The Capio Blog
What the Research Says About Burnout and Chronic Stress
What the research does and doesn't show on allostatic load, wearables, metabolic markers and more, written in plain language, with the limits of the science left in rather than smoothed over.
Chronic Stress & Burnout
Allostatic Overload and Brain Fog: What the Evidence Shows
Researchers describe a process, allostatic load, that may be part of brain fog, but no single marker can diagnose burnout. Here is what the research shows, where it comes from, and the limits that most articles leave out.
9 min read
Wearables & Biomarkers
Can Your Wearable Tell You You're Burning Out?
Researchers study heart rate variability and blood glucose in burnout, but a 2026 review found no biomarker able to diagnose it. Here's what your wearable can and can't tell you.
7 min read
Autonomic Regulation
The Vagus Nerve and Stress: What the Research Does and Doesn't Show
What the vagus nerve does, what one small study of 12 adults found about stress and cortisol, and where the evidence stops.
8 min read
Metabolic Health
HbA1c and Chronic Stress: What the Evidence Does and Doesn't Show
A closer look at HbA1c, the slow-moving blood sugar marker researchers study alongside allostatic load, what it can show, and where the evidence reaches its limits.
6 min read
Wearables & Biomarkers
How Accurate Is Your Wearable's HRV?
If you track heart rate variability on a ring or a watch, you've probably wondered how much to trust the number on the screen. The honest answer depends on the device, what you're doing, and which part of the reading you're looking at.
8 min read
Neuroscience & Recovery
Does Burnout Change the Brain? What One MRI Study Found
In one Swedish study of patients with exhaustion syndrome, brain scans showed structural differences from healthy controls. The important part is that some of those differences normalised after treatment and some did not.
7 min read
Attention & Stress
You Haven't Lost Your Mind, You Just Caught It Wandering
Losing your train of thought mid-task can feel like something is slipping. In one large study of volunteers using an iPhone app, minds wandered in nearly half of the moments sampled. A separate small reading study linked zoning out without realising it, but not aware tuning out, to being less likely to identify the villain in a story, though it did not test whether noticing a lapse helps. A 2009 review reports that acute, uncontrollable stress can impair working memory in studies of people and animals. These are three separate papers with different samples, and none of the three tested whether stress makes noticing harder.
5 min read
Stress & Fatigue
Is Adrenal Fatigue Real? What the Evidence Does and Doesn't Show
Worn out, wired at night and sure it must be your adrenals? Here is what the US Endocrine Society and a 2016 systematic review say about "adrenal fatigue", what a real adrenal condition looks like, and where the evidence stops.
4 min read