Stress: Portrait of a Killer (2008) torrent

Stress: Portrait of a Killer (2008)
A National Geographic Special

The stress response: in the beginning it saved our lives,
making us run from predators and enabling us to take down
prey. Today, human beings are turning on the same life-saving
physical reaction to cope with 30-year mortgages, $4 a gallon
gasoline, final exams, difficult bosses and even traffic jams
” we can\'t seem to turn it off. So, we\'re constantly marinating
in corrosive hormones triggered by the stress response. Now,
scientists are showing just how measurable — and dangerous ”
prolonged exposure to stress can be. Stanford University
neurobiologist, MacArthur \"genius\" grant recipient, and renowned
author Robert Sapolsky reveals new answers to why and how chronic
stress is threatening our lives in Killer Stress, a National
Geographic Special. The hour-long co-production of National
Geographic Television and Stanford University was produced
exclusively for public television. In this revelatory film,
discoveries occur in an extraordinary range of places, from
baboon troops on the plains of East Africa to the office cubes
of government bureaucrats in London to neuroscience labs at the
nation\'s leading research universities. Groundbreaking research
reveals surprising facts about the impact of stress on our bodies
: how it can shrink our brains, add fat to our bellies and even
unravel our chromosomes. Understanding how stress works can
help us figure out ways to combat it and mitigate negative impacts
on our health. For over three decades, Robert Sapolsky has been
working to advance our understanding of stress — in particular
how our social standing (our place in various hierarchies) can
make us more or less susceptible to the damaging effects of stress.
Throughout the film, he weaves the grim realities of the impact of
chronic stress with his wry observations about 21st century life.
\"The reality is I am unbelievably stressed and Type A and poorly
coping,\" says Sapolsky. \"Why else would I study this stuff 80
hours a week? No doubt everything I advise is going to lose all
its credibility if I keel over dead from a heart attack in my early
50s. I\'m not good at dealing with stress. But one thing that works
to my advantage is I love my work. I love every aspect of it.\"

The film is based partly on Sapolsky\'s best-selling book Why Zebras
Don\'t Get Ulcers: Stress, Disease and Coping. In addition to his
professorship at Stanford, Sapolsky is a research associate with
the Institute of Primate Research at the National Museum of Kenya.
He is also the author of Monkeyluv, A Primate\'s Memoir and The
Trouble with Testosterone, a Los Angeles Times Book Award finalist.
Scientists from the University of North Carolina, the University of
London, Rockefeller University and the University of California,
San Francisco share their compelling insights into how stress
impacts the body, giving stress a new relevance and urgency
to our increasingly complex lives.

Video: MPEG4 Video (H264) 720x480 (16:9) [Video]
Audio: AAC 48000Hz stereo 1536kbps [Audio]