Stressed? Women’s wellness event explores relief

By HELEN FIELDS

Women converged on Fairchild Auditorium Saturday to wave their arms, get massages and attend lectures — all in an effort to learn how to transform stress into wellness, the theme of the second annual Women’s Wellness Conference and Health Fair.

Sponsored by Women’s Health @ Stanford, the full-day conference began with talks by Stanford professors and clinicians who described how stress affects health and emphasized the importance of social relationships for overcoming stress. Later in the day, several practitioners of stress-reduction techniques spoke about methods including massage, mindfulness meditation and qigong, which led to the arm-waving exercises.

The women’s wellness health fair on Saturday included free 10-minute chair massages for attendees by therapists from the Stanford Center for Integrative Medicine. Photo: Helen Fields

About 85 women from around the Bay Area attended. "The point of the conference is to educate women about stress and to showcase what Stanford has to offer women in the community," said Ellen Lovelace, executive director of Women’s Health @ Stanford.

Robert Sapolsky, PhD, professor of neurology and neurological sciences, gave a keynote address, "Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers," which is also the title of a book he wrote. People get ulcers, he said, because they are too smart. "We can turn on the stress response with thought," he said. That means a person can stay stressed indefinitely, even without a lion in pursuit, while a zebra is only stressed as long as it is in danger.

Stress evolved as a natural and useful response to danger, Sapolsky said. The stress response shuts down digestion, reproduction and the immune system, and activates other systems to prepare the body to act fast. But long-term suspension of the immune system makes people more susceptible to colds, and suppressing digestion can lead to ulcers.

Social relationships and activities can reduce stress, said Sapolsky, the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor of Biological Sciences. He described a study that showed rats were less stressed by electric shocks when given a piece of wood to gnaw on. "The rat doesn’t get an ulcer," he said. "It has a hobby." Studies have shown that any social relationships relieve stress for men, but women are picky; they need high-quality relationships.

Stress has huge health effects, Sapolsky said. "Scientists sequencing the human genome would kill to find something that increases the risk of a disease 10 times, and that’s what stress does."

David Spiegel, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, spoke about stress caused by world events. One consequence of stress is an inability to concentrate. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, he said, distracted employees would put down their briefcases, get in their cars and drive away. "There were briefcases all over our parking lot," he said.

Spiegel’s research group conducted an online survey after the Sept. 11 attacks to find out how people were coping. Preliminary results show that more highly educated people were less distressed by the attacks, and that people who blamed themselves in some way were more distressed, said Spiegel, the Jack, Lulu and Sam Willson Professor in the School of Medicine.

Mark Abramson, DDS, an area meditation teacher, talked about the importance of living in the present and appreciating life. Fred Luskin, PhD, director of the Stanford Forgiveness Project reflected on his annoyance when AAA’s roadside assistance line put him on hold. "We live in a world where 30,000 children will starve to death each day. And I shouldn’t have to wait a few minutes for a tow truck?" Qigong teacher Arnold Tayam led the group in short exercises to improve their chi, or life spirit, and Harise Stein, MD, an obstetrician/gynecologist with a private practice in Mountain View, relaxed the crowd through guided imagery techniques.

Dipa Chundur, 32, of Sunnyvale came to the conference to deal with her work-related stress. Sheila Wyatt, 61, a cancer survivor from Atherton, said she is looking into alternative medicine. She said she liked hearing from many different practitioners together who weren’t presenting their method as "the one salvation."

A concurrent health fair in Fairchild’s lobby featured massage therapists from the Stanford Center for Integrative Medicine offering free 10-minute chair massages to attendees. Groups including the pharmaceutical company Wyeth, Planned Parenthood and the Stanford gastroenterology department had tables with information.

"The women who attended loved it," Lovelace said. "We were privileged to have some of Stanford’s most elite faculty and staff as speakers, and the quality of their presentations was excellent."

Women's health-care event focuses on 'mid-life' issues (5/15/02)

Conference casts global gaze on women's health issues (2/6/02)

Women’s Health @ Stanford