scholarly journals Depressed mothers and their offspring differ in terms of health risk profiles and allostatic load

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Health Risk ◽  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Chronic Stress ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
The Body ◽  
Risk Profiles ◽  
Wear And Tear ◽  
Depressed Mothers

Allostatic load is essentially the “wear and tear” that accumulates in the body in individuals exposed to chronic stress. Because some patients with psychiatric disorders have a shorter lifespan than their healthy counterparts,1 some researchers have suggested that there might be a link between disorders such as depression and increased allostatic load.

Allostasis and neuroprogression in major psychiatric disorders

2019 ◽  
pp. 5-20
Author(s):  
Iria Grande ◽  
Flávio Kapczinski ◽  
Sebastián Camino ◽  
Gustavo Vázquez ◽  
Eduard Vieta
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Affective Disorders ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
Unipolar Depression ◽  
Progressive Increase ◽  
The Body ◽  
Accelerated Ageing ◽  
Psychiatric Illnesses ◽  
Wear And Tear ◽  
The Brain

The hypothesis of allostasis may be a pertinent model to explain the course of psychiatric illnesses by means of stress and to explain the dimensional impact of mental disorders on the organism, not only on the brain but on other organs of the body. Moreover, it is also suitable to explain the neuroprogression of psychiatric disorders from a ‘wear and tear’ approach, detailing the progressive increase of cognitive impairment, accelerated ageing, and rates of medical and psychiatric comorbidities that patients with major psychiatric disorders have. In this chapter, the concepts of allostasis, allostatic load, and allostatic overload are detailed from a neuroprogressive approach and their application to neuropsychiatric illnesses is explained in relation to anxiety disorders, affective disorders, such as unipolar depression and bipolar disorder, and psychotic syndromes.

scholarly journals Life Course Predictors of Allostatic Load Among LGBTQ Older Adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 735-735
Author(s):  
Charles Hoy-Ellis ◽  
Hyun Kim ◽  
Karen Fredriksen Goldsen
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
Identity Management ◽  
The Body ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Psychophysiological Stress ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Wear And Tear

Abstract LGBTQ older adults are at significantly increased risk for poor mental and physical health, likely consequential to lifelong bias. Allostatic load (AL), the net effect of “wear and tear” on the body resulting from repeated, chronic over-activation of the psychophysiological stress response system. Utilizing the Health Equity Promotion Model, the aim of this study was to test potential life course predictors of AL, including interpersonal violence, legal marriage, and identity management in a sample of LGBTQ adults 50 to 97 years of age (n=317). Results from a series of hierarchical linear regression models showed that adult physical abuse and late identity disclosure for those who had been in an opposite-sex marriage predicted higher AL in this sample of LGBTQ older adults, indicating need for increased research on bias over the life course as contributory to AL and biopsychosocial dysfunction among LGBTQ older adults.

Basic mechanisms of, and treatment targets for, stress-related disorders

2020 ◽  
pp. 829-839
Author(s):  
Bruce S. McEwen
Keyword(s):  
Early Life ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wear And Tear ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Social And Physical Environment ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain

The response to the social and physical environment involves two-way communication between the brain and the body and epigenetic adaptation (‘allostasis’) via mediators of the cardiovascular, immune, metabolic, neuroendocrine, and neural mechanisms. Chronic stress causes wear and tear on the brain and body (‘allostatic load and overload’), reflecting also the impact of health-damaging behaviours and lasting effects of early life experiences interacting with genetic predispositions. Hormonal and other mediators of allostasis promote adaptation in the short run but cause allostatic load/overload when they are overused or dysregulated. The brain is key because it determines what is threatening and the physiological and behavioural responses, while showing structural remodelling that affects its function. Besides pharmaceuticals, there are ‘top–down’ interventions, like physical activity, that engage ‘the wisdom of the body’ to change itself, as well as the impact of policies of government and business that encourage individuals to manage their own lives and promote increased ‘healthspan’.

scholarly journals The impact of racially-motivated housing discrimination on allostatic load among Indigenous university students

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Currie ◽  
Takara A. Motz ◽  
Jennifer L Copeland
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
University Students ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
The Body ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Housing Discrimination ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wear And Tear ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Allostatic load (AL) is an aggregate measure of wear and tear on the body due to the chronic activation of the stress response system. The goal of this study was to examine the association between racially-motivated housing discrimination and AL score within a sample of Indigenous university students.Methods Data for this cross-sectional study were collected from Indigenous adults attending university in a small city in western Canada between 2015 and 2017 ( N = 104; Mean age = 27.8 years). An item adapted from the Experience of Discrimination Scale was to assess racially-motivated housing discrimination in the past 12 months. AL was measured as a composite of 7 biomarkers assessing neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, metabolic, and immune system function. Bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrapped linear regression models were used to examine associations adjusting for age, income, parenthood, and other situations in which discrimination had been experienced.Results Indigenous university students who experienced racially-motivated housing discrimination in the past year (16.8% of the sample) had an average AL score of approximately 4, which was almost double that of their peers who had not. In an adjusted model. racially-motivated housing discrimination was associated with a-1.5 point increase in AL score. This model explained 35% of the adjusted variance in AL score, of which racially-motivated housing discrimination explained 24% ( R 2 Change = 0.24, F Change = 32.52, Sig. F Change p <0.001).Conclusions Indigenous adults who experienced racially-motivated housing discrimination in the past year had early and more pronounced wear and tear on neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, metabolic, and immune system functioning in young and middle adulthood than Indigenous peers who did not. These findings combine with others to highlight the need for increased efforts to prevent racially-motivated housing discrimination in urban centres.

scholarly journals A Longitudinal Study of Allostatic Load in Later Life: The Role of Sex, Birth Cohorts, and Risk Accumulation

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 419-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioana van Deurzen ◽  
Bram Vanhoutte
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The Body ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Birth Cohorts ◽  
Wear And Tear ◽  
The Life Course

Are challenging life courses associated with more wear and tear on the biological level? This study investigates this question from a life-course perspective by examining the influence of life-course risk accumulation on allostatic load (AL), considering the role of sex and birth cohorts. Using biomarker data collected over three waves (2004, 2008, and 2012) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing ( N = 3,824) in a growth curve framework, AL trajectories over a period of 8 years are investigated. Our results illustrate that AL increases substantially in later life. Men have higher AL than women, but increases are similar for both sexes. Older cohorts have both higher levels and a steeper increase of AL over time. Higher risk accumulation over the life course goes hand in hand with higher AL levels and steeper trajectories, contributing to the body of evidence on cumulative (dis)advantage processes in later life.

