While chronic stress is known to have multiple adverse health outcomes, moderate amounts of short-term stress can be beneficial. Learn how scientists measure stress and trace its pathways through the body, and how to optimize stress responses for better performance and decision making.
Managing Stress as Miss America 2020
Camille Schrier’s background in science helped her manage the stress of competing in the Miss America 2020 Competition. She tells Dr. Frederic Bertley how choosing a difficult science-related talent meant additional stress, but also being true to herself.
Harnessing the Power of Good Stress
Seeing stress as a challenge rather than the potential for failure helps humans perform better under pressure. Dr. Jeremy Jamieson tells Dr. Frederic Bertley how matching the demands of stressful situations with personal and social resources helps students, athletes, and others, rise to the occasion.
The Stress Science Laboratory
Ohio State’s Dr. Jodi Ford can measure how stressed you are. She tells QED’s Dr. Frederic Bertley how assessing the amount of “cortisol” in human hair gives her and her colleagues a sense of how long-term stress impacts health.
Stress and Our Immune Systems
Short-term or acute stress induces actual biological changes that can last from minutes to hours. These responses don’t weaken our immune system, they improve it. That’s right, a little stress can make us healthier, as Dr. Firdaus Dhabhar tells QED’s Dr. Frederic Bertley.
QED with Dr. B
QED with Dr. B, is a fun and informative science series, co-produced by WOSU Public Media and the Center for Science and Industry (COSI), that talks one-on-one with the scientists, engineers and innovators who are redefining how we interact with our world.
Watch the series online or on WOSU TV on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.