Graduation Year
2025
Date of Submission
12-2024
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Neuroscience
Reader 1
Tessa Solomon-Lane
Reader 2
Gautam Agarwal
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2024 Lily Walther
Abstract
This paper seeks to explore the negative effects of chronic stress on the body, emphasize the tissue, cellular, and genetic healing responses that exist to combat these effects, and illustrate the behavioral and physiological interventions that can activate these responses. The concepts of stress and chronic stress have been explained through a progression of models that have been updated over the decades. This includes early theories such as The General Adaptation Syndrome and the Homeostatic Model, as well as more recent depictions such as the Reactive Scope Model. The healing responses are explored on a variety of levels to illustrate its global and comprehensive nature. Examined processes include wound healing, selective autophagy, antioxidant defense, DNA repair, and telomere repair. Practices to activate the healing responses were chosen based on personal and professional experience as well as available literature. They include food as medicine, optimizing sleep, mindfulness (yoga and meditation), breath, legs up the wall, binaural beats, gratitude, and social support. Overall, proven benefits of these practices were found, but further research is needed. Public education and examinations of root causes are also necessary. The prevalence of chronic stress and chronic disease provides a strong basis for the importance of this research.
Recommended Citation
Walther, Lily, "Addressing Chronic Stress: Activating the Healing Responses" (2025). CMC Senior Theses. 3846.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/3846