Salivary Cortisol Levels and Stress Reactivity in Human Aging

Nicolson, Nancy A.; Storms, Chantal; Ponds, Rudolf; Sulon, J.

doi:10.1093/gerona/52a.2.m68

Cited by 126 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Specifically, advancing age in adult humans is associated with increases in total body fat and abdominal adiposity, as well as a progressive shift from a peripheral to a central/abdominal fat pattern (6,7). Consistent with this, many if not all of the putative adiposity-sensitive physiological signals described above increase with age (32,33). Thus changes in one or more of these signals could account for the apparent important contribution of increased abdominal-to-peripheral fat distribution to age-associated changes in autonomic-circulatory function.…”

Section: Ans-circulatory Function Adiposity and Agingmentioning

confidence: 59%

Increased abdominal-to-peripheral fat distribution contributes to altered autonomic-circulatory control with human aging

Christou¹,

Jones²,

Pimentel³

et al. 2004

American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology

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. Increased abdominal-to-peripheral fat distribution contributes to altered autonomic-circulatory control with human aging. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 287: H1530 -H1537, 2004. First published June 3, 2004 10.1152/ajpheart. 00322.2004.-Autonomic nervous system (ANS) control of the circulation is altered with aging in adult humans. Similar changes are observed in obesity, particularly abdominal obesity. To determine whether age-associated differences in ANS-circulatory function can be partially explained by increased body fatness, we examined ANS function and three expressions of adiposity (total body fat, abdominal body fat, and abdominal-to-peripheral body fat distribution; dualenergy X-ray absorptiometry) in 43 healthy men: 27 young (25 Ϯ 1 yr) and 16 older (65 Ϯ 1). ANS functions assessed included 1) autonomic support of arterial blood pressure (BP; radial artery catheter), i.e., the reduction in BP during versus before acute ganglionic blockade (GB; intravenous trimethaphan); 2) baroreflex buffering, i.e., the increase in systolic BP with continuous incremental and bolus infusions of phenylephrine during versus before GB; 3) cardiovagal baroreflex sensitivity (Oxford technique); and 4) heart rate variability (time-and frequency-domain analyses). Covarying for abdominal-toperipheral fat distribution reduced or abolished age-related differences in ANS support of BP, cardiovagal baroreflex sensitivity, and heart rate variability but did not affect age-related differences in baroreflex buffering. Covarying for abdominal and total fat had small selective or no effects on age-associated differences in autonomic-circulatory control. Abdominal-to-peripheral fat distribution explains a significant portion of the variance in a number of autonomic-circulatory functions attributable to aging. Therefore, the development of this fat pattern may contribute to several changes in ANS-cardiovascular function observed with aging. These results may help explain how changes in body fat distribution with advancing age are linked to impairments in circulatory control. blood pressure; baroreflexes; cardiac vagal modulation CHANGES IN AUTONOMIC nervous system (ANS) control of the circulation with aging selectively affect physiological function and are a key feature of age-associated cardiovascular disease (13, 40). As such, it is important to understand the factors that contribute to ANS-circulatory dysfunction with aging in adult humans. In this context, we (22, 23) and others (36) previously established that increases in total and abdominal adiposity can explain up to 50 -60% of the increases in muscle sympathetic nerve activity and total norepinephrine spillover with age in healthy men. As recently summarized (39), these findings suggest that increases in total and regional body fat play an important role in sympathetic nervous system activation with human aging.Recently our laboratory demonstrated that other ANS-cardiovascular functions are altered with aging even in healthy men, including greater tonic ANS support of arter...

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Section: Ans-circulatory Function Adiposity and Agingmentioning

confidence: 59%

Increased abdominal-to-peripheral fat distribution contributes to altered autonomic-circulatory control with human aging

Christou¹,

Jones²,

Pimentel³

et al. 2004

American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology

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“…Until recently, it has not been clear whether similar changes occur in the human HPA axis during aging. Several groups have reported age-associated increases in resting cortisol levels, especially near the nadir of the cortisol circadian rhythm (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). The magnitude of pituitary-adrenal responses to ovine corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) has generally not been found to change with aging in humans (17,18).…”

Section: A Ging In Rodents Has Been Found To Results In Pro-mentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Glucocorticoid Feedback Inhibition Is Reduced in Older Individuals: Evening Study

