I see a bunch of research on how low socioeconomic status correlates to heart disease but does this effect remain if you control for lifestyle (diet/exercise)? Is there a pure psychosomatic component? Anxiety/stress leading to higher cortisol to heart disease a la Sapolsky apes?
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(Indirectly a Calendly discourse tweet… just how physically harmful is it to be chronically low status in social transactions?)
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Ie to what extent are so called “diseases of modernity” really “diseases of low status/inequality”?
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Ah depression, anxiety, and stress all correlate and you could argue all have higher incidence in lower socioeconomic strata? Even though upper classes get more treatment for such things…
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“Your Calendly link is giving me heart disease by way of anxiety and depression” disease
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To be clear I think Calendly discourse is mostly silly but it does provoke this important question. Perhaps less unequal societies are mentally and physically healthier in ways that can actually be better for the economy (if that’s what you want to solve for at the top level)
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I think that's specifically the operating theory of European Social Democracies. "If we make things somewhat less unequal we'll benefit in the long run."
On the other hand the operating theory of the US ruling class seems to be "in the long run, we'll all be dead anyway"
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Yep, ‘allostatic load’ - chronic stress is a significant contributor
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I suspect an important determinant of health is how much time one spends worrying about status. This has an odd correlation with status itself. It probably varies between cultures too.



