{"product_id":"what-is-health-book-peter-sterling-9780262043304","title":"What Is Health?","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","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49666800746769,"sku":"GOR011044526","price":27.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49730055242001,"sku":"NGR9780262043304","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50034364317969,"sku":"CIN0262043300VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50142783078673,"sku":"GOR011047503","price":14.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51713232929041,"sku":"CIN0262043300G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0262043300.jpg?v=1750909218","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/de-de\/products\/what-is-health-buch-peter-sterling-9780262043304","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}