BBC News San Francisco
 Baboons
feel the "rat race" too
The stresses
and strains that afflict humans are evident in baboon societies
- as are the long-term health effects.
The findings
of physiologist Robert Sapolsky may suggest ways of limiting the
impact of mankind's modern, stressful lifestyle.
And cultivating
friendships, he suggests, may be the way to alleviate harmful
long-term stresses. In many ways, the life lived by baboons holds
echoes of our own.
Their societies,
like Western ones, are rarely threatened by famine, plague or
predators - so they invent their own ways of generating stress.
Professor
Sapolsky gave details of his work to the annual meeting of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Fighting males
His study
claims to be able to spot "Type A" baboons, who cannot
cope with stress, and suggests that there may be ways to spot
humans who fall into the same group.
Professor
Sapolsky said: "We're ecologically privileged enough that
we can invent social and physiological stress. Baboons are similarly
privileged. They ulcerate because of social complexities."
Professor
Sapolsky, from Stanford University, studied the Serengeti baboons.
He anaesthetised them and then collected blood samples to reveal
levels of stress hormones, antibodies, and cholesterol.
Those with
consistently high levels of stress hormones were showing the physical
signs: high levels of the "wrong" sort of cholesterol,
increased blood pressure and hardening of the arteries.
Certain situations
were found to be more stressful for the baboons in the study,
most of whom were male. Baboons who sensed a problem and started
a fight were less stressed than those who sat back and worried
if a fight was about to start.
Damaged brain
In a stable
hierarchy, stress levels were lower, while the introduction of
a new baboon sent stress hormones up.
And males
who spent most time grooming and being groomed by females not
in heat and playing with infants had the lowest levels of stress
hormones.
Other studies
carried out by Professor Sapolsky on rats suggest that the brain
cells which control stress levels can actually be damaged if the
individual is too stressed.
Continually
elevated levels of stress hormones appears to damage the hippocampus,
an area of the brain which also has a role in learning and memory.
Moderate stress,
however, appeared to be good for the brain, he said.
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