The Stress of Social Subordination
I’ve mentioned stress before. Psychological factors are I think under appreciated when it comes to health and fitness.
This story harks back to the ideas of Malcolm Kendrick - author of the Great Cholesterol Con - who sees the cause of heart disease as social stress rather than fat. He explained it in the videos here.
This study particularly looks at the stress of social subordination. I wonder how “natural” that condition is. Unemployment, poverty, nasty bosses, poor relationships, etc all bring such stresses
That is not how it was meant to be
New research links social stress to harmful fat deposits, heart disease
“We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic,” Shively said. “Much of the excess fat in many people who are overweight is located in the abdomen, and that fat behaves differently than fat in other locations. If there’s too much, it can have far more harmful effects on health than fat located in other areas.”
She notes that obesity is directly related to lower socioeconomic status in Western societies, as is heart disease. So, the people who have fewer resources to buffer themselves from the stresses of life are more likely to experience such health problems, she said.
The researchers found that the stress of social subordination results in the release of stress hormones that promote the deposition of fat in the viscera. Visceral fat, in turn, promotes coronary artery atherosclerosis, the buildup of plaque in the blood vessels that leads to heart disease, the leading cause of death in the world today.