Inequity Embodied

2019 ◽  
pp. 24-41
Author(s):  
Tyan Parker Dominguez
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
The Body ◽  
Medical Risk ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic ◽  
Wear And Tear ◽  
Increasing Risk ◽  
Adverse Pregnancy ◽  
Traditional Risk Factors ◽  
Stress Burden

This chapter examines African American women’s disproportionate risk of low birth weight, preterm delivery, and infant and maternal mortality, and the ways in which race, gender, and class oppression create a unique matrix of stress burden that increases allostatic load (i.e., weathering or wear and tear on the body), thereby increasing risk for these adverse pregnancy-related outcomes. The chapter describes how traditional risk factors, such as health behavior, medical risk, and lower socioeconomic status, do not account for racial disparities in childbearing health, and it utilizes a stress paradigm for explaining how the intersectional burden of race, gender, and class inequity can affect African American pregnancy women. The chapter concludes by noting several mobilization efforts that are underway to eliminate health disparities in adverse birth outcomes by promoting health equity that is fair and just opportunities to be healthy.

scholarly journals Can Biological Markers Partially Explain the Link Between the Social Environment and Oral Health?

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 10-15
Author(s):  
Cristina Barboza Solís MSc, PhD
Keyword(s):  
Oral Health ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Biological Markers ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
Public Health Research ◽  
The Body ◽  
Adult Health ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wear And Tear ◽  
New Perspective

Understanding how the social world affects humans´ health by “getting under the skin” and penetrating the cells, organs and physiological systems of the body is a key tenet in public health research. Here, we propose the idea that socioeconomic position (SEP) can be biologically embodied, potentially leading to the production of health inequalities in oral health across population groups. Recent studies show that being exposed to chronic stress across the life course could impact our health. Allostatic load (AL) is a composite biological measure of overall physiological wear-and-tear that could allow a better understanding of the potential biological pathways playing a role in the construction of the social gradient in adult health. However, to use biological measures to better understand the mechanisms that construct health inequalities in oral health has not been tested systematically. The purposes of this New Perspective is to discuss the value of using composite biological markers, such as AL, to analyze oral health. This can allow a better understanding of the mechanisms leading to health inequalities in oral health, and add some valuable information for implementing health interventions.

Maternal responsiveness moderates the relationship between allostatic load and working memory

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 873-880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey N. Doan ◽  
Gary W. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Chronic Stress ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
The Body ◽  
Maternal Responsiveness ◽  
Cumulative Stress ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Environmental Demands ◽  
Physiological Systems

AbstractA substantial amount of research has demonstrated the deleterious effects of chronic stress on memory. However, much less is known about protective factors. In the current study we test the role of maternal responsiveness in buffering the effects of childhood allostatic load on subsequent adolescent working memory. Allostatic load is a marker of cumulative stress on the body that is caused by mobilization of multiple physiological systems in response to chronic environmental demands. Results of the study suggest that allostatic load negatively affects working memory, but that this effect is significantly attenuated in children with responsive mothers.

scholarly journals 004.From molecules to mind: stress, allostasis and integration of brain and body

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
B. McEwen
Keyword(s):  
Life Style ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
The Body ◽  
Stressful Events ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Wear And Tear ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Physiological Systems

The mind involves the whole body and two-way communication between the brain and the cardiovascular, immune and other systems via neural and endocrine mechanisms. Stress is a condition of the mind and a factor in the expression of disease that differs among individuals. A broader view is that it is not just the dramatic stressful events that exact their toll but rather the many events of daily life that elevates activities of physiological systems so as to cause some measure of wear and tear. We call this wear and tear 'allostatic load', and it reflects not only the impact of life experiences but also genetic load' individual life-style habits reflecting items such as diet, exercise and substance abuse' and developmental experiences that set life-long patterns of behavior and physiological reactivity (1). Hormones associated with stress and allostatic load protect the body in the short-run and promote adaptation, but the long run allostatic load causes changes in the body that lead to disease. This will be illustrated for the immune system and brain regions involved in stress, fear and cognition (e.g. hippocampus, amygdala and prefrontal cortex). Besides developmental influences associated with mother–infant interactions, the most potent of stressors in adult life are those arising from competitive interactions between animals of the same species, leading to the formation of dominance hierarchies. Psychosocial stress of this type not only impairs cognitive function of lower ranking animals, but it can also promote disease (e.g. atherosclerosis) among those vying for the dominant position, as well as depressive illness. Social ordering in human society is also associated with gradients of disease, with an increasing frequency or mortality and morbidity as one descends the scale of socioeconomic status (SES) that reflects both income and education. Although the causes of these gradients of health are very complex, they are likely to reflect, with increasing frequency at the lower end of the scale, the cumulative burden of coping with limited resources and negative life events as well as differences in life style, and the allostatic load that this burden places on the physiological systems involved in adaptation and coping. (1) McEwen, B.S. (1998) Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators. New England J. Med. 238, 171–179.

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