Allostatic Load Essay

The term allostatic load has been used as an indicator of the burden that the human body withstands throughout their life experiences and also how it adapts to such challenges. By focusing on this term, we can begin to understand how social and environmental factors impact the physiological response in the human body. My research has been focusing on chronic diseases and its risk factors, one of them is metabolic syndrome. This syndrome parallels the concept of allostatic load because it serves as a predisposing factor for chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The metabolic syndrome is a group of related risk factors which include abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, lipid disorders and high glucose levels, all of them have been link to chronic diseases. Some of the conditions that lead to this syndrome include a sedentary life-style, an increased caloric intake and even stress. Current research shows that stress induces an inflammatory state due to neurohormonal stimulation of …show more content…
The exact mechanisms in this area might be complicated and a common challenge of this concept has been how to quantify and categorize stress over time in the individual, and to define the role of stress and allostatic load in multifactorial diseases.
Thanks to some of the research mentioned in class, the concept of allostatic load relates to metabolic syndrome given that both seem to be related to cardiovascular disease. Also, both try to serve as indicators of overall health which could be used as early detection tools in order to identify subjects at more risk for chronic diseases. Also, an interesting point is how allostatic load varies between gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic