Under pressure?

Stress isn’t always bad for us it can also strengthen immune systems, improve mental performance and build resilience

- David Cox

Few words in the English language conjure up more negative emotions than stress. The mere mention of it may elicit images of looming deadlines, unpaid bills, or exam pressure, to list just a few scenarios.

But what if I told you that stress can also be positive? That just as it can harm us, it also plays a key role in strengthening our immune system, forging connections in our brain that improve mental performance and building the resilience we need to navigate our way through life.

This first came to light through the work of an American psychiatrist called Firdaus Dhabhar, who was intrigued by the intricate connection between mind and body. In the mid1990s, stress was almost unanimously viewed as bad for us, but to Dhabhar this was illogical. From a Darwinian perspective, our animal ancestors' survival instincts would have been honed through brushes with danger.

"It does not make sense that stress should always be a bad, harmful entity," he says. "The fight-or-flight stress response is essential for survival.

A gazelle needs this response to escape the jaws and claws of a lion, just as a lion needs it to catch its meal. Mother Nature gave us this response to help us survive and thrive, not to kill us."

Both mild-to-moderate physical and mental stress stimulate the production of chemicals in the blood called interleukins, activating the immune system and making it more able to fight off infections, while stress can even affect the development of children before they are born. Babies born to mothers who experienced mild everyday stress during pregnancy had more advanced developmental skills by the age of two, compared with the children of mothers who had enjoyed an unstressful pregnancy.