The Cardiovascular Stress Reactivity Lab focuses on how recreational alcohol and cannabis use taxes human physiological systems and undermines health. By considering substance use as a physiological stressor, we liken it to poor diet, insufficient sleep, and sedentary behavior, all of which force bodily systems away from their homeostatic set points in dose-dependent ways. Our ongoing studies use cardiovascular psychophysiology to measure how unhealthy behaviors ‘pile up’ to stress our heart and vessels.
Directed by Jennifer Buckman, Ph.D.