{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "capturedAt": "2026-09-14T08:27:22.723Z",
  "sha256": "5f906464a148fcec39a808858fceb24dc2f5e715a7bcaff75ce1065be365002c",
  "work": {
    "id": "TAP-CON-0004",
    "kind": "concept",
    "key": "allostatic-load",
    "locale": "en",
    "path": "/topics/allostatic-load/",
    "title": "Allostatic Load",
    "description": "Allostatic load describes the cumulative physiological costs that may accompany repeated or prolonged adaptation. It connects long-term challenges with changes across multiple bodily systems.",
    "rights": "© The Allostasis Project. All rights reserved. Reproduction or adaptation requires separate permission, subject to applicable legal exceptions.",
    "version": "0.1",
    "updatedAt": "2026-09-14",
    "editorial": {
      "contentType": "scientific-concept",
      "reviewState": "draft",
      "reviewedAt": null,
      "reviewedVersion": null,
      "updatedAt": "2026-09-14",
      "version": "0.1",
      "author": null,
      "reviewer": null,
      "revisions": []
    },
    "sections": [
      {
        "id": "introduction",
        "title": "At a glance",
        "paragraphs": [
          "Repeated adaptation may carry a cost.",
          "Allostatic load describes the cumulative physiological costs that may accompany repeated or prolonged adaptation. It connects long-term challenges with changes across multiple bodily systems.",
          "This is a research concept. Fatigue alone, or a single indicator, cannot establish it."
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "cost",
        "title": "The possible cost of repeated adaptation",
        "paragraphs": [
          "The allostatic-load framework connects repeated demands with cumulative physiological costs. Stress mediators can have protective as well as damaging effects, depending on the pattern and context of their activity.[1][2]"
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "measurement",
        "title": "A construct, with different measures",
        "paragraphs": [
          "A review of reviews documented variation in the measures used to operationalise allostatic load. A study's biomarker panel, thresholds and population matter when interpreting its index.[3]"
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "boundaries",
        "title": "Not a personal diagnosis",
        "paragraphs": [
          "This hub does not translate tiredness or a single test result into allostatic load. The linked feature explains the concept and its measurement limits in more detail."
        ]
      }
    ],
    "references": [
      {
        "id": "mcewen-1993",
        "title": "Stress and the individual. Mechanisms leading to disease",
        "authors": "Bruce S. McEwen · Eliot Stellar",
        "journal": "Archives of Internal Medicine",
        "year": "1993",
        "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8379800/",
        "doi": "10.1001/archinte.1993.00410180039004",
        "pmid": "8379800"
      },
      {
        "id": "mcewen-1998",
        "title": "Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators",
        "authors": "Bruce S. McEwen",
        "journal": "New England Journal of Medicine",
        "year": "1998",
        "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9428819/",
        "doi": "10.1056/NEJM199801153380307",
        "pmid": "9428819"
      },
      {
        "id": "measurement-review",
        "title": "Allostatic Load Measurement: A Systematic Review of Reviews, Database Inventory, and Considerations for Neighborhood Research",
        "authors": "Shawna Beese · Julie Postma · Janessa M. Graves",
        "journal": "International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health",
        "year": "2022",
        "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36554888/",
        "doi": "10.3390/ijerph192417006",
        "pmid": "36554888"
      }
    ],
    "type": "CON"
  }
}