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Comment by asadkn | Hacker News Reader

Most people talk food when inflammation is mentioned. But let's not forget, arguably, an even bigger contributor: stress - mental or physical, say via a chronic illness.

Relevant: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5476783/#s2titl...

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We’re just scratching the surface there. So many things can go wrong with the immune system that lead to inflammation.

Curious – are there legitimate ways to measure stress?

Heart Rate Variability (HRV), a relatively new feature in wearables with optical heart rate monitors, is a good proxy for stress. Some years ago, IBM did a study that found that HRV in newborns served as an early warning system of illness. Athletes have long used this measure to determine when off days are needed.

Stress is measured in metric units of "handwaves." One handwave (Ɦ)is 1 angst (å) per second.

only short term via cortisol, long term burnout is as mysterious as it is destructive

I guess I'll check it out.

I'm 37 and I think my room started having the old person smell.

That might also be something less dramatic. After a year of mostly staying at home, I had the same feeling, but in the end I think it was mostly stank from some of the more extreme diets I had in recent times. Now that the weather allows for full days of ventilation again (combined with baking soda) that smell was pretty quickly gone.

You could count the amount of hair loss or lack thereof. I bet hours of nightly REM sleep would be inversely correlated as well.

There is nothing wrong with hair loss, it is perfectly natural, even when young and it doesn't mean you are getting old, not even a little bit, it even can look good, OK?

I never said it’s not natural or that there’s anything wrong with it. It’s known to be associated with stress so barring other known factors, if you suddenly start losing your hair then stress could be a cause. In contrast to long term loss, short term loss from stress tends to be reversible if it’s caught early enough.

I know, just shaking my fists at the sky with my hair loss, no worries.

I have terrible sleep, but my hours of REM sleep are fine.

It's my deep sleep that's toast; also I get to the REM stage too quickly, I think it's supposed to be a sign of depression.

So it's a bit more complicated.

cortisol levels can be tested

Serendipitously, this popped up for me right as I was reading this thread https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QezLxFuBxvM

The mechanism may be via the gut, stress increases intestinal permeability.

Don't forget environmental factors.

CBD is great at helping alleviate inflammation in most people.

Was there a study?

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31881765/

I skimmed through that review and it mostly references mice and rats, as well as cell models. There is a huge difference between that and “in most people”. In fact, you’d need a lot studies in actual people(not cell models) of different ages and and conditions to say it works.

I didn’t realize that thus was still a debate in 2021 but here are a couple more:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22163000/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22585736/

Take aspirin daily forever, if your stomach hurts, stop. Start again.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-heart-aspirin/with...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704511304575075...

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/aug/03/painkillers-...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/health/aspirin-health.htm...

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/09/16/6474154...

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