Stress Archive

Try stress reduction to improve your quality of life and potentially relieve allergy symptoms.

Spring allergies are a stressful business. Coping with watery eyes, a runny nose, sneezing, coughing, or a sore throat affects how you get through each day. "The primary consequence is a reduced quality of life. This naturally can lead to stress on patients and their families," says Dr. Ahmad Sedaghat, an ear, nose, and throat specialist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

The influence goes both ways: not only can allergies cause stress, but stress can make allergies worse.

In addition to everything else associated with stress, it can have negative effects on the skin, and can also aggravate certain skin conditions. But skin and hair also produce stress-inducing signals that can travel back to the brain, adding to psychological stress and perpetuating a stress cycle.

Peer support groups in mental health allow people with similar lived experiences to listen, share, and encourage one another. A Black peer support group created around race and culture as well as mental health may offer a safe space that allows people to address aspects of shared identity and experiences around racism with others who understand their daily reality.

Ask the doctor

Q. How do we store memories in our brain, and is there hope that someday we might be able to restore memories we've lost?

A. We remember just a tiny fraction of the events of our lives. The sights and sounds of every conscious moment could become a memory. But only when a moment seems important do we remember it, at least for a while. I remember the radiant beauty of my wife's face on our wedding day, at the moment she lifted the veil.

Details of significant experiences from decades ago may still be available if you can coax them out of your memory.

Sometimes memories of certain experiences remain crystal clear for life, like the moment you said "I do," or the first time you held your baby in your arms. Other significant memories from long ago can be harder to recall. But they may still be with you; it just takes effort to retrieve them.

Which memories stay with us?

Of the many memories you accumulate every day, only those marked as meaningful are recorded in your brain's long-term files. "We have a system in our brains that tags memories that are important in some way so we'll remember them in the future," explains Dr. Andrew Budson, a neurologist and chief of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology at VA Boston Healthcare System.

News briefs

We already know that mindfulness meditation and a mentally active life are boons to healthy aging. But do these practices also help older people struggling with mild cognitive impairment (MCI)? To find out, Harvard researchers reviewed more than a dozen recent studies that looked at the effects of either mindfulness or cognitive training (including computerized programs) on older adults with MCI. In findings published online Dec. 29, 2020, by The American Journal of Medicine, researchers concluded that both strategies have potential benefits for cognition and mood. For people with MCI, practicing mindfulness over several weeks to months seemed to sharpen attention, memory, and other mental skills, and ease anxiety and depression. Similarly, cognitive training was associated with better memory, executive function, and mood. Most of the studies included in the review were relatively small and short-term, so they don't provide strong evidence of benefit, nor could they determine how long any benefit might last. But researchers say both strategies are feasible and low-risk, with the potential to benefit thinking skills and mood in people with MCI. Now we need more research to find out how the benefits might translate into everyday life and endure over time.

Image: Image Source/Getty Images

Mindfulness can help soothe short-term and chronic pain.

Your mind is a powerful pain remedy when given the chance. Science continues to show how mindfulness can manage pain — and it doesn't take years to master.

"Using mindfulness is a way for older adults to treat ongoing chronic pain and the occasional flare-up without having to always rely on medication," says Ellen Slawsby, director of pain services at Harvard-affiliated Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine.

Rapidly becoming a racquet sport favorite, pickleball serves up various physical, mental, and social benefits.

You keep hearing that older adults need to stay active physically, mentally, and socially. But what if you could do all three at once? You can if you play the racquet sport pickleball, one of the country's fastest-growing forms of recreation.

"In many ways, pickleball is the ideal activity for older adults," says Timothy Rivotto, a physical therapist and tennis coach with Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Network. "It can accommodate people with different fitness levels and still offer a good aerobic workout. Pickleball also requires using key brain skills and is an exciting way to interact with others."