Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (2024)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2024.1509223
Summary
Allostatic Load (AL) is a way to describe the damage to your body that happens when you are constantly stressed for a long time. This study looked at how different types of stress over your life, as well as having a healthy lifestyle, can affect Allostatic Load.
The researchers studied information from 620 people who were part of the PREVENT dementia program. They found that doing sports and having a healthy diet directly helped reduce Allostatic Load. They also found that playing sports could help a person handle stress better, but sleep was really important for this to work. Both stress and how well you deal with it affected sleep, which in turn played a big role in how Allostatic Load changed. Using healthy habits, like eating well and getting good sleep, to manage stress is likely to be good for our health.