're really interesting. So, before you started all the interventions, you had very high perceived stress... Yes. ...in terms of how you were feeling you can cope. That's gone down a lot. Your positive mood has increased. Your negative mood has decreased massively. I've been eating different as well, so I'm feeling a lot better in myself, yes. CHUCKLES: And I have lost weight. That's brilliant. So all round it's a bit of a new Paulette. It's helping me a lot, yes. Next is courier Steve. So, Steve, looking at your cortisol, you've got a very nice healthy awakening response and then coming down to much lower levels during the day. In terms of the questionnaire, you had acute stress in terms of your job, but in terms of chronic stress, you had quite low levels. And those have stayed nice and low, so that's great. What do you think has particularly helped? So I know you've been exercising more. You've been watching your diet a bit. I feel that the mindfulness is probably the most helpful aspect of the whole thing. It gives you a kind of suit of armour to wear against potential stress situations. And finally, it's plumber Andy. Andy! Yup. (CHUCKLES) You're looking pleased with yourself. Yeah, feeling a bit better. So you and I went round the market. The diet change helped a bit? Yes, it has, yeah. It definitely has. I take my food to work most days. So I'll take three packed lunchboxes with veg, rice, and chicken. It's all right. Good, good. So do you think the interventions have helped you? Yeah, it has helped. And my mindfulness, the situations... And just taking time out, 'tis a good thing. The really good news is the questionnaire data. I mean, your perceived stress which is, you know, 'how do you feel about your day-to-day?' and 'how do you feel about coping with it?' that's nearly halved. OK, that's good. Your anxiety's dropped. It's nearly halved as well. Your positive mood's increased. Your negative mood's decreased. So has this encouraged you to carry on doing what you're doing? Yeah, I'm definitely gonna carry on. You are gonna be so laidback. I hope so. It'd be nice. Andy, thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks, Anna. Thanks. Thank you. So despite our volunteers having lots they can't control in their lives, changing a few habits they can control has had a big impact on their well-being. (LIGHT MUSIC) The volunteers' results are encouraging, but I've been worrying about the effect that stress has had on my body. A couple of weeks ago, I had a blood sample taken, and scientists here at New Castle University's Institute of Ageing have been busy working away, looking at my white blood cells to see if stress has taken its toll. (INHALES SHARPLY) I'm not looking forward to finding out the results. We often blame stress for making us visibly age faster, giving us wrinkles and making our hair go grey. But professor Thomas von Zglinicki studies how stress ages us on the inside, how it can actually affect our DNA. We've measured the lengths of your telomeres. What are telomeres? Telomeres are the ends of your chromosomes. So assume that's a chromosome. And on that, there's all your building plans, and maintenance plans for your body is written on that. And telomeres cap the ends, like this nice plastic cap does here, so it doesn't dribble off. And you can actually show that. OK. You can look in the microscope. So the blue guys are the chromosomes. The red dots are the telomeres. And if you look at that, each chromosome end has one red dot sitting on it. Just like the plastic tips on shoelaces, telomeres have the job of protecting the ends of our chromosomes. But chronic stress, stress that's sustained over a long period of time, can damage them. I would like to say I'm looking forward to getting the results, but I'm really not. Let's have a look and see. Mm-hm. Thomas has measured the length of my telomeres to see how I compare for my age. So here on the left is the people with the very short telomeres. Here on the right is the people with the very long telomeres. Now, let's see where you are. Mm. There you are. OK. That is your telomere length. Actually, that's... So your` ...not as bad as I thought it would be. I thought I'd be well to the left. No, you are clearly better than average. Hey. Better than average? Yes. I feel like doing a dance. (LAUGHS) I won't do that, Thomas, but... Please, dance. Oh gosh. I'm really surprised at that because I wander around every day with my stomach lurching. I'm always dashing from one place to another. I'm trying to cram things in. I've got teenagers with all the stress that brings. If I make a guess, I would say you might be... reasonably well in dealing with stress. So you don't let it overwhelm you. So it's about managing it? It's about managing it and balancing it, yes. According to Thomas, the state of my telomeres indicates that, through eating well, exercising, and changing my work-life balance, I haven't caused any long-term damage to my health. And that is a big relief. So at the end of all this, I now know why we have an acute stress reaction and how it's designed to protect us,... Oh my God. ...why we reach for sugary snacks when we're stressed, and what foods would actually be better for us,... Full of antioxidants. Very protective. ...and that some stress might not be so bad after all. In fact, it could have potential health benefits. I've also found out how to control and harness stress to my advantage. I feel excited! (GRUNTS) Aah! So stress is a complex, powerful, yet perfectly natural response to everyday situations. Although sometimes we might experience lengthy periods of stress or chronic stress, we can learn to limit the damage by using diet, exercise, and mindfulness. The truth about stress is if we learn to recognise acute stress and use it to our advantage, we are in control. Captions by Madison Batten. www.able.co.nz