Even Ancient Peruvians Had Stress

When individuals are stressed, cortisol is released into every part of their body, and I mean everywhere - in the blood, saliva, urine, and even hair. In a study to be published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, researchers from The University of Western Ontario studied the hair of 10 samples from different archaeological sites throughout Peru. Of course, hair doesn't last throughout a person's entire lifetime, but the study allowed researchers to examine the period of time just before these individuals passed. The study found high levels of cortisol in portions of the hair, meaning high levels of stress just before death. Also, researchers noted that a majority of the samples experienced multiple episodes of stress throughout their final years of life. Although stress wasn't an identified physiological state until the 1930s, the cortisol tests show that stress was much a part of ancient Peruvians everyday lives. In the midst of final exams, it's good to know that even the ancients had problems.

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