iSmart

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Discover what scientists who work on human stress know about how to deal with their stress.Researchers at the Center for Studies on Human Stress (CSHS) (http://www.humanstress.ca/) study thestress we experience daily and its impact on our health. Everyday stressors are characterised by four elements: low sense of control, unpredictability, novelty andego threats.
The moment the brain perceives one of these elements in the environment, it sends a stressresponse asking for the release of a specific hormone called cortisol.
Once released, cortisol eventuallyreaches the brain and latches itself onto the parts of the brain in charge of emotions and memory.Everybody experiences stress; stress is an adaptive response despite its sometimes embarrassingmanifestations (fast heart rate, voice shaking, sweating, etc.).
The danger of stress lies in its repetition,what we call chronic stress, because the cortisol produced eventually damages the parts of the brain incharge of emotions and memory and puts us at risk for physical and mental illnesses.
We can gauge ourlevel of stress when it occurs, but then, as the day goes on, we tend to forget about it making theidentification of chronic stressors almost impossible.iSmart will ask you to enter your level of stress periodically (ideally every two hour during your dailyactivities) and will keep a detailed log of all your entries.Use scientifically-proven techniques to lower your reaction to stress.When your stress will be too high, iSMART will suggest watching short videos describing proventechniques to help reduce your manifestations of stress.
These techniques have been proven effective byscience in reducing levels of cortisol and in decreasing manifestations of stress.Identify your chronic stressorsiSMART will warn you the moment it detects a repetition of stress responses that places you at risk forchronic stress and will then ask you to describe what youre currently experiencing to help you identify yourchronic stressor.Neutralize your chronic stressors with the help of scientifically proven strategies.Once a chronic stressor has been identified, iSmart will suggest strategies to help you deconstruct andneutralize the stressor.
These strategies have been proven effective by researchers at the Centre for theStudies of Human Stress.
They are also commonly used in the context of other chronic stress preventionprograms that evaluate their benefits for children, adolescents, workers and even elderly adults.iSmart, a scientifically sound mobile applicationiSmart was tested with 70 workers over a one month period.
Participants had to enter their level of stressevery hour and follow the applications advice.
In addition to participants overall satisfaction with using theapp, questionnaire results and cortisol measurements show that iSMART helped people experiencing themost stress.
These results make iSmart the first mobile app backed by science.