Women more easily stressed than men

Wednesday, August 18, 2010 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: women, stress, health news

(NaturalNews) Two new studies have revealed that women deal with a lot more mental stress than men do. According to the studies, women's brains are more susceptible to the effects of stress hormones than men's are, which can make their lives harder to deal with.

According to the one study out of the National Institutes of Mental Health, women are twice as likely as men to have depression and stress disorders. Upon conducting brains scans of both male and female mice, scientists said they observed "striking gender differences" in how the sexes react to an influx of stress hormones.

When a person becomes stressed, the corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF) in the brain is activated, which signals to it that something is wrong. But based on the research, men's brains need a lot more CRF than women's do in order to become highly agitated. And even when CRF is released, men's CRF receptors actually hide inside other cells to avoid becoming stressed.

"When the going gets tough inside the locus ceruleus neuron, it's the female brain that acts 'macho. In response to a stressor, receptors for the stress hormone CRF remained exposed on the neuronal membrane in the female rat -- taking the full hit," explains the study report.

The other study, published in the journal Pain found that women suffering from cramps during menstruation experience changes in their brain chemistry that make them more sensitive to pain and stress as well.

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Sources for this story include:

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