Dr. Janice Kiecolt-Glaser

Dr. Kiecolt-Glaser & Comfort Eating

Professor Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, the Director of the Ohio State Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, holds the S. Robert Davis Chair of Medicine in The Ohio State University College of Medicine; she also holds the title of Distinguished University Professor. In addition, she is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as the American Psychological Association; she has received the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Health Psychology from the American Psychological Association's Division of Health Psychology twice, as well as the Developmental Health Psychology Award from the Divisions of Health Psychology and Adult Development and Aging. She is listed in the Institute for Scientific Information ISIHighlyCited.com (among the world's most highly cited authors, a group comprising less than one half of one percent of all publishing researchers).

Working in the area of psychoneuroimmunology, she has authored more than 250 articles, chapters, and books, most in collaboration with Dr. Ronald Glaser. Their studies have demonstrated important health consequences of stress [including] some cancers, cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, and frailty and function decline. Recent work from her lab has shown that daily stressors, marital discord, and a history of major depressive disorder alter obesity-related metabolic responses to high-fat meals, lowering post-meal energy expenditure and fat oxidation while heightening insulin production, changes that would promote weight gain. Current studies are extending this line of work. (text source) (image source)

Interviewer: Why did you become involved in research related to stress?

JKG: It seemed like an interesting topic years ago. I was particularly intrigued by the research about how close personal relationships were such an important buffer against stress, a topic that still fascinates me today. Being socially isolated and lonely can literally be a killer.

INT: What are you working on now?

JKG: During stressful times, many people turn to calorie-dense, high-fat “comfort” food. While the influence of acute or chronic stress and depression on food choice is well-established, this novel data suggests that stress and depression affect metabolic responses to these meals….

A newer study in married couples ages 40 and older addresses how the gut microbiota — the collection of microbes associated with the human digestive tract — and molecular markers of aging are related to the couple’s relationship and health. A recent publication from my lab showed that marital distress was associated with a “leaky gut,” in which the intestine’s lining becomes permeable, allowing bacteria to leak into the blood stream. The heightened inflammation that follows is the immune system’s response to the leaky gut.

INT: From your own research or that of others, what have you learned about stress that you didn’t know or that surprised you?

JKG: I have been increasingly impressed by the many ways that acute or chronic stress can affect our physiology. In the early years of our research in the 1980s, there was skepticism among many researchers and clinicians about the actual health relevance of stress… Following the lovely work by Elissa Epel and Elizabeth Blackburn, we showed that caregiving stress — that is, the body’s response to the demands of caregiving for, say, a chronically ill family member — could shorten telomeres. Why does this matter? Blackburn, who won a Nobel Prize for her telomere research, described them as the protective caps at the end of the shoelaces we call chromosomes, which carry your genetic material. Telomeres wear down and shorten as we age, leaving chromosomes unprotected and our bodies susceptible to all kinds of diseases. Over the course of our lives, the rate of change of that telomere shortening depends in part on how well we take care of ourselves.

INT: What stresses you out, and how do you manage the stressors in your life?

JKG: Losing my husband to Alzheimer’s has been extremely difficult. Strong friendships, exercise, mindfulness meditation, and joy in my work all help me to manage stress.

INT: What’s the one recommendation you would make to help people 1) lower their daily stress levels, and 2) function better in the midst of a stressful situation, incident, or moment?

JKG: There is no easy quick fix. The problem is that stress is a little like an avalanche: It starts at the top of the mountain when something breaks off (something stressful happens in our lives). Barreling down the mountain, it not only gains momentum, it also gains mass as it keeps destroying things in its path that become part of it, a monster feeding on itself.

In our lives, when we’re stressed, we are likely to sleep more poorly, make poor dietary choices, exercise less, drink and smoke more, and spend less time with friends and family, all of which fuel stress in turn. So the broad solution is better recognition of those early stress signals, to stop the train before it leaves the station.

Personally, I am finding that mindfulness meditation is very useful, but it is certainly not a quick or easy fix: It requires dedicated practice. (interview source) (image source)

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