Allostasis
Maintaining stability through change.
Allostasis describes adjustment to meet environmental demands and maintain stable function. Our Chinese edition uses a reader-friendly term alongside the original English; this is not a claim to standardise Chinese academic terminology.
Editorial preview · Scientific review pendingStability through adjustment
Allostasis offers a way to understand changing regulation as demands change. Sterling's account emphasises anticipation and allocation of resources, rather than treating every change as a failure of regulation.[1]
An adjustment and its cost are different questions
Allostatic load concerns costs associated with repeated or prolonged adaptation. The adaptive process and its possible cumulative costs should be distinguished.[2]
A note on language
The Chinese edition uses a term emphasising dynamic adaptation as an explanatory label and retains Allostasis. It is not a claim that Chinese terminology is standardised, or that allostasis and homeostasis are interchangeable.
Whether a response is appropriate depends on the environment and the body's needs at that moment.
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Core reading
- Allostasis: a model of predictive regulation ↗
Peter Sterling
Study record & citations
Physiology & Behavior · 2012 - Stress and the individual. Mechanisms leading to disease ↗
Bruce S. McEwen · Eliot Stellar
Study record & citations
Archives of Internal Medicine · 1993
Editorial & review record
An author and scientific reviewer have not yet been appointed. Names and dates will be published when the work is completed.
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