How chronic stress weathers our health – with Dr Michelle Kelly-Irving and Professor Nish Chaturvedi Episode 31 of the Health Foundation podcast

How healthy we are in part depends on the many different exposures we've had over our life – including to physical, psychological and social factors. 

Chronic exposure to psychosocial stress – for example, poverty or other disadvantage – leads to prolonged strain on the body. This weathering can make us physically ill before our time and prematurely age us. 

So what is psychosocial stress, how does it harm our health and what can be done about it?

To discuss, our chief executive Dr Jennifer Dixon is joined by: 

• Dr Michelle Kelly-Irving, a life course epidemiologist working on health inequalities and the social determinants of health. Michelle is a director at Inserm in Toulouse, part of France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research. 

  Professor Nish Chaturvedi, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at University College London and Director of the Medical Research Council Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing.

Help us improve the podcast

Please email us if you have any feedback about the podcast.