Chronic psychic stress can cause metabolic syndrome through mild hypercapnia.

Abstract

The author presents a new psychosomatic stress model. All the elements of the hypothesis are well known but, in this context, are published first. The following are the most critical aspects of the recommended chronic stress model. 1/ Stress contains both sympathetic and parasympathetic elements, but the latter predominate. 2/ The mediator of stress is carbon dioxide, the substance that can turn the psyche into soma. 3/ In humans, chronic stress is mainly social; people cause it to each other. Chronic social stress is created frequently due to deviations in civilisation, education and tolerance. 4/ The freeze response (or freezing behaviour) plays a subordinate role in the animal world; it lasts mainly for a maximum of minutes, while in humans, it dominates and can continue for decades. 5/ The decisive step of freeze is apnea, hypopnea, which occurs due to aversive psychological eff ects. After a more extended existence, mild chronic respiratory acidosis develops and most often appears in the clinical form of obstructive sleep apnea. 6/ Chronic hypercapnia can shape the metabolism into metabolic syndrome. 7/ After that, various cardiovascular and metabolic complications (hypertension, atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, depression) may develop - partly due to genetic and lifestyle reasons. (Neuropsychopharmacol Hung 2022; 24(3): 126-133).