Word: stressfully
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...When it comes to pain and cold medicine, this may be particularly worrisome. Tylenol, NyQuil and other drugs that contain acetaminophen are among the best-selling meds on the market, with more than $2.6 billion in sales in the U.S. in 2008. But acetaminophen can also put stress on the liver. From 1990 to 1998, there were an estimated 56,000 emergency-room visits, 26,000 hospitalizations and 458 deaths related to acetaminophen overdoses, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These figures include everything from attempted suicides to people who gulped down entire bottles trying to get well...
...material - the epigenome - that sits on top of the genome, just outside it (hence the prefix epi-, which means above). It is these epigenetic "marks" that tell your genes to switch on or off, to speak loudly or whisper. It is through epigenetic marks that environmental factors like diet, stress and prenatal nutrition can make an imprint on genes that is passed from one generation to the next...
...most of human evolution, a stressful world would have been marked by famines or periods of starvation, and that environment might have resulted in a particular pattern of gene expression that would have prompted the body to store more fat in preparation for the next bout of scarcity. Today, of course, the same response to stress would result in obesity. This theory of a thrifty fat-storing system that kicks in under high levels of early stress was originally proposed by British physician David Barker. (See pictures from an X-ray studio...
Researchers also posit that high levels of stress hormones caused by ACEs can wear down the body over time. A temporary spike in blood pressure in response to a stressful event may be useful to power an adaptive fight-or-flight response, but over the long term constant high blood pressure could raise a person's risk for heart attack and stroke. Studies have also found that consistently elevated levels of stress hormones, like cortisol, can lead to permanent damage in certain brain regions linked to depression...
Recently, scientists have discovered that these changes can themselves be passed down from one generation to the next - a burgeoning new area of study called epigenetics. Such research may have significant and long-term implications for the prevention of obesity, addiction and other illnesses related to early life stress. After all, reducing childhood exposure to trauma in one generation may further benefit that generation's children and grandchildren. (See 25 people who mattered...