←back to thread

Energy-based model explains how chronic stress transforms into disease over time

(www.sciencedirect.com)
181 points andrewstetsenko | 3 comments | 20 Oct 24 14:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
Show context
hammock ◴[20 Oct 24 16:15 UTC] No.41896355[source]▶
This paper reminds me of the “insight” / factoid that all mammals are basically born with the same rough number of heartbeats, and then they die. Smaller animals like mice have shorter lifespans and faster heartbeats. Larger ones like whales and elephants have slower heartbeats and longer lives.

The humorous (and obviously false, though apparently not if this paper is out there) corollary is that any exercise and non-sedentary lifestyle means you lose years of your life

replies(5): >>41896437 #>>41896515 #>>41896572 #>>41897099 #>>41897576 #
1. fnordpiglet ◴[20 Oct 24 16:38 UTC] No.41896572[source]▶
This is the battery “theory,” and is obviously untrue from all evidence collected. Exercise and specifically improvement of VO2max, which is the bodies ability to pump and process a volume of blood and oxygen in a period of time, are some of the strongest predictors of life and health span. A lack of exercise also transpires to significantly increase global inflammation in the body - in fact regular exercise forces the body to adapt to a new homeostatic use of calories away from random inflammation to conserve daily caloric expenditure towards that exercise. There’s no evidence to support the battery “theory,” despite certain anti science politicians popularizing it.
replies(2): >>41896778 #>>41897002 #
2. alexey-salmin ◴[20 Oct 24 17:01 UTC] No.41896778[source]▶
> This is the battery “theory,” and is obviously untrue from all evidence collected. Exercise and specifically improvement of VO2max, which is the bodies ability to pump and process a volume of blood and oxygen in a period of time, are some of the strongest predictors of life and health span.

Exercise and specifically improvement of VO2max also decrease your average heart rate, so it's quite aligned with the battery theory.

3. TrainedMonkey ◴[20 Oct 24 17:30 UTC] No.41897002[source]▶
OG study that found a roughly same number of heartbeats was only concerned with averages - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9316546/ . Interestingly humans are outliers with 2-3x the expected number of heartbeats. The way the data was presented always gave me a strong "everything looks linear when plotted on a log scale with big marker" vibe... however it could be totally possible that there is some correlation there.

Maybe evolutionary, there is optimal amount of time for organisms to survive relative to their size. Organism size, in turn, correlates with heart size and heart size correlates with how fast it beats. Probably totally missing the mark, but if it was true, it would be interesting to look into why there are outliers.

Anywho, I find it humorous to think about a battery theory car analogy - "every car has a preset number of miles and maintenance would decrease usable lifespan of the car because you need to drive to the mechanic".