Testing bounce back in elite military
forces has been the quest of Dr Andy Morgan of Yale Medical School.
Finding his way to Fort Bragg he has been looking at the differences
between those who survive this extreme series of stressors and those who do
not.
Trials include cages, professional
guards, loud music, sleep deprivation, water immersion, and starvation. Average weight loss from the stress
induced catabolic (break down) state is 10kg in 3 days. Morgan looked at who remained calm,
clear and focused and showed some fascinating findings:
While Elite soldiers started with
similar baseline measures to regular soldiers, things changed markedly once the
training began. Elite soldiers
showed the following
1. They produced way more Neuropeptide Y
(NPY) during tests
2. Their NPY levels return to normal
while regulars drop below normal
3. They release more DHEA that buffers
stress hormone cortisol
4. Their baseline Heart Rate Variability
(HRV) is lower than regulars
5. Low HRV predicted survival school,
underwater and battle success
Neuropeptide Y is pumped out from the
brainstem controlling anxiety and buffering stress, while keeping the frontal
cortex (high road emotion in our language) working and thereby extinguishing alarm
(amygdala hijacks).
DHEA is a chemical produced in optimal
health and it buffers cortisol thus protecting memory and spatial
computation. People at the top of
the Resilience spiral tend to have high DHEA whereas those in depression have
very low DHEA and increased cortisol.
Heart rate variability (HRV) is the core
measure we use in the HeartMath (Emwave and Freeze-Framer) Training. There is a strong relationship between
increased HRV and a range of health and wellbeing indicators. However, in this study the soldiers
were tested before going into extremely stressful situations such as
combat. The elite soldiers who
scored at the top showed lower HRV when tested.
Scientists at HeartMath argue that this
is specific depression of HRV, which trained practitioners can do in
preparation for stressful events such as landing an aircraft or dealing with
physical pain.
Comment: Interesting early work on what distinguishes elite levels of resilience. It would be marvelous to do similar studies on elite leaders/professionals facing major change or negotiation. I suspect the emphasis on resistance and speed training for the physical and cognitive benefits is related to training NPY, DHEA and HRV. My memory of special forces training was the endless high-intensity activity that conditioned us for active duty.