Inhibition of growth in children subjected to prolonged stress prevents them from attaining their

full height. Inhibition of the inflammatory response makes it more difficult for the body to heal

itself after an injury, and suppression of the immune system makes an individual vulnerable to

infections and (perhaps) cancer.

Several lines of research suggest that stress is related to aging in at least two

ways. First, older organisms, even when they are perfectly healthy, do not tolerate stresses as

well as younger ones (Shock, 1977). Second, stress may accelerate the aging process (Selye and

Tuchweber, 1976). Sapolsky and his colleagues have investigated one rather long term serious

effects of stress: brain damage. The hippocamapal formation plays a crucial role in learning and

memory, and evidence suggests that one of the causes of memory loss that occurs with aging is

the degeneration of the brain structure. Research with animals has shown that long term exposure

with glucocorticoids destroys neurons located in a particular region of the hippocamapl region.

The hormone appears to destroy the neurons by making them more susceptible to potentially

harmful events, such as decreased blood flow, which often occurs as a result of the aging

process. The primary effect of the hormone is to lower the ability of the neurons in the

hippocampus to utilize glucose, so that when the blood flow decreases, their metabolism flows

and they begin to die (Sapolsky, 1986; Sapolsky, Krey, and McEwen, 1986). Perhaps, then the

stressors to which people are subjected throughout their lives increases the likelihood of memory

problems as they grow older.

Uno et al. (1989) found that if stress is intense enough, it can even cause brain

damage in young primates. The investigators studied a colony of vervet monkeys housed in a

primate center in Kenya. They found that some monkeys died, apparently from stress. Vervet

monkeys have a hierarchal society, and monkeys near the bottom of the hierarchy a re picked on
by the others; thus they are almost continuously subjected to stress. The deceased monkeys had

gastric ulcers and enlarged adrenal glands, which are signs of chronic stress. In addition, neurons

in the CA1 field of their hippocampal formation were completely destroyed. Severe stress

appears to cause brain damage in humans as well.; Jensen, Genefke, and Hyldebrandt (1982)

found evidence of brain degeneration in CT scans of people who had been subjected torture.

Prenatal stress tends to inhibit androgenization of the fetuses. That is, when

the pregnant female is exposed to stressors, the behavior and brain of her male offspring appear

less masculinized and defeminized than control animals. Prenatal stress also appears to produce

long term effects on animals’ stress reactions; Takahashi, Turner, and Kalin (1992) found that

whose mothers had been stress reacted more strongly when they were presented with stressful

stimuli during adulthood.