I have a hard time appreciating studies like this, even while I'm their target demographic: stressed out person with loads of unhealthy belly fat.
First of all, do we need to torture mice (geez that was horrifying to read about) to tell us that chronic stress is bad? We have loads of studies that show us that chronic stress causes illness, blows holes in the wall that is our immune system, and can be a significant factor in everything from asthma to heart disease. So what if chronic stress also makes people fat? Isn't the other stuff enough to warrant us trying to reduce our stress?
And why why why are we turning off genes and making new pills? Why don't we take stress seriously enough as a culture to *really* lower stress for people. Not just tell them, "Don't be so stressed out, it's bad for you," but work on concrete solutions as a whole society, like increased vacation time, better healthcare, better childcare for working families, and a trillion other daily experiences for people that are stressful?
It just irritates me that good money is being spent on such a ridiculous pursuit. That we spend money on obesity research at all is annoying to me. How much farther we could get if we encouraged good cooking, slower meals, local food, city-wide bike paths, decreasing workaholism, etc.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-07-02 07:10 pm (UTC)First of all, do we need to torture mice (geez that was horrifying to read about) to tell us that chronic stress is bad? We have loads of studies that show us that chronic stress causes illness, blows holes in the wall that is our immune system, and can be a significant factor in everything from asthma to heart disease. So what if chronic stress also makes people fat? Isn't the other stuff enough to warrant us trying to reduce our stress?
And why why why are we turning off genes and making new pills? Why don't we take stress seriously enough as a culture to *really* lower stress for people. Not just tell them, "Don't be so stressed out, it's bad for you," but work on concrete solutions as a whole society, like increased vacation time, better healthcare, better childcare for working families, and a trillion other daily experiences for people that are stressful?
It just irritates me that good money is being spent on such a ridiculous pursuit. That we spend money on obesity research at all is annoying to me. How much farther we could get if we encouraged good cooking, slower meals, local food, city-wide bike paths, decreasing workaholism, etc.