Key result
While large cardiovascular reactions to stress increase cardiovascular disease risk, low reactivity may also predict adverse health outcomes such as depression, obesity, and addiction.
The traditional view that low physiological reactivity to stress is benign is challenged by evidence linking it to adverse outcomes like depression, obesity, and addiction.
Low reactivity may flag non-CVD risks in practice; leaves open prospective validation and mechanisms.
How we react physiologically to stress has long been considered to have implications for our health. There is now persuasive evidence that individuals who show large cardiovascular reactions to stress are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, particularly hypertension. By implication, low reactivity is protective or benign. However, there is recent evidence that low reactivity may predict elevated risk for a range of adverse health outcomes, such as depression, obesity, poor self‐reported health and compromised immunity. In addition, low cortisol and cardiovascular reactivity may be a characteristic of individuals with addictions to tobacco and alcohol, as well as those at risk of addiction and those who relapse from abstinence. Our ideas about reactivity may have to be revised in the light of such findings.
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Carroll et al. (2009) conducted a review in Physiological reactions to acute psychological stress. Physiological reactions to acute psychological stress was evaluated. While large cardiovascular reactions to stress increase cardiovascular disease risk, low reactivity may also predict adverse health outcomes such as depression, obesity, and addiction.
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