your muscles can get all the glucose that they need. The
immune system becomes suppressed, and blood itself
becomes more viscous as platelets (the type of blood cells
involved in clotting) begin to aggregate as a cautionary
measure in case of blood loss.
The odds of being chased by a lion are pretty slim these
days. If you’re lucky, true threats of a physical nature aren’t
a common occurrence. But while our sources of stress have
evolved, our response to them has not. So when you have
an argument with a coworker, run to catch your subway
only to be left on the platform as it screeches away, or get
frightened by the air horn of an eighteen-wheeler as it
lurches alongside you in traffic, the same domino effect
begins in your body. When you have multiple stressful
stimuli back to back, your body’s response can create
serious problems. This is why stress is such a vicious,
indiscriminate killer—the chronic activation of this
antiquated system, once lifesaving, now promotes
inflammation, elevated blood sugar, insulin resistance,
nutrient deficiencies, increased gut permeability, and more.
But chronic stress plus carbs? That’s a recipe for disaster.
At this point, it may not surprise you to know that as our
waists grow, our brains shrink.^21 We’ve already covered
many factors that might explain this startling observation,
except one: chronically elevated cortisol due to stress.
Ever see a person with a bulging midsection but
surprisingly skinny arms and legs? This is the picture of
chronic stress. It’s completely different from your run-of-
the-mill obesity, where everything—legs, arms, butt—is
blown up to comparable proportions. This is because deep