healthbriefs
FRIENDSHIP AMONG WOMEN
BENEFITS HEALTH
A landmark University
of California, Los Ange-
les study now suggests
that women have a larger
behavioral repertoire than
men in the face of stress.
“It seems that the hormone
oxytocin is released as part
of the stress responses in a
woman; it buffers the “fight
or flight” response and encourages her to tend children and
gather with other women, instead,” reports Laurel Cousino
Klein, Ph.D., who co-authored the study. “When she actually
engages in this tending or befriending, [such] studies suggest
that more oxytocin is released, which further counters stress
and produces a calming effect.”
Klein explains that this calming effect does not occur in
men because testosterone, which men produce in high levels
when they’re under stress, seems to reduce the effects of oxyto-
cin. “Estrogen,” she says, “seems to enhance it.” The phenom-
enon has been missed in the past because 90 percent of stress
research has been done with men.
Ruthellen Josselson, Ph.D., who has authored a book
on female friendships, comments: “Every time we get overly
busy with work and family, the first thing we do is let go of
friendships with other women. That’s really a mistake, because
women are such a source of strength to each other.”
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women ages 40 to 55, those who ingested one gram of ome-
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of hot flashes and fewer symptoms of psychological stress
and depression than those who had taken a sunflower oil
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Source: Université Laval, 2009
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May 2009
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