iSmart

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 the stress we experience daily and its impact on our health. Everyday stressors are characterised by four elements: low sense of control, unpredictability, novelty and ego threats. The moment the brain perceives one of these elements in the environment, it sends a stress response asking for the release of a specific hormone called cortisol. Once released, cortisol eventually reaches 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 embarrassing manifestations (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 in charge of emotions and memory and puts us at risk for physical and mental illnesses. We can gauge our level of stress when it occurs, but then, as the day goes on, we tend to forget about it making the identification of chronic stressors almost impossible. iSmart will ask you to enter your level of stress periodically (ideally every two hour during your daily activities) 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 proven techniques to help reduce your manifestations of stress. These techniques have been proven effective by science in reducing levels of cortisol and in decreasing manifestations of stress.

Identify your chronic stressors iSMART will warn you the moment it detects a repetition of stress responses that places you at risk for chronic stress and will then ask you to describe what you're currently experiencing to help you identify your chronic 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 and neutralize the stressor. These strategies have been proven effective by researchers at the Centre for the Studies of Human Stress. They are also commonly used in the context of other chronic stress prevention programs that evaluate their benefits for children, adolescents, workers and even elderly adults.

iSmart, a scientifically sound mobile application iSmart was tested with 70 workers over a one month period. Participants had to enter their level of stress every hour and follow the application's advice. In addition to participants' overall satisfaction with using the app, questionnaire results and cortisol measurements show that iSMART helped people experiencing the most stress. These results make iSmart the first mobile app backed by science.