Alyssa, an osteopath, explains why ongoing stress takes a real toll on your body and how osteopathic treatment can help you recover.
What Is Allostatic Load?
We all know what it feels like to be stressed. Your heart races, your muscles tighten, your mind goes into overdrive. In small doses, that's actually your body doing its job gearing up to handle a challenge and then settling back down once it's passed. Researchers call this healthy back-and-forth allostasis.
Allostatic load is what happens when that settling-down never quite occurs. Think of it as the physical price your body pays for being under pressure for too long whether that's work stress, financial worry, poor sleep, chronic pain, or a combination of all of the above. Scientists McEwen and Stellar (1993) described it as the body's cumulative "wear and tear" from stress that doesn't let up.
"Allostatic load represents the wear and tear on the body and brain resulting from too much stress or the inefficient management of the stress response systems." — McEwen & Stellar, 1993
This build-up happens in a few key ways, stress hits too often and the body never gets a proper break; the body fails to stop reacting even when the threat is gone; or the stress response itself becomes blunted over time, forcing other body systems to work harder to pick up the slack (McEwen, 1998).
Over time, this affects nearly every system in the body, your hormones, heart, immune system, metabolism, muscles, and even your brain. Research has linked high allostatic load to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, depression, anxiety, memory problems, and a shorter life expectancy (Seeman et al., 2001; Juster et al., 2010). In short, ongoing stress doesn't just feel bad it causes measurable physical harm.
Figure 1 — What Happens in Your Body: Healthy Stress vs. Allostatic Load
Left: A healthy stress response — the body reacts, then fully recovers. Right: Allostatic load — repeated stress with no real recovery, causing the body to stay in a state of strain.
How Can Osteopathic Treatment Help?
Osteopathy is built on the understanding that your body works as one connected system, that how you're sitting, breathing, moving, and feeling all influence each other. This fits with what we know about allostatic load, where stress doesn't just live in your head but shows up throughout your whole body.
Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) uses gentle, hands-on techniques to work with three of the main ways that ongoing stress harms the body:
Calming Your Nervous System
When you're chronically stressed, your body gets stuck in "fight or flight" mode, your nervous system is wired up and your natural "rest and digest" response gets pushed aside. Hands-on osteopathic techniques, particularly around the upper back, neck, and base of the skull, have been shown to reduce stress hormone levels (Licciardone et al., 2013) and improve heart rate variability; a reliable sign that your nervous system is finding its balance again (Budgell & Polus, 2006; Cerritelli et al., 2013).
Turning Down Inflammation
Chronic stress keeps your immune system in a low-grade state of alarm, which shows up as ongoing inflammation throughout the body. Research by Degenhardt et al. (2007) found that OMT can help shift the body's inflammatory markers supporting the immune system to work more efficiently rather than staying on constant high alert.
Releasing Tension Held in the Body
Stress doesn't just affect your mood it lodges in your muscles, joints, and connective tissue. Tight shoulders, a stiff neck, a constantly braced jaw or belly: these are all signs your body is holding onto stress. And it works both ways, physical tension feeds back into your nervous system, keeping you in that wired state. Osteopathic treatment addresses these patterns directly, helping to physically release the stress your body has been carrying.
Figure 2 — How Osteopathic Treatment Works on Stress in the Body
Diagram titled 'How Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment Addresses Allostatic Load.' On the left, a red box labeled Dysregulation lists increased sympathetic tone, increased cortisol/CRP, decreased HRV/vagal tone, and somatic dysfunction. Arrows point to a central navy box labeled OMT Treatment, which includes craniosacral therapy, myofascial release, HVLA/soft tissue, rib raising, and lymphatic techniques. An arrow leads to a light blue Outcomes box showing decreased cortisol, increased HRV, decreased inflammation, decreased pain and tension, and increased resilience. A note below states that reduced allostatic load improves stress resilience. Buttons along the bottom list specific OMT modalities.
Osteopathic treatment targets the key ways chronic stress harms the body — helping to reduce stress hormones, ease inflammation, and release physical tension.
Osteopathic Techniques Used
Craniosacral Therapy: Very gentle touch at the base of the skull and sacrum to calm the nervous system
Myofascial Release: Slow, sustained pressure to release tight connective tissue throughout the body
Spinal Adjustment (HVLA) : A quick, gentle movement to free up stiff joints and ease nerve tension
Rib Raising: Hands-on work along the upper back to ease tension around the spine and support breathing
Counterstrain: Gently positioning the body to switch off painful muscle trigger points
Lymphatic Pump: Encourages the body's drainage system to clear inflammation and support immune health
Osteopathic treatment works best as part of a broader approach to your health. Regular movement, good sleep, stress management practices like breathing exercises or mindfulness, and a balanced diet all play important roles too. Think of OMT as helping your body get into a state where it's better able to respond to all those other positive things you're doing for yourself.
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Key References
1. McEwen BS, Stellar E. Arch Intern Med. 1993;153:2093–2101.
2. McEwen BS. N Engl J Med. 1998;338:171–179.
3. Seeman TE et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2001;98:4770–4775.
4. Juster RP et al. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2010;35:2–16.
5. Licciardone JC et al. Manual Therapy. 2013;18:533–540.
6. Degenhardt BF et al. JAOA. 2007;107:387–400.
7. Cerritelli F et al. Complement Ther Med. 2013;21:322–326.
8. Budgell B, Polus B. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2006;29:603–610.