ANTC68H3 Lecture Notes - Impaired Glucose Tolerance, Whitehall Study, Syndemic
Document Summary
Long term chronic stress can make almost every other health problem worse (a syndemic) Our bodies are adapted to dealing with short term immediate stressful threats as our hunter-gatherers ancestors. Our bodies deal with scarcity and uneven availability of food by consuming and storing calories. Secretion of epinephrine and norepinephrine from kidney. Our bodies weren"t made to deal with long-term stress. Long term stress activates the hypothalmis-pitutitary-adrenal (hpa) axis. Our normal, good stress response becomes maladaptive. There is chronic rlease of stress hormones (glucocorticoids, cortisol is the most important of these) Accumulation of body fat, especially in the midsection. Metabolic syndrome: long term release of stress hormones, who defintion. At least 1 of diabetes mellitus, impaired glucose tolerance, impaired fasting glucose, insulin resistance. At least 2 of high blood pressure, high lipid count in blood, central obesity, albumin excretion in urine. Stress and environment: our genes load the gun, but the environment pulls the trigger.
