Metabolically exaggerated cardiac reactions to acute psychological stress: The effects of resting blood pressure status and possible underlying mechanisms

Abstract

The study aimed to: confirm that acute stress elicits metabolically exaggerated increases in cardiac activity; test whether individuals with elevated resting blood pressure show more exaggerated cardiac reactions to stress than those who are clearly normotensive; and explore the underlying mechanisms. Cardiovascular activity and oxygen consumption were measured pre-, during, and post- mental stress, and during graded submaximal cycling exercise in 11 young men with moderately elevated resting blood pressure and 11 normotensives. Stress provoked increases in cardiac output that were much greater than would be expected from contemporary levels of oxygen consumption. Exaggerated cardiac reactions were larger in the relatively elevated blood pressure group. They also had greater reductions in total peripheral resistance, but not heart rate variability, implying that their more exaggerated cardiac reactions reflected greater β-adrenergic activation

Disordered eating behaviour is associated with blunted cortisol and cardiovascular reactions to acute psychological stress

“…1 The present results add further weight to the contention that individuals with disordered eating may have a dysregulated stress response Lo Sauro et al, 2008). The precise pattern of the present group differences, with the disordered eating group showing blunted cardiac reactivity and attenuated systemic vasodilatory reactions to stress, would seem to implicate b-adrenergic processes (Balanos et al, 2010). It is possible that the disordered eating behaviour is associated with diminished badrenergic activation.…”

Heart rate reactivity is associated with future cognitive ability and cognitive change in a large community sample

“…Second, given the oral response mode in the PASAT, cardiovascular perturbations could be attributed to speech. However, similar levels of HR reaction to mental arithmetic with and without a speech component have been reported (Sloan et al, 1991) and we have reported substantial cardiovascular reactions to the PASAT when the mode of response was manual rather than oral Balanos et al, 2010). Third, only blood pressure and HR reactivity were measured.…”

“…There were no consistent associations between blood pressure reactivity and future cognitive ability. Cardiac reactivity would appear to reflect both β-adrenergic and parasympathetic influences (Balanos et al, 2010;Sloan et al, 1991). Thus, low cardiac reactivity could reflect reduced β-adrenergic drive or less of a reduction in vagal tone during the stress task.…”

Gender differences and the relationships of perceived background stress and psychological distress with cardiovascular responses to laboratory stressors

“…Consistent with the earlier studies, the psychological stressor did result in greater increases than would be expected on the basis of metabolic demand. Balanos et al (2010) followed up this study by finding that the exaggerated cardiac responses seen during the PASAT task indicated greater beta-adrenergic activation than parasympathetic response.…”