Studies of whales and other creatures reveal the effects of tough times on health, whether it's a global or personal crisis.
A report published by "Bloomberg" explained how compulsive isolation and fear or loss of work can negatively affect our health.
Scientists are beginning to learn about the types of stress that harm humans by studying other creatures, and this is not limited to lab rats.
This research has succeeded in generating a deeper understanding in two key aspects: the harm humans do to animals through captivity, pollution and noise, and the harm humans do to each other.
Character types
Decades ago, scientists theorized the dubious hypothesis that stress is linked to "type A personality" - people who overstrain themselves.
But the roots of this hypothesis go back to preliminary research funded by the tobacco industries in the middle of the twentieth century, when heart disease was rising sharply in the United States in parallel with the rise in smoking rates.
The research spread the message that smoking was not the cause of the deaths, but rather the culprit was the busy "modern" lifestyle along with "type A personality" and associated behaviors.
So far, no reliable studies have been published that support the link between heart disease and types A personality traits.
People have often wondered about the definition of a stress response or stress, says Tufts University biologist Michael Romero, and science answers it as "a process that the body initiates in response to a harmful stimulus called a stress factor that is something that triggers a stress response."
During a trip in the North Pole, Romero found his way to this topic, when he realized that the experience he went through was stressful for him when it was not so for the local animals that have adapted to live in that environment.
stress behaviors
The report noted that current understanding links stress to environmental conditions rather than behaviors.
Romero explained that unhealthy stress in animals is caused by extreme weather events such as storms or floods, facts that go beyond what they are adapting to.
Other stressors include predators, famine, social conflict, and human-induced environmental changes, such as chemical and noise pollution.
A few years ago, Romero studied marine iguanas in the Galapagos Islands, specifically a group of them that had survived a horrific oil spill.
It was found that lizards that experienced elevated levels of stress hormones were more likely to die within months of the incident.
Another study found that fish living in the direction of mining seeps exhibited stress-related hormonal changes.
In other research, scientists measure stress hormone levels in whales by using dogs to sniff out whale feces that contain stress hormones.
These studies revealed that noise and fishing ropes create tension in whales, and their stress levels have decreased on the days when ship traffic has temporarily calmed, after the events of September 11, 2001.
Despite their downsides, Romero says stress hormones can be a lifesaver in emergency situations by channeling energy for the fight-or-flight response.
He explained that most stress-related illnesses are linked to problems regulating cortisol, an anti-inflammatory substance.
This can be beneficial, but anti-inflammatory substances also suppress the immune system, so long-term cortisol imbalance makes the animal more vulnerable to viruses, bacteria or parasites.
Stress can affect the fertility of animals during periods that are unfavorable for breeding, such as times when there is a food shortage.
This has been recorded in humans as well, as it is unlikely that women who recently survived famine or concentration camps would become pregnant.
The benefits of stress
But the stress-positive thesis has a fundamental problem: the ability to avoid the source of stress is incompatible with the possibility that health-damaging stress is killing whales, iguanas, and possibly humans.
Motivation, challenge, and excitement can be aspects of our adaptation to it, just as Arctic organisms adapt to freezing cold.
But according to biologist Lori Marino, the lack of challenge will also stress and injure captive marine mammals.
Contrary to popular belief, Marino said that marine creatures in captivity ponds do not live long lives in comfort and safety, and often die of infectious diseases in greater proportions than their wild counterparts, regardless of whether the water is clean or filtered.
She is also clearly mentally ill.
Captive orcas are known to bang their heads against walls and smash their teeth because they are "literally bored to death".
Captive-bred animals also suffer the same because they are naturally programmed to live in open water surrounded by their own species, not in an isolated pond.
The report concluded that it is not enough to tell people experiencing stress to focus on the positive or to avoid stress entirely, which appears to be related to environmental factors rather than behavioral factors.
For example, you will not feel fatigue as a result of working 80 hours a week if you love your work. If the opposite is true, quitting your job may be a solution to avoiding one source of stress, in exchange for another source of fear of lack of money. And perhaps these animals can guide us to change the way we relate to one another.