Energy constraint on human health
Everything in biology costs energy, and over long time periods, there are evolutionarily imposed limits to energy transformation and dissipation.
Energy trade-offs arise when a normal process consumes more energy than it would under optimal conditions, thereby stealing energy from other processes.
Over time, energy trade-offs can impair health. We propose a three-part division of processes: (i) vital, (ii) stress, and (iii) growth, maintenance, and repair, which exist along a hierarchy of energy needs.
The energy constraint framework suggests measurable features and helps understand clinical and physiological processes resulting from energy dynamics.
https://www.cell.com/trends/endocrinology-metabolism/fulltext/S1043-2760(26)00045-7
