summary ted How to make stress your friend by Kelly McGonigal

Kelly mcgonigal is  a health psychologist, she talk on ted.com with mission. Her mission is to help people be happier and healthier. Kelly wanna discuss about her enemy, that is stress. She said that for years she has been telling people, stress makes they sick. It increases the risk of everything from the common cold to cardiovascular disease.

She begin with study in the US  that tracked 30.000 adults for eight years ago. They started by asking people, “how much stress have you experienced last years?” and  "Do you believe that stress is harmful for your health?" 

Kelly answer the question with some bad news first. People who experienced a lot of stress in the previous year had a 43 percent increased risk of dying. But that was only true for the people who also believed that stress is harmful for your health.

Now, the researchers estimated that over the eight years they were tracking deaths, 182,000 Americans died prematurely, not from stress, but from the belief that stress is bad for you. That is over 20,000 deaths a year. If it true, stress more dangerous than skin cancer, HIV/AIDS.

Then, to explain how this works, kelly make the audiences become stress by test them with 2 part explanation. Part one, audience pretend as participants in a study designed to  the social stress test.  Part two, a math test.

Kelly said that participants in a study at Harvard University were  taught to view the stress response as helpful for their performance, so they were less stressed out, less anxious,more confident, and their physical stress response changed.

In a typical stress response, your heart rate goes up, and your blood vessels constrict.  It's not really healthy to be in this state all the time, but when participants viewed their stress response as helpful, their blood vessels stayed relaxed. 

As a health psychologist she believe that when you view stress as body helping you rise to the challenge, your body believes you,  and your stress response becomes healthier.

stress also makes you social. It’s related to a hormone, oxytocin. Oxytocin is a neuro-hormone. Oxytocin makes you crave physical contact with your friends and family. It enhances your empathy to support the people you care about. But most people don't understand about oxytocin. It's a stress hormone. And when oxytocin is released in the stress response, it is motivating you to seek support.

Well, oxytocin doesn't only act on your brain. It also helps your blood vessels stay relaxed during stress. Kelly told audiences that her favorite effect on the body of oxytocin is stress hormone strengthens your heart.

And the cool thing is that all of these physical benefits of oxytocin are enhanced by social contact and social support. 

At last minutes, kelly tell one more story that could also save a life. This study happend in US that  tracked about 1,000 adults and  they ranged in age from 34 to 93. they started the study by asking, "How much stress have you experienced in the last year?" They also asked,"How much time have you spent helping out friends, neighbors, people in your community?"

This study showed that people who spent time caring for others showed absolutely no stress-related increase in dying. Caring created resilience.

How you think and how you act can transform your experience of stress. When you choose to view your stress response as helpful, you create the biology of courage. And when you choose to connect with others under stress, you can create resilience.