Who’d have imagined that “engineering” inconvenience and discomfort out of our lives could be a threat to our health and longevity? Like not eating enough fruit and vegetables, many of us are deficient in specific types of health-promoting stress.

According to recent research, moderate stress jump-starts biopathways that promote the repair and resiliency of our cells. These biopathways are part of a “rescue team” spearheaded by protective enzymes, proteins, and various growth factors that fling open the doors to better health.

Key to these health benefits is moderation. When gauged to individually defined levels of moderate discomfort or stress, our body’s age-old, built-in mechanisms of survival become activated. In moderate doses, stress pays dividends at microscopic levels, improving cellular resiliency, which, in turn, confers protection from across-the-board diseases, including the “big four”—heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and the neurodegenerative disorders.

Unfortunately, however, many “creature discomforts” have been excised from our lifestyles by convenience technologies that increasingly remove us from the primitive, stress-inducing environments of our evolutionary beginnings.

The lesson: Opt for some form of inconvenience, moderate stress, or temporary discomfort as part of your daily routine. Take the stairs, for your health’s sake.

Oxytocin, famed for its role in bonding and

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