Discrimination and health
Bernadette N. Kumar, Esperanza Diaz in Migrant Health, 2019
Although most stressful experiences do not increase vulnerability to illness, certain kinds of stressors – those that are uncontrollable and unpredictable – are particularly harmful to health, and these characteristics are common to discrimination experiences. Various models conceptualize discrimination as a social stressor that sets into motion a process of physiological responses (e.g. elevated blood pressure, heart rate, cortisol secretions), and these heightened physiological responses can have downstream effects on health over time (13). Routine discrimination can become a chronic stressor that may erode an individual's protective resources and increase vulnerability to physical illness (14). As with other forms of cumulative stress, perceived discrimination may lead to chronic over- or underactivity of allostatic systems impacting allostatic load and other pathophysiological processes (15). Allostatic load (Chapter 2) is the sum of ‘the wear and tear on the body’ accumulating over time with exposure to chronic or repetitive stress. In addition, negative affective/cognitive and other pathopsychological processes alone or in combination with restricted access to social resources such as employment, housing, and education, and/or increased exposure to risk factors (such as unnecessary contact with the criminal justice system) can create and perpetuate ill health.
Benefits of Meditation and Yoga in Clinically Depressed Patients
Anne George, Snigdha S. Babu, M. P. Ajithkumar, Sabu Thomas in Holistic Healthcare. Volume 2: Possibilities and Challenges, 2019
The complex processes in the brain identify and characterize what is stress. Stress response involves two-way communication between the brain and the cardiovascular, immune, metabolic, and other systems via the nervous system, endocrine system, and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Homeostasis refers to the mechanisms that keep the parameters of an organism’s internal milieu within the ranges necessary for survival. Maintaining a state of optimal homeostasis demands incurring the least possible long-term costs while an organism addresses the immediate needs. McEwen17 (Fig. 1.2) proposes that allostasis is the adaptive process of maintaining stability during conditions that are outside of the usual homeostatic range. Allostatic load is the cost to the body for maintaining this stability during deviations from the usual homeostatic range, often reflected in pathophysiological conditions and disease progression. Physiologic systems activated by stress can both protect the body in the short term and damage the body in the long term, especially when stress becomes chronic and an allostatic load is incurred. For example, in response to a real or perceived threat, elevated blood pressure and heart rate due to increased sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity is beneficial in the short term for survival. But a state of sustained high SNS activity, often due to sustained stress response, has diverse long-term effects with increased risk of cardiovascular and other chronic disorders.
Chronic Posttraumatic Stress
Rolland S. Parker in Concussive Brain Trauma, 2016
Allostatic load reflects the pathophysiology of the physiological and anatomical states following the events of daily life that elevate activity of physiological systems and extend trauma/stress. Social disruption, which is common after impairing TBI, contributes to stress and disease. Changes in the social context lead to, and maintain, anxiety (Fisher, 1996). Allostatic load results from the impact of life experiences, genetic load, individual habits (diet, exercise, substance abuse, smoking, drinking), developmental experiences that set lifelong patterns of behavior, and physiological reactivity. This condition is important in the diagnosis and treatment of many illnesses (McEwen, 1998). Animal studies suggest that psychosocial stress impairs cognitive function and promotes disease (issues of competition and dominance) (McEwen & Seeman, 1999).
Socioeconomic status and fertility treatment outcomes in high-income countries: a review of the current literature
Published in Human Fertility, 2023
Rachel Imrie, Srirupa Ghosh, Nitish Narvekar, Kugajeevan Vigneswaran, Yanzhong Wang, Mike Savvas
There are many theories as to how differences in socioeconomic status have an impact on an individual (the ‘biology of social adversity’) and their response to disease and medical treatments (Boyce et al., 2012). The term ‘allostatic load’ refers to the cumulative wear and tear throughout life on the body after exposure to chronic and recurrent stress (McEwen & Stellar, 1993). Exposure to psychological chronic stressors, especially in early childhood, can cause epigenetic changes (Lam et al., 2012) that impact lifelong biological responses. Short-term protection from acute stressors provided by hormones such as adrenal steroids and glucocorticoids can, in the long-term, negatively impact health. These factors combined are thought to account for socially mediated discrepancies in behaviour, immune responses (Slopen et al., 2015), inflammatory cascades and cardiovascular and metabolic health (McCrory et al., 2015). In particular, it is thought that environmental factors can influence the epigenome of spermatozoa which may be a factor in any socioeconomic differences in fertility treatment outcomes (Donkin & Barrès, 2018). It is currently not known whether any difference in outcomes between SES groups is because of gamete quality and the subsequent embryos that are created through ART, or the physiological environment to which they are transferred (e.g. pelvic infections are higher in lower SES groups (Leichliter et al., 2013) which may influence implantation).
Symptom Trajectory among Formerly Abused Women: An Exploratory Study
Published in Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 2021
Jiepin Cao, Qing Yang, Dori Steinberg, Sean Convoy, Janice Humphreys
Theories of allostatic load may also shed light on our understanding of how resilience reduces symptoms in this group. Allostatic load occurs when the protective responses to the acute stress across the biological systems cannot be terminated and thus lead to cumulative dysregulation and adverse consequences physiologically and psychologically (McEwen, 1998), leading to symptoms across different systems. It occurs when women have to respond to the frequent and prolonged stress due to trauma and abuse, as what usually happens in IPV. Resilience helps body to appropriately engage with the protective responses to stress and also to shut down the allostatic responses when necessary (Karatsoreos & McEwen, 2011), preventing women from the varied detrimental symptoms due to overuse of the body systems. Future research with larger samples conceptualized within an integrated resilience and allostatic load framework is needed to further examine the observed associations and explore the underlying mechanisms. Such work could provide a foundation for researchers and clinicians in the development and implementation intervention programs for formerly abused women.
Allostatic Load, Mobility Disability, and Viral Effects in Cancer: A Structural Equation Model
Published in Cancer Investigation, 2022
The phenomenon of Allostatic Load represents the body’s physiological response to stress (4). The construct builds upon Sterling and Eyer’s (7) definition of allostasis in relation to neuroendocrine-immune and metabolic balance during physiological changes. It also relates to the earlier Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome (8), in which environmental stressors hyper-activate the pituitary gland and adrenal cortex to overproduce, in the latter, steroid hormones, which impact various body systems at the cellular level, including immunity and cancer. Christian et al (9) demonstrated the role of overpopulation stress in the massive Chesapeake Bay James Island Sika deer population collapse, in which the autopsied deer exhibited only adrenal cortical hypertrophy and presumed serum electrolyte disruptions despite having the capacity to escape/emigrate from the overpopulated region.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Allostasis
- Chronic Stress
- Cortisol
- Nervous System
- Neuroendocrine Cell
- Physiology
- Stress
- Catecholamine
- Fight-Or-Flight Response
- Homeostasis