Allostatic Load—What Is It and How Does It Affect Health?

Category: Health

Allostatic load refers to the cumulative burden of chronic stress and life events. It involves the interaction of different physiological systems at varying degrees of activity. When environmental challenges exceed the individual ability to cope, then allostatic overload ensues. Allostatic overload is a term used in medicine to describe when a person’s body has been pushed past its limits by some sort of stressor. This can happen either physically or psychologically, but both types of stress can ultimately affect your health. We have all experienced this at some point in our lives: you go home from work and are unable to fall asleep because your mind won’t stop racing about the day’s events. You feel tired but wired, and it takes hours for your body’s natural rhythms to kick back into gear. The next day is just as bad, and so on until finally you give up and get some rest. This is what happens when you’ve been pushed too far—you get sick because your body hasn’t had enough time or energy to recover from having been under constant stressors in one single day or week Allostatic overload occurs when a person’s physiological systems are pushed beyond their normal operating parameters by environmental challenges such as chronic stress or physical illness. This can lead to disease or other health problems such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Allostatic load refers to the cumulative burden of chronic stress and life events. It involves the interaction of different physiological systems at varying degrees of activity. When environmental challenges exceed the individual ability to cope, then allostatic overload ensues. Honestly, your body was trying to protect you. It does this by always attempting to maintain balance or homeostatis. In fact, allostatic responses are the effort to dynamically change the boundaries of your homeostatic response. When there is a challenge that exceeds this capacity, allostatic overload occurs. Allostatic overload has been linked with several disorders including depression, anxiety disorders, fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia.