Working with mainframes is a bit like being a spy in a foreign country sometimes. You know that you have the most secure and powerful platform available, and yet you seem to be working abroad – by that I mean your organization – where no-one seems to be aware of the mainframe’s existence and only talk about server racks and the cloud. That’s going to affect your mental health, isn’t it? Let’s look at what else can affect the mental health of mainframers – by that, I mean you and your colleagues.
Let’s start at the beginning. People start off the way they are because of their genes – a random mixture from both parents. In addition to how the genes are expressed, there are also the effects of epigenetics. This is where the expression of a gene or genes is altered, but the basic genetic code doesn’t change. As scientists discover more about genes, we find some that definitely have a specific impact on a person – eg genes for particular diseases – and there are suggested associations between genes and certain things, eg addiction or depression. However, in May 2021, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of genetic and health records of 1.2 million people from four separate data banks identified 178 gene variants linked to major depression.
Do genes totally control how happy any mainframer will be? Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of The How of Happiness suggests that 50 percent of happiness is genetically predetermined, while 10% is due to life circumstances, and 40 percent is the result of your own personal outlook. These values might apply to more than just happiness.
Picking up on that 40% figure, it’s not so much the events that happen in your life that affect you, it’s very much how you think about them that impacts you.
The second big thing that affects a person is their environment. This is the surroundings or conditions in which a person lives or operates. The effects of genes and environment led to the nature-nurture debate that went on for many years. And this fits Lyubomirsky’s ideas about happiness percentages.
We also know that a person’s childhood can affect how they think and behave as an adult, and also affects their health as an adult and their life expectancy. It’s also during childhood that many people’s core values and beliefs are created (or indoctrinated – depending on your beliefs).
Let’s suppose you go for an interview for a new job somewhere, or a promotion at your present company, how do you feel? Most people will probably feel a little nervous, perhaps go to the toilet a couple of times, have butterflies in their stomach. This is your body’s flight-or-flight response. The problem is that it’s exactly the same response whether you are feeling excited – like a child who is going to meet Father Christmas – or terrified – those few moments before the charity skydive starts that you foolishly agreed to! Adrenalin is pumping round your body causing blood to move away from your gastrointestinal (GI) tract and sending it to your muscles. That’s why you feel butterflies in your stomach, it’s the lack of blood. How you interpret that – excitement or terror – depends on you and where you find yourself.
That just illustrates the link between your body and your mind. They are not two distinct domains, they are intimately linked. How much pain you feel from an injury can depend on how relaxed you are. Clenching their fists and tightening their muscles can increase a person’s perceived level of pain. So can the expectation machine that is your brain. If you expect the vaccination or dental work will hurt you very much, then guess what, it will. If you don’t expect very much pain, then the sensation of pain will pass more quickly.
Let’s take a closer look at a mainframer’s GI tract and how it can affect them.
Firstly, a person’s GI tract has millions of bacteria etc that live in it – our gut microbiome. The gut has its own nervous system – called the enteric nervous system. And there’s a two-way link between the brain and gut – the Gut-Brain Axis (GBA).
Our gut has to digest food (ie make and secrete enzymes). It has to absorb food. It has to squeeze food through itself (peristalsis). And it has to defeat invading bacteria. It has to ensure the cells in the gut lining keep the bad stuff out and let the good stuff through. It has to not have too thin a layer or too many gaps between cells. And it has to produce a layer of mucous over the top of this lining. And your microbiome helps – it does use some of your food for itself, but it does create useful products. If you don’t have a microbiome, eg through taking too many antibiotics, you’ll not be very healthy.
What you eat can affects your biome. Studies have shown that gut microbes can affect behaviour and even emotions (like depression). A Belgian study found two kinds of microbe (Coprococcus and Dialister) were missing from the microbiomes of their depressed subjects, but not from those with a high quality of life.
Compounds made by the gut microbiome, eg Short-Chain Fatty Acids (SCFAs), such as butyric acid, propionic acid, and acetic acid, are able to stimulate sympathetic nerves, mucosal serotonin release, and to influence memory and the learning process.
Faecal microbiota transplants can be used to influence mental health. The gut microbiome plays a facilitating role between the stress response, inflammation, and depression and anxiety.
Find out more about what affects mainframers, when the second part of this article is published next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment