title: Allostatic load mediates the impact of stress and trauma on physical and mental health in Indigenous Australians.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A considerable gap exists in health and social emotional well-being between Indigenous people and non-Indigenous Australians. Recent research in stress neurobiology highlights biological pathways that link early adversity and traumas as well as life stresses to ill health. We argue that the neurobiological stress response and its maladaptive changes, termed allostatic load, provide a useful framework to understand how adversity leads to physical and mental illness in Indigenous people. In this paper we review the biology of allostatic load and make links between stress-induced systemic hormonal, metabolic and immunological changes and physical and mental illnesses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Exposure to chronic stress throughout life results in an increased allostatic load that may contribute to a number of metabolic, cardiovascular and mental disorders that shorten life expectancy in Indigenous Australians.
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor of Pharmacology, College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia zoltan.sarnyai@jcu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Zoltán
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sarnyai
authors.affiliation: Graduate Student, College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Maximus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.affiliation: Medical Student, College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Isabella
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Jawan
mesh_terms: D052636:Allostasis; D001315:Australia / Q000208:ethnology; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000208:ethnology*; D008603:Mental Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D010808:Physical Examination; D044382:Population Groups / Q000208:ethnology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000208:ethnology*
keywords: allostatic load; chronic stress; health; indigenous peoples; mental health; well-being