Stress Research: 10 New Things We Learned This Year, For National Stress Awareness Month

Today, April 1, marks the beginning of National Stress Awareness Month, which means it's time to put some extra focus on the role stress plays in our lives.

No one is immune to stress -- and science shows that how we react to it matters, too. A bevy of research has come out in the past year alone, illustrating how our dealings with stress -- whether it's how long we ruminate over a problem, or how exactly we react to a stressful event -- can affect our health. And not only that, new studies are also coming out showing the effect stress has on our physical health.

To properly grab stress by the horns, we must first understand it. Click through the slideshow for some new findings that have been uncovered over the past year. And be sure to check out our previous pieces on natural ways to deal with stress, and all the ways stress is harming our health.