How can we better understand the developmental nature of cardiovascular disease across the life course and improve the health of people who experience chronic early life stress? In this episode Dr. Nathaniel Jenkins (University of Iowa) interviews lead author Dr. Annemarie Wentzel (North-West University, South African Medical Research Council Unit for Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease) and expert Dr. Romain Harmancey (The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston) about the study by Wentzel et al. which found that stress, expressed as a cumulative allostatic load score, impacted the microvasculature, macrovasculature, and central cardiac structure and function on a preclinical level in otherwise healthy emerging adults. The authors also found that the composite allostatic load score was particularly accurate in predicting masked hypertension and pre-diabetes in their study population. The composite allostatic load score incorporates multiple physiological biomarker systems and can offer clinicians an additional tool to use in addressing root causes of chronic stress. Is your hardware for managing stress where it should be developmentally? Listen now and learn more.

A. Wentzel, W. Smith, E. Jansen van Vuren, R. Kruger, Y. Breet, E. Wonkam-Tingang, N. A. Hanchard, and S. T. Chung Allostatic load and cardiometabolic health in a young adult South African population: the African-PREDICT study Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, published February 24, 2025. DOI: 10.1152/ajpheart.00845.2024