Abelson Seminar Showcases Promising Efforts to Combat Stress-Related Conditions

Stress triggers physiological responses that can have short-term benefits in animals and people by mobilizing the body's energy to elude predators, sharpening thought processes, increasing cardiovascular tone, and temporarily suppressing growth and reproduction. After all, said Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University, one of 10 speakers at the 2008 Philip Hauge Abelson Advancing Science Seminar, if "there's a lion two steps behind you, ovulate some other time." But, he added, continuing stress can cause stress-related disorders—from hypertension, to learning and memory damage and increased fear and anxiety. New research may lead to an array of breakthroughs, including new therapies for alcoholism, neurodegenerative disorders and anxiety; improved vaccine regimens; and strategies for easing the suffering of traumatized children and veterans.

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