Snapshot · The Mel Robbins Podcast
Dr. Narula noted that women are more prone than men to stress-induced heart attacks even from a single acute stress event, not just chronic stress.
Where this was said
At 16:25 · chapter starts 14:10
Mel asks for a medical explanation of stress, and Dr. Narula delivers a clear, engaging biology lesson grounded in the work of her favourite Stanford professor, Robert Sapolsky, author of 'Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers.' The stress response is not inherently bad — it evolved to save lives in moments of acute physical danger, turning up heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate while shutting down digestion and reproduction. The catastrophe is that modern humans activate this same system for bills, difficult conversations, and news headlines, and — unlike the zebra who escapes and recovers — we never fully turn it off [1] — Dr. Tara Narula "Your body's stress response evolved to help you escape lions. The problem: it activates the exact same way for an email from your boss or a…" 14:03 . Chronic low-grade activation is what kills. Dr. Narula notes that women are more susceptible than men to stress-induced heart attacks even from a single acute event, raising the stakes further for a female-skewing audience.
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