When Stress Takes a Toll on Our Health
We've seen how allostasis helps us manage stress and how prolonged stress can be harmful. Now, let's talk about allostatic load. Imagine your body as a scale, balancing stress. Each stressor adds weight. Allostatic load is the total weight your body carries from chronic stress. It's like a measure of wear and tear on your body.
When the allostatic load is high, it can lead to health problems. These include heart disease, obesity, and mental health issues like anxiety and depression. It's not just about feeling stressed. It's about how that stress affects our body over time. High allostatic load can make us more vulnerable to illnesses.
Understanding allostatic load is key to managing our long-term health. In our next post, we'll explore how early life experiences can influence our allostatic load. This is crucial for understanding why some people are more affected by stress than others. Stay tuned!
Part 2 of a 4-part series.
James Bullock
Photo by Thiago Teles on Unsplash