Stress Tested

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 are 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.