Allostastic Load and Allostatic Weight: A Literature Review of a Confusing Concept

Abstract

Allostatic load is a recent emerging concept, related to increase of clinical manifestation of stress. also named allostatic weight, it is a group of symptoms and dysfunction due to an intensive and permanent biological response to environmental and psychological stressors. It is not easy to identify clearly how its happened, when it started and during how many times response was higher. In definitive, researchers, patients and even health practitioners; are not currently able to handle this problem. In this review, we discuss about different approaches and definitions of what is an allostatic weight. We also give perspective and suggestion of what should be the next research in this context.