Page 15 - RACE HEALER Mag Volume 1

Allostatic Load & Health Disparities

By L.E. Gomez

I. Homeostasis & The Stress that we even diminish focus on details such as facial
expressions: great in an emergency, terrible when predetermined
Response biases are informing what constitutes an actual threat (more on
that later). Furthermore, these high levels of cortisol also short-
circuit our memory center in the hippocampus, making it
We take for granted that homeostasis, our normal state of equi- difficult to form memories based on the details of the event and
librium, keeps our bodies and minds at or near steady levels while allowing us only to learn how to become more sensitive
of physiologic function despite a spectrum of change in our to similar events in the future, which also served as the basis for
external environments. We sweat when it’s warm, shiver when a post-traumatic stress disorder. This hypothalamic-pituitary-
cold, and breathe faster at high altitudes to compensate for lower adrenal (HPA) or neuroendocrine axis, involves our entire
levels of oxygen in the air. We also take in sensory data about make-up and affects every physiologic component of our being.
our environment on a regular basis, processing sights, sounds, More than at any other time, humans are bio-psycho-social-
and other sensory data through a part of our brain called the thal- spiritual beings and
amus and send that information on for higher order processing in our entire system is never more integrated than when we are thus
our brain’s cerebral cortex. But what happens when our environ- transformed in these critical stress states.
ment presents us with immediate threats to survival or stress?

The mechanism we evolved for responding to acute, potentially
lethal, stress is lighting quick, fundamental to our make-up, and
extremely difficult to interrupt. Imagine our genetic predecessors
out foraging for food or on a hunt, encountering a predator or
member of a competing tribe, an enemy. They had two choices:
prepare to eliminate the threat or get out fast. The well-known
“fight or flight” response is fundamental to our physiology and
the opposite of slow and considered decision-making since more
time means dead in critical situations.

Emergency states trigger the emotional core of the brain, our
amygdala, and the perceived threat detonates an out- burst of
hormones and neurotransmitters that bypass the thalamic-
cortical loop, and go Once a threat is past, and the stressor eliminated, we need rest to
direct- ly from recover. This period of recovery has been well-studied and re-
stimulus to the quires about 20 minutes to resolve. Serious long-term problems
hypothalamus and arise if we experience recurrent stress states without allowance
pituitary which for those recuperation periods.
activate our adrenals
to pump out blasts of
cortisol and adrena- II. Allostasis & Resiliency
line, hormones
that initiate a cas- Allostasis is the process by which our bodies recover from criti-
cade of physiologic cal stress responses and return to homeostasis and each stressful
responses resulting event adds to a total we call our allostatic load. Homeostasis, or

in: increased
heart rate, blood
pressure,
Reference: <a href="https://pngtree.com/">Graphics from Watch Dr. LE Gomez’
pngtree.com</a> breathing,
redirection of Interview on
blood flow to the brain and muscles, increased muscle ten-
sion, blood shunts away from skin and internal organs, liver www.RaceHealerTV.com
conversion of glycogen to glucose ramps up to supply more fuel
for quick energy, blood clots faster, pupils dilate and our field of
vision narrows on the source of the threat to the point