How to Make America Healthy Again
Healthcare will transform and we can “Make America Healthy Again,” when, as a collective, we begin acknowledging the fact that adaptations in our God-designed physiology begin years prior to a health diagnosis, which is why prevention should be our main focus.
Let’s talk about it.
Allostatic load is a concept health care providers should have a grasp of and it should be part of lens by which we view + support the human body
It refers to the cumulative burden of chronic stress and life events on the body, involving interactions among various physiological systems in the body ((DOI: 10.1159/000510696P).
A systematic review of literature up to December 2019 included 267 studies, examining the impact of allostatic load and overload on physical and mental health. The findings suggested that a higher allostatic load = poorer health outcomes. Studies also show when environmental challenges exceed an individual’s ability to cope, then allostatic overload begins, and the body transitions to an extreme state where stress response systems are repeatedly activated and buffering factors are not adequate.
When your body faces challenges or stress from the environment, different systems in your body, like the ones controlling hormones and immune responses, work together to help you adapt. Your body makes compensations to protect you if this is ongoing.
Your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis for example is a main player in managing stress. This is a network of endocrine organs, hormones, and other signaling molecules. It is part of your mind/body connection.
Over time, stress can change how this system works, causing a downstream impact on things like your heart health, digestion, mood, hormones, fertility, weight, and even sleep due to compensations made. These changes can sometimes suppress your immune system and lead to frequent illness, if your stress is not buffered.
What contributes to a high allostatic load? Guess what, it is not just “seed oils” + “toxins.” Studies show it is also things like:
When we fail to understand the natural compensations the body is making due to high allostatic load, and the environment we are asking it to live in, we break the body into pieces and fail it to see it as a whole. Often harming people with devastating diagnoses, (which are very often mis-diagnoses), fear based thinking, or offering quick fixes that bandaid the problem.
We then often jump to unnecessary interventions and very often misprescribe because we misunderstand the body as a whole.
So what can we do? Start honoring the mind, body, and spirit connection in medicine, and start teaching people how to support their stress response and support their allostatic load, and make groceries + health resources more affordable, just to name a few.
Our bodies are God designed and more resilient than we give them credit for, but we have to learn how to steward them well and reframe the lens through which we view health and the approaches we take.
Sources:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4166604/
https://karger.com/pps/article-pdf/90/1/11/3908841/000510696.pdf
https://karger.com/pps/article/90/1/11/294736/Allostatic-Load-and-Its-Impact-on-Health-A
Hill-Soderlund AL, Mills-Koonce WR, Propper C, Calkins SD, Granger DA, Moore GA, et al. Parasympathetic and sympathetic responses to the strange situation in infants and mothers from avoidant and securely attached dyads. Dev Psychobiol. 2008 May; 50(4):361–76.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749121022107#:~:text=Significant%20associations%20between%20bedroom%20LAN,health%20from%20early%20in%20life.
Fernandez CA, Loucks EB, Arheart KL, Hickson DA, Kohn R, Buka SL, et al. Evaluating the effects of coping style on allostatic load, by sex: the Jackson Heart study, 2000– 2004. Prev Chronic Dis. 2015 Oct;12:E165.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2874580/#:~:text=The%20published%20literature%20demonstrates%20that,to%20those%20of%20high%20SES
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5374015/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11316529/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031938421002286#:~:text=Consumption%20of%20fast%20food%2C%20sugar,the%20United%20States%20%5B16%5D.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030645302300272X/pdf#:~:text=Sedentary%20behaviour%20was%20also%20related,a%20higher%20allostatic%20load%20index.
