One person may thrive in a challenging situation, and another be overwhelmed – and yet those reactions might be reversed under different circumstances. Finding out why may be the key to understanding stress, arguably one of the most important areas of human biology, essential to performance and well-being.
Two University of New England (UNE) researchers with expertise in this area are contributing to a $3.5 million study that seeks to better predict and prepare for military missions. Funded by the Australian Department of Defence, in collaboration with Queensland University of Technology and the University of Queensland, the study aims to develop a performance patch that can contribute to the health and preparedness of Australian Defence Force personnel.
“Stress is one of the most widely acknowledged health problems in the Western world, and a key pillar in resilience, but little is known as to the how and why stress can have markedly different individual effects” observes Professor Cook, one of the UNE researchers.
"While stress is prerequisite for ongoing resilience and growth, an imperceptible line exists, beyond which stress can lead to poor physical and psychological health. Recent events in Australia, including drought, bushfires, and COVID-19, have shown how pernicious stress can be.”
Prof. Cook, is also a visiting professor at the Imperial College's Hamlyn Centre in the United Kingdom, where he collaborates on cutting edge biomedical technologies to monitor health and disease management. He is in the process of developing unique and innovative methods to observe and measure stress as it plays out in a stream of cause-and-effect, rather than being measured in occasional snapshots as is done currently. This work not only supports the Defence investigation, but opens up the opportunities for new understanding of what stress is and how it acts on different people.
Associate Professor Philip Fourie
Prof. Cook works with Associate Professor Phillip Fourie, pictured, a former GP with extensive clinical experience in stress behaviours, in examining the factors underpinning human resilience. Their research includes a funded partnership collaboration with the Australian Institute of Sport to examine competitive stress in Olympic athletes, and the recently-announced Department of Defence contract.
Assoc. Prof. Fourie and Prof. Cook are exploring the intertwining of stress physiology and human behaviour. The two UNE collaborators have published a number of well-regarded innovative works in this area over the last year, in the journals Stress, International Journal of Sport Physiology and Performance and the American Journal of Surgery.
Their work has taken new approaches to investigating the interactions of gender, hormonal status, situational factors, and training and experiential history (both physical and mental).
"Getting a better understanding of how stress manifests in different people is central not only in the applied sense of groups, such as military or medical personnel performing under pressure, but in the wider aspects of human resilience," Prof. Cook says.
Prof. Cook suggests that his work with Assoc. Prof. Fourie could also support UNE’s new theme of One Welfare, and so may have application across other species.
"Many of the challenges in understanding human stress and performance also apply to our understanding of animal stress and production, so some of this work may have application to research in animal care and livestock performance."
