Everyone knows chronic stress is bad for you. But very few understand why – and how you can change things. A pioneering collaboration between a leading researcher and a well-known journalist, Stress: Tested explains how long-term stress hormones can make your body less good at processing sugars, setting it on the path towards type 2 diabetes with knock-on effects including weight gain, tiredness and inflammation. It explores cutting-edge new findings, including the impact of cortisol in the womb and early childhood on attachment style, and how stress hormones affect fertility in both men and women.
The book is full of conversation-starting science - like how low-carb diets can spike cortisol, as can HIIT exercise, causing insulin resistance and glucose spikes; the opposite of what we have been told in recent times. We also hear fascinating real-life stories - like the man who contracted type 2 diabetes when his wife left him, with no other change in lifestyle except the stress and sadness of divorce. We will be asked to consider whether the higher rate of type 2 diabetes in disadvantaged communities is entirely due to lack of access to healthy food and exercise - or is the stress of poverty itself a major factor? Mackenzie and Walker explain exactly how stress works, and what we can do to mitigate its long-term health impact.
Crucially, one of the book's key arguments is that stress is complex and personal, with many contributing factors. The authors make it clear that much (if not most) stress is caused by factors outside of our control - it's not our fault if we're stressed. But having the knowledge and understanding of what is happening in our bodies when that stress occurs is a powerful step toward minimising it.
Dr Richard Mackenzie is one of the UK's foremost experts on glucose metabolism, insulin resistance and their interactions with stress hormones. Dr Mackenzie is a leading researcher at Research Centre for Health & Life Sciences (Coventry University) and the Institute of Cardio-Metabolic Medicine (University Hospital Coventry and Warwick NHS Trust) and is internationally recognized for his work. He leads on metabolic health at a distinguished Harley Street clinic and has published more than 40 journal articles, mainly on insulin resistance and diabetes.
Peter Walker is senior political correspondent with the Guardian and a well-known commentator and frequent broadcaster on active living and health, as well as on politics. As a journalist he has also worked for Agence France-Presse, CNN and others, reporting from places including China, Iraq and North Korea. He has written two previous books, including The Miracle Pill, which explained how everyday physical movement has disappeared from the modern world, and the health consequences this brings. A groundbreaking investigation into the new science of stress hormones and their impact on our bodies - covering obesity, mental health, early years attachment, Type 2 diabetes, fertility and more - from one of the UK's leading hormone scientists and a Guardian journalist.
