Stress an ancient problem, Peruvian hair sample shows

TORONTO - Recent studies show that stress is on the rise but then the problem is of much older vintage.

New research from the University of Western Ontario (UWO) proves stress has plagued humans for hundreds, and perhaps thousands of years.

The first study of its kind, detected the stress hormone cortisol in the hair of ancient Peruvians, who lived between 550 and 1532 AD.

When an individual is stressed - due to real or perceived threats - cortisol is released into nearly every part of the body, including blood, saliva, urine and hair.

Emily Webb, doctoral candidate at UWO archaeological science, who led the study, says the findings will allow us to better understand how ancient people behaved and felt and more importantly, to better understand stress today.

For this pilot study, the researchers selected hair samples from five different sites in Peru, and analysed them in segments to determine cortisol levels.

Analysis of cortisol levels in ancient hair allows researchers to assess stress during a short, but critical, period of an individual’s life.

While many of those studies showed high stress levels right before death, Webb noted that a majority also experienced multiple episodes of stress throughout the final years of their life.

This proves that much like today, stress was very much apart of ancient Peruvian’s daily lives, said an UWO release.

“By studying the lives of people using traditional archaeological methods like surveying and excavation and combining that with new research techniques like sampling ancient hair specimens, we can get a good picture of what life was like then,” explains Webb.

These findings were published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.