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

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

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.

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