How does stress affect health? 

 Lost Your Keys Again?

Stress may be to blame. A new study has found a direct corelation between chronic distress and incidence of mild cognitive impairment
Wilson et al. Neurology.2007; 68: 2085-2092

Results from a University of Pennsylvania study were unveiled confirming for the first time that daily practice of meditation can improve cognitive function among individuals with memory complaints.

Link between stress and breast cancer

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have presented data that appears to show a link between women under pressure at work and the risk that they may develop breast cancer.

Scientists followed 36,000 female employees between the ages of 30 and 50 in Sweden, starting in 1990. They kept track of them for some 14 years and collated the figures in 2004. The results: 767 of those tracked had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Those who had the most stressful positions at the office were seen as being 30 per cent more likely to be in the infected group. Commonly acknowledged causes like alcohol intake, weight, age and number of children were taken into account but researchers  couldn't say for sure why their results pointed in the direction they did.

Among the theories: stress raises the hormone estrogen, which is believed to lead to cancer at elevated levels; stress can harm the immune system; and coping mechanisms - like drinking and smoking - may also go up with pressure-filled jobs.