The Detrimental Effects of Allostasis : Measure of Cumulative AIIostatic Load as a Stress

Since its inception in the 1980s, through further deve]opments during the 1990s, and continuing today, the paradigm of allostatic load (AL) has becorned an important paradigm fbr predicting senescence and mortality. AL is a cumulative measure of the effects of multiple stressors and the process of responding to stressors on the soma. AL measurements of individuals is being tested on various samples and species and being reported across a variety of medical and social science journals. From the ISI Web of Science, all articles published between January 2000 and June 2005 with AL in any default categery were obtained and transferred to Endnote. These articles, categorized as theorylreview or data-driven, human or animal, and variability in risk factors u ed to estimate AL, are reviewed here. Only two of 90 reports were published in anthropological journals, ]ikely, at least partly, because research on AL has focused more on western, industrialized populations where data are more easily obtained. From 2000-2005, 12 of42 data-driven reports focused on elderly humans. Studies of animal models also are common CO in 2000, but 4 in 2004 covering 21 species), During the last year, multiple additional potential physiological variables have been tested as measures of AL (1O to 20 in any one article), In the past half decade, AL also has been introduccd to a wide range of disciplincs, including psychology, anthropology, gerontology, veterinary medicine, and medical specialties, as a yiable research theme, AL appears to provide a usefu1 method for determining cumulative somatic stress such as that seen with senescence and frailty at older ages. J Pitysiol Anthmpol 25a): i33-145, 2006 http:/1 www.jstage.jst,go.jp!browseijpa2 [DOI: 102114ijpa2.25.133]