Stress is wrecking your health: how can science help?
10 months ago
- #stress
- #health
- #mental-health
- George Slavich shares a personal story about the sudden death of his father and the stress it caused, highlighting the lack of attention to stress in clinical care.
- Decades of research show that chronic stress contributes to serious health issues like heart disease, cancer, and suicide, and stress levels have increased globally due to events like the 2007-2009 recession and COVID-19 pandemic.
- Stress triggers a fight-or-flight response, but modern stressors like traffic and cyberbullying don't align with this evolutionary adaptation, leading to health problems when stress becomes prolonged.
- Current stress assessments rely on self-reported symptoms and physiological measures like cortisol levels, but these can be influenced by factors like exercise or caffeine, making accurate measurement challenging.
- Emerging tools, including wearables and at-home tests, are improving stress assessment by tracking a wide range of biomarkers, such as heart rate variability, gene expression, and inflammatory markers.
- Effective interventions for stress include cognitive behavioral therapy, breathing exercises, social support, and medications like beta blockers, but personalized approaches are needed due to individual differences in stress responses.
- Early-life trauma and imbalances in the microbiome can predispose individuals to maladaptive stress responses later in life, emphasizing the need for tailored treatments.