Allostatic systems enable the individual to cope with stressful experiences. They are adaptive when rapidly mobilized and terminated. However, when the activity of allostatic systems is
sluggish, ineffective, prolonged, or not terminated promptly, allostatic systems can impair mental and physical health through their maladaptive effects on brain plasticity and metabolic, immune, and cardiovascular pathophysiology.
— BRUCE S. McEWEN & PETER J. GIANAROS —
The most important thing to understand about allostatic load is not very hard at all to grasp; your brain and body’s response to a stressor should not be:
◊ Sluggish; you want to be able relax as quickly as possible following a stressful event, but if your
response is sluggish you can’t. Consider a person who has breathing problems; this person may have a very sluggish response to recovery after some intense physical activity. Recovery and relaxation become stunted if your blood pressure and hormonal levels stay up longer than what merely is needed to do the job.
◊ Ineffective; it kind of speaks for itself, doesn’t it? An ineffective response to a stressor diminishes the brain and body’s capacity for adaptation. When considered in the long-term it may become dangerous, and it will challenge recovery.
◊ Prolonged. Don’t be in stressful situations for too long;
if you run away from a mugger for five minutes it will actually probably be healthy for you, but if you were to run for days it would be bad. Of course, the definition of what is prolonged or not is highly individual.
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◊ Not terminated promptly. If you were to be repeatedly subjected to stressors you might not be able to relax properly in between these occasions. Consider a person being subjected to torture by means of sleep deprivation and gets slapped or lit up by a bright flashlight every five minutes.
Other aspects of allostasis and allostatic load may be harder to understand. I have taken the liberty of simplifying these concepts in hopes of making it more easily understandable, just as I have done with much of the other material in the book. If you don’t like the following analogy, or, if you become interested in learning more deeply about this stuff, I suggest that you read the’ recommended reading’ box in the beginning of the chapter.
Hormonal and Allostatic Gauges Here’s a video game analogy.
The figurative hormonal gauge measures your hormonal points. If you run out of hormonal points and cannot produce any more appropriate hormones, you die.
Nah, I’m just kidding!
But what actually does happen, is that you will induce an allostatic load, and, depending on how much you exert yourself, will either revert back to a baseline state of functioning (homeostasis), or you will plummet below that level and feel tired, bored, and lethargic like the hang over phenomenon I explained previously. Physiologically speaking, the process is very similar to what happens when a drug addict goes through detox and feels depleted; ecstasy (MDMA) and cocaine are especially known to deplete dopamine levels and make the user sluggish afterwards. Though such a degree of depletion is far more serious (and potentially harmful) than an allostatic load which has been induced through natural and ‘normal’ means.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be hormones that you run out of; it can also be neurotransmitters, nutrients or sleep.
Both of these aspects – the figurative gauges – are influenced by a large number of parameters, whereby the most important ones are likely your current condition of brain and body, practice, diet, sleep and recovery, and use of substances.
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Allostatic Gauge AP (Allostatic Points)
The allostatic gauge shows how we can only adapt to so much at a time. Small things add up. If we are constantly worrying about something and producing mentally induced stress on ourselves, we not only use up our focus in the present moment and lose out on that, but also slowly deplete our supply of mental energy, hormones, and neurotransmitters (hormonal points) as well as our capacity for adapting to changes (allostatic points).
It’s important that you understand that the ‘worry’ part can be much larger than what I have arbitrarily illustrated here, at which point it may be categorized as a serious case of anxiety and becomes a serious hindrance to adapting to change.
If the allostatic gauge becomes depleted you will revert back to the baseline state or plunge into a more or less lethargic state of idleness, depending on the intensity of the stressor. The bigger the change is to your brain and body, the more allostatic points it will require in order for you to adapt.
The intensity of a stressor, is as you surely understand, different between people. What may be perceived as uncomfortable,
dangerous, or scary, can be perceived just the opposite by another person.
Pretty straight-forward, right?
So, as long as you don’t induce an allostatic load by taking on more stress than your brain and body currently is capable of handling, you will be getting stronger and smarter – you will become hardened gradually. It’s very much like lifting weights; you need to go at it hard, but then you need to rest before coming back so that you can lift again with at least the same amount of intensity next time. And vice versa, by the opposite logic it’s a stupid idea to go to the gym and lift heavily every day of the week.
The hard part is finding that sweet spot for going at it with sufficient intensity for getting that natural high that I call breaking out of homeostasis; to feel intrinsically motivated and interested – full on immersion.
That’s what this entire book is about – to encourage you to find this out through self-experimentation and trial and error. However, the sweet spot will gradually shift and you will either have to take on
Remaining AP ACTIVITY X WORRY
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more difficult challenges and exert more effort – or switch to novel challenges in order to keep the brain engaged and activated.
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Moderation?
The issue of what constitutes moderation is a constantly underlying theme in this book. It becomes painfully obvious that we want to reach this evident sweet spot of effort, and yet we don’t want to induce an allostatic load.
But to theorize about this sweet spot too much will just end up hindering you from doing the work and actually putting in the time to getting the practical experience which constitute the very
foundation of BOOH.
Do you see the paradox?
The brain tricks us back into the habit of being lazy and not exerting more effort than what is necessary by justifying this behavior as being productive; it makes us think that we’re doing a good thing by trying to find out how to theoretically do it rather than to actually be doing it. This, of course, goes against the whole purpose; we’re supposed to progressively go harder and harder, exert ourselves more and more, improve on neural pathways – or build new ones.
Not revert back to the old ones and to get trapped in homeostasis on autopilot.
Therefore, don’t concern yourself too much about being “perfect”
and avoiding allostatic load. You can take it. As a matter of fact I believe fewer than one percent of the people reading this book have the mental fortitude, combined with the stupidity, to put themselves in a state of self-induced allostatic load through exerting themselves too hard day after day.
Be more worried about never getting there in the first place. Be more worried about never pushing through the plateau.
Or in the optimal case, don’t worry at all.
Just do – continual action.
Most people, myself included, never get anywhere close to such a point that physical or mental exertion become seriously harmful.
While it’s healthy to go out jogging every once in a while, it’s terribly unhealthy to be part of an Iron Man competition – it puts an
enormous physical strain on the body. That’s one of those rare cases when physical exertion has gone beyond the point of positive effects, though I speculate that the mental fortitude and the strength of character gained by enduring an Iron Man competition could very well be worth whatever physical damage one might sustain.