Dr. Robert Sapolsky National Geographic special, “Stress: Portrait of a Killer” airs nationwide Wednesday night on PBS. The special explores what 30 years of baboon research have taught Robert about stress, and how humans have a knack for turning psychological dis-ease into physical disease. LinkedIn folks sat down with Robert and sought to apply his groundbreaking research to the common office primate.

As we’ve evolved, the human stress response has saved our lives. Today, we turn on the same life-saving physical reaction to cope with intense, ongoing stressors – and we can’t seem to turn it off. “Stress: Portrait of a Killer” reveals just how dangerous prolonged exposure to stress can be.

Beyond the four key tips Robert offers for reducing stress, he notes the importance of friends and grooming, which are “much more predictive of health than your rank.” This can be applied to the professional sphere and networking online. LinkedIn helps professionals maintain a network of quality relationships which should accurately reflect their offline experience. As Robert says, “Primates don’t get a lot of solace from 2000 friends” — build a reliable network of people you know and trust. Instead of literal “grooming”, professionals need recognition and approval from peers to help reduce anxiety, depression, or neuroses.

Over at LinkedIn Answers, Robert asked:

When it comes to balancing stress and professional achievement, how do you decide when “enough is enough”?