Body mass control and unresolved sociocultural stress: application of the generalized Data-Rate Theorem
Division of Epidemiology, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York, United States
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Biophysics, Health Policy, Metabolic Sciences
- Keywords
- cognition, HPA axis, information theory, visceral obesity, stress
- Copyright
- © 2013 Wallace
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
- Cite this article
- 2013. Body mass control and unresolved sociocultural stress: application of the generalized Data-Rate Theorem. PeerJ PrePrints 1:e60v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.60v1
Abstract
New results from control theory allow construction of necessary conditions statistical models of body mass regulation in the context of interaction with a complex dynamic environment. Focusing on the stress-related induction of central obesity via HPA axis regulation, we explore implications for strategies of prevention and treatment. It rapidly becomes evident that individual-oriented biomedical reductionism is an inadequate paradigm. Absent mitigation of HPA axis or related dysfunctions arising from social pathologies of power imbalance, economic insecurity, and so on, it is unlikely that permanent changes in visceral obesity can be maintained without constant therapeutic effort, an expensive -- and likely unsustainable -- public policy.