Wilkinson

Petrie

Murray

et al. 2001

Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism

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We have previously shown that when tested in the morning, older men and women, pretreated with metyrapone to block endogenous cortisol synthesis, exhibit delayed suppression of plasma ACTH in response to cortisol infusion. To confirm this finding and to determine whether aging-related changes in feedback responsiveness are exaggerated near the time of the circadian nadir in adrenocortical secretion, we performed a similar study in the evening. Healthy young (20 -35 yr, n ϭ 22) and old (Ͼ65 yr, n ϭ 21) men and women were administered metyrapone orally (750 mg) at 1600 and 1900 h, followed by a cortisol infusion of 0.06 mg/kg/h for 150 min. Blood samples were taken at 15-min intervals for 4 h following infusion onset for measurement of plasma ACTH, cortisol, 11-deoxycortisol, and corticosteroid binding globulin. When corrections were made for differences in circulating cortisol concentrations achieved among age and gender subgroups, feedback inhibition of ACTH was found to be significantly greater in young than in old subjects of both genders. Our studies support the hypothesis that glucocorticoid responses to stress in aging individuals are likely to be prolonged due to blunted and delayed inhibition of ACTH secretion, thus increasing the total exposure to glucocorticoids. (J Clin Endocrinol Metab 86: [545][546][547][548][549][550] 2001) A GING IN RODENTS has been found to result in prolonged glucocorticoid responses to stress and impaired feedback inhibition of ACTH secretion by glucocorticoids (1-3). These age-related modifications of hypothalamicpituitary-adrenal (HPA) function have been linked to deficits in learning and memory (4 -6). Until recently, it has not been clear whether similar changes occur in the human HPA axis during aging. Several groups have reported age-associated increases in resting cortisol levels, especially near the nadir of the cortisol circadian rhythm (7-16). The magnitude of pituitary-adrenal responses to ovine corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) has generally not been found to change with aging in humans (17, 18). However, when human CRF has been used to provoke the HPA axis, greater ACTH and cortisol responses have been found in older individuals (19,20), both with and without concurrent administration of arginine vasopressin (19).Impairment of glucocorticoid feedback inhibition of ACTH secretion, one of the primary age-related changes in HPA function reported in animal studies, has been supported by some, but not all, human studies. Pavlov et al. (17) concluded that the finding of a trend toward increased ovine CRF-stimulated levels of plasma ACTH and cortisol in older subjects in the face of age-related increases in resting cortisol was "consistent with the hypothesis that aging is associated with decreased pituitary sensitivity to negative feedback regulation by glucocorticoids."Studies of age-related changes in feedback inhibition using dexamethasone have reported age-related impairments (11, 20 -26) or no change (18,(27)(28)(29). In these studies, dexamethason...

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“…With decreasing ability to maintain negative feedback, diurnal rhythms are expected to become altered. Nicolson, Storms, Ponds, & Sulon (1997) found a moderate increase in basal salivary cortisol levels with age but a diminished reactivity with age. In a longitudinal study, Lupien, Lecours, Schwartz, Sharma, Hauger, Meaney, & Nair (1996) found no age-associated change in basal plasma cortisol levels.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Factors influencing cortisol level and slope among community dwelling older adults in Minnesota

Ice

2005

J Cross Cult Gerontol

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Cortisol has frequently been used as a stress marker and has been shown to be elevated in response to laboratory stressors, severe real-life stressors, and daily hassles. Furthermore, variation in cortisol rhythms has been observed in some disease states and may be related to health outcomes. The majority of cortisol and stress research has been conducted on young adults. This study examines factors associated with cortisol level and slope in healthy older adults. Forty-eight older adults from the Twin Cities, MN (age = 76.4 +/- 5.8) were interviewed regarding health, stress, affect, and social networks. Participants collected saliva every two hours over a three-day period while keeping a record of their emotions and activities. Cortisol was assayed by radioimmunoassay. Data were analyzed using a random mixed effects model and linear regression. In univariate models cortisol was associated with age (p < 0.0001), time of day (p < 0.001), stress level (p = 0.01), positive affect measured in interview (p = 0.005), positive mood state (p < 0.0001), negative mood state (p = 0.09), and morningness (p = 0.0006). In multivariate models, affect was no longer significantly associated with cortisol. Age (p < 0.001), morningness (p = 0.014), physical activity (p = 0.017), and hours slept (p < 0.001) predicted cortisol slope. These results suggest that while cortisol reactivity to current mood and daily stressors may be diminished in older adults, perception of average stress on a trait level is predictive of cortisol level. As such, salivary cortisol might not be a good marker of acute stress in older adults, while still valuable to measure stress over a longer period of time.

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Salivary Cortisol Levels and Stress Reactivity in Human Aging

Abstract: Results indicate moderate increases in basal cortisol levels, but do not support the hypothesis that cortisol responses to a stressor increase in magnitude or duration during normal human aging. Gender differences in stress reactivity warrant further investigation.

Cited by 126 publications

References 44 publications

Increased abdominal-to-peripheral fat distribution contributes to altered autonomic-circulatory control with human aging

Increased abdominal-to-peripheral fat distribution contributes to altered autonomic-circulatory control with human aging

Human Glucocorticoid Feedback Inhibition Is Reduced in Older Individuals: Evening Study

Factors influencing cortisol level and slope among community dwelling older adults in Minnesota

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