(Alternet) 3 July 2008:

Up to 67% of women frequently experience sleep problems but there’s not a great deal being done about it. For 75% of all the research upon sleep has been done upon male subjects.

When women are indeed studied directly the problems turn out to be much less psychological, the manner in which they are usually treated, and more physically or hormonally based. Certainly, the surges of estrogen during the monthly cycle make women more susceptible to the influences of cortisol, the main stress reaction hormone.

The real import of the story is that while we do indeed need to treat men and women equally, that means having to take account of, as in this medical sense, the occasions when they are in fact different.

(WASHINGTON POST) 14 March 2008:

We”v all been told at one time or another to relax, destress, and take things easy. This is important advice, because stress is known to be a contributor to various diseases, from hypertension to cancer.

However, researchers have shown that anxiety (a form of stress, of course) can affect men and women differently. Amongst older men anxiety seems to increase stress to the point that they die younger than men without such anxiety. But in women, anxiety seems to increase life span.

The researchers thinks that it is the reaction which matters: women, if suffering from anxiety, are more likely to seek help to deal with it and medical help to deal with the problems, while men seem just to accept it.

(THE TIMES) 10 February 2008:

Researchers have found that those who tested highly on IQ scores when ten years old appear to have more problems with alcohol when in their 30s. The effect is especially marked for women. A related finding was that those who never drank scored the lowest on the mental tests taken ate age 10.

The assumption is that those struggling to create and perfect professional careers (ie, the brightest) are suffering stress which alcohol helps to alleviate.

The most plausible assumption, that anyone intelligent would be driven to drink by the state of the world around them, was unfortunately not tested.

(BBC) 18 January 2008:

It’s the belief of many that shift work (whether we define it as regular but evening and night hours, or changeable hours) is detrimental to health. However, a Danish study has found that it is much more dangerous for women than it is for men.

Men who did shift work were no more likely than other men to claim a disability pension. But women who did were one third more likley to do so than women who did not.

Why this is so is still the subject of some controversy: the explanation most strongly put forward at the moment is that women were more likely to have household responsibilities, like childcare, that were not as time flexible as their working hours, thus increasing the stress upon them.

(NATION) 1 January 2008:

One of the great puzzles of epidemiology is that we know that marriage increases mens’ general good health and lifespan. However, only happy marriages (as opposed to all) do that for women. Now reseachers think they have found the mechanism.

By measuring cortisol levels (a stress hormone) they were able to show that married men bounce back from the pains and griefs of the working day better than single men do. But for women this was only true if they were in a happy marriage. And of course we already know that stress is an indicator of general good health.

Now all we have to do is work out why cortisol levels react this way to a happy or unhappy marriage….

(CNN) 22 August 2007:

Research has shown that keeping quiet can have serious (and severe, up to and including death) effects on women’s lives.

Looking at the results of the Framingham Study (where thousands of people are studied throughout their lives) researchers were able to show that women who kept quiet about their feelings and frustrations were much more likely to develop heart disease and to die from it. It appears that the build up of stress from not expressing feelings openly causes these problems.

Worth remembering that it really is good for you to let it all hang out.

(DALLAS NEWS) 6 June 2007:

Some people believe that men won’t listen to advice while women will. It’s less well known that this leads to the death of some men. Research shows that the strong silent guy stereotype does indeed exist, and it’s this type that tends not to listen to what people, even doctors, are saying about his health.

This not listening is what leads to men being greater risk takers and thus at greater risk from such things as car crashes, the effects of smoking and stress related illnesses.

Some might say that women’s greater willingness to listen leads to their similar and opposite lower risk of such diseases as they modify their behavior.

(PARENTSPRESS.COM) 2004:

Bartender, make mine a double.  And bring a juice box for the little ankle biter while you’re at it.

In her book The Three Martini Play Date (Chronicle Books, 2004), Christie Mellor, pens such chapter titles as “Bedtime: Is Five-thirty Too Early?” and “‘Children’s Music’: Why?” Her credo is simple: kids need to be loved and looked after, but they are not the center of the universe, nor should they be.

In the interest of contented parents and, hence, contented children, ­Mellor dispenses sensible advice with insouciant charm: “Assuming you don’t keep them manacled to the radiator,” she writes, “toddlers are generally thrilled by the mere act of living and breathing.” So cut the frills, continues Mellor, and save yourself a lot of work, not to mention stress. (No, it’s not necessary to leave the house with enough child gear to outfit a conquest of Annapurna. Yes, the Tooth Fairy is magical, and kids will think her just as magical if she dispenses coins, as opposed to $20 bills. And anything designed solely to promote a child’s self-esteem is probably a bad idea.)

Mellor believes there is a long-term payoff to all this hedonism: “One day you will wake up and find that your hulking 17-year-old no longer needs you to take care of him or her. And when that day arrives, you will need friends, and a proper social life, and perhaps a hobby, and you will not have these things if you…make your child your only hobby….So now is the time to start getting that life to fall back on. You know what you must do. Do it for your child….And do it for yourself.”

(NEW YORK TIMES) 2 July 2006

Oxytocin is a hormone that helps mammals bond. Female rats injected with oxytocin nurture newborns placed in their cages, which they would otherwise attack.

In humans, oxytocin levels rise during childbirth, breast feeding and sex. Humans with higher oxytocin levels are more likely to trust other people. They are more resistant to stress and social phobias. Humans seem to experience delicious oxytocin floods in the brain after being with someone they love. It’s no wonder neuroscientists — displaying the branding genius for which they are famous — have nicknamed oxytocin ”the affiliative neuropeptide.”