I went down a rabbit hole about this while reading The Telomere Effect (recommended reading). The book goes into the good stress vs. bad stress paradigm and how

I went down a rabbit hole about this while reading The Telomere Effect (recommended reading). The book goes into the good stress vs. bad stress paradigm and how it has a biological basis - literally at the RNA level. There’s a Goldilocks zone where, for example, the right amount of good stress actually increases your lifespan, and the lack thereof is actually bad for you. Of course bad stress is bad in any amount, with bigger consequences if you’re younger or, get this, in the womb. If a pregnant woman experiences a traumatic event or bad or chronic stress, that can result in lifelong issues for the kid. I don’t recall if the book went beyond RNA and into the neuroscience aspect or whether that was from further reading, but the neurological effects are significant too. Update: Harvard Medical School article: Understanding the stress response https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding... Research on effect on neural circuits: https://jneurodevdisorders.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s11689-020-09337-y#:~:text=Early%20life%20stress%20has%20persistent,solely%20on%20children’s%20event%20exposures https://jneurodevdisorders.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.118... Harvard article on impact of early childhood adversity, including on brain: https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/inbrief-the-impact-of-early-adversity-on-childrens-development/#:~:text=When%20strong%2C%20frequent%2C%20or%20prolonged,2008 https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/inbrief-the-im...