Indigenous Health and Well-Being: Focus on Toxic Stress and Allostatic Load

Dear Colleagues,

Indigenous, First Nation people have long been known to be adversely affected by a range of health disparities worldwide. The persistence of large discrepancies in health outcomes highlights the need for novel perspectives and strategies to be employed when it comes to “closing the gap” for health inequalities among Indigenous people. Indigenous people worldwide have been disproportionately subjected to chronic, toxic stress due to a variety of factors, including adverse childhood experiences, substance use, disadvantaged socioeconomical status, and discrimination, throughout their lifetime. Furthermore, past historical events may contribute to transgenerational trauma. Over the last few years, the notion of conceptualising Indigenous health disparities in terms of chronic stress and allostatic load have emerged. Allostasis refers to physiological processes which act in response to homeostatic disruption. Chronic activation of allostatic mechanisms in response to stress ultimately strains and overloads adaptive physiological systems. This ‘wear and tear’ gives rise to allostatic load that increases the risk of numerous stress-related diseases. These include a number of systemic, chronic non-communicable diseases, such as obesity, Type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, hypertension, as well as brain health disorders, such as major depression and accelerated cognitive aging.

This Special Issue will focus on to better understand the links between chronic, toxic stress, trauma and long-term adverse systemic and brain health consequences across the lifespan with the ultimate goal of closing the gap in healthy and productive life years among Indigenous people worldwide.

Prof. Dr. Zoltan Sarnyai
Guest Editor

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• stress
• trauma
• allostatic load
• health
• mental health
• non-communicable diseases
• prevention