Stress

Revealed: The world's least stressful cities

A new study has revealed the world's most and least stressful cities of 2017, based on factors including traffic levels, public transport, percentage of green spaces, financial status of citizens including debt levels, physical and mental health, and the hours of sunlight the city gets per year.

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Can eating ever really relieve stress?

She urged viewers to not attend the dangerous marches and to eat cake instead.

"I know a lot of us are feeling anxious, and we're asking ourselves, like, what can I do? I'm just one person; what can I do?" Fey says.

Order a cake, she continues, and calmly tells "Weekend Update" host Colin Jost, "Just eat it, Colin."

How to better manage your relationship with your phone

How does it feel for you? What emotions come up in your mind and body?

What about when you realise you've left your mobile device at home, or in a taxi? Are you bereft? Do you crave it?

Last year, 84 per cent of Australians owned a smartphone — and among young people, that figure was 94 per cent.

And our dependence on mobile devices has crept up on us over time, leading to a range of problems, University of Washington Information School's Professor David Levy said.

Massage therapies to help relieve pressure

And added work load leads to stress.

There are a number of ways the body reacts. One is when under pressure, muscles tense up. The contraction of muscles for extended periods can trigger tensions, headaches, migraines and various musculoskeletal.

Massage has proven beneficial, if not from a massage therapist, one can still reap similar benefits of this age-old healing practice – with your own hands.

Does time really go faster as you get older?

When you are young, the days seem to last forever.

But as our lives get busier, the feeling that life is passing you by becomes more and more prevalent.

"When we are young, we have a lot of firsts," psychologist Meredith Fuller told ABC Adelaide's Afternoons program.

"We have less time on the planet to anticipate it, so it feels like we are waiting a long time [for things to happen]."

Brain activity 'key in stress link to heart disease'

In a study of 300 people, those with higher activity in the amygdala were more likely to develop cardiovascular disease - and sooner than others.

Stress could be as important a risk factor as smoking and high blood pressure, the US researchers said.

Heart experts said at-risk patients should be helped to manage stress.

Emotional stress has long been linked with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), which affects the heart and blood vessels - but the way this happens has not been properly understood.

This might be how stress and heart attacks are linked

Activity in the amygdala, a region of the brain associated with fear and stress, can predict your risk for heart disease and stroke, according to a study published in the journal The Lancet on Wednesday.

'Tis the season to feel stressed

There are five more sleeps until Christmas Day, and for many people there's still a lot of preparation to get done.

Experts say often Christmas stress is self-created as people try to make the day perfect, or set unrealistic standards for themselves.

Federation of Family Budgeting Services chief executive Raewyn Fox said stress mounted in the week before Christmas as people bought last-minute items that were often more expensive than planned.

Stress 'changes brains of boys and girls differently'

A part of the brain linked to emotions and empathy, called the insula, was found to be particularly small in girls who had suffered trauma.

But in traumatised boys, the insula was larger than usual.

This could explain why girls are more likely than boys to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the researchers said.

Their findings suggest that boys and girls could display contrasting symptoms after a particularly distressing or frightening event, and should be treated differently as a result.

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Weekly Health Advice from PMGH – Stress