{"product_id":"what-is-health-peter-sterling-9780262043304","title":"What Is Health?: Allostasis and the Evolution of Human Design","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn argument that health is \u003ci\u003eoptimal responsiveness\u003c\/i\u003e and is often best treated at the system level.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eMedical education centers on the venerable \"no-fault\" concept of homeostasis, whereby local mechanisms impose constancy by correcting errors, and the brain serves mainly for emergencies. Yet, it turns out that most parameters are not constant; moreover, despite the importance of local mechanisms, the brain is definitely in charge. In this book, the eminent neuroscientist Peter Sterling describes a broader concept: \u003ci\u003eallostasis\u003c\/i\u003e (coined by Sterling and Joseph Eyer in the 1980s), whereby the brain anticipates needs and efficiently mobilizes supplies to prevent errors.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAllostasis evolved early, Sterling explains, to optimize energy efficiency, relying heavily on brain circuits that deliver a brief reward for each positive surprise. Modern life so reduces the opportunities for surprise that we are driven to seek it in consumption: bigger burgers, more opioids, and innumerable activities that involve higher carbon emissions. The consequences include addiction, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and climate change. Sterling concludes that solutions must go beyond the merely technical to restore possibilities for daily small rewards and revivify the capacities for egalitarianism that were hard-wired into our nature.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSterling explains that allostasis offers what is not found in any medical textbook: principled definitions of health and disease: health as the capacity for adaptive variation and disease as shrinkage of that capacity. Sterling argues that since health is \u003ci\u003eoptimal responsiveness\u003c\/i\u003e, many significant conditions are best treated at the system level.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Peter Sterling\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0262043300\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780262043304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e MIT Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/25\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 264\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.10d","brand":"Peter Sterling","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43946372661503,"sku":"9780262043304","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_679134aa-dddd-4176-a1fc-f55813098a44.jpg?v=1681512774","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/what-is-health-peter-sterling-9780262043304","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}