Who is stressed? Comparing cortisol levels between individuals

Nepomnaschy, Pablo A.; Lee, Terry C. K.; Zeng, Leilei; Dean, C. B.

doi:10.1002/ajhb.22259

Cited by 21 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…10–15 specimens per individual) would be needed to get a true baseline for a sample size of 5–30 cycling female participants [65]. Less is known about the variance of male cortisol values.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political influence associates with cortisol and health among egalitarian forager-farmers

Rueden

Trumble

Thompson

et al. 2014

Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health

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Background and objectives: Low social status increases risk of disease due, in part, to the psychosocial stress that accompanies feeling subordinate or poor. Previous studies report that chronic stress and chronically elevated cortisol can impair cardiovascular and immune function. We test whether lower status is more benign in small-scale, relatively egalitarian societies, where leaders lack coercive authority and there is minimal material wealth to contest.Methodology: Among Tsimane’ forager-horticulturalists of lowland Bolivia, we compare informal political influence among men with urinary cortisol, immune activation (innate and acquired), and morbidity as assessed during routine medical exams.Results: After controlling for potential confounds, we find that politically influential men have lower cortisol, and that this association is partly attributable to access to social support. Cortisol is positively associated with men’s income, which may reflect chronic psychosocial stress from market involvement. Greater influence is also associated with lower probability of respiratory infection, which is a frequent source of morbidity among Tsimane’. Among men who lost influence over a 4-year period, cortisol and probability of respiratory infection were higher the greater the decline in influence.Conclusions and implications: Deleterious effects of low status on health are not merely ‘diseases of civilization’ but may result from how (even subtle) status differences structure human behavior.

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Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political influence associates with cortisol and health among egalitarian forager-farmers

Rueden

Trumble

Thompson

et al. 2014

Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health

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“…Future work should examine cortisol levels on the same day in which women are asked to keep a diary and/or wear an ambulatory hot flash monitor (Rubin et al 2014). Another limitation is that the timing of the true peak in CAR for each individual is not known, and this could affect the levels of cortisol measured (Nepomnaschy et al 2012). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hot flashes and midlife symptoms in relation to levels of salivary cortisol

2017

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Objectives This study examined the relationship between salivary cortisol levels and hot flashes during midlife. Previous studies have shown that cortisol levels increase with hot flashes in the laboratory, and higher cortisol levels have been associated with more severe hot flashes. Salivary cortisol levels were also examined in relation to total number of midlife symptoms. Methods Women aged 40-60 years (n=109) reported the presence or absence of 23 symptoms, including hot flashes, during the previous 2 weeks. Salivary samples were collected at waking, 30 minutes after waking, 1 hour before bedtime, and at bedtime. The cortisol awakening response (CAR), cortisol daily decline (CDD), log transformed salivary cortisol levels at each time point, and mean cortisol levels were compared by hot flash report using t-tests. Logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the association between each cortisol measure and the presence or absence of hot flashes, after controlling for potential covariates. Results Salivary cortisol levels were not significantly associated with hot flashes or sum of symptoms. Hot flash report did not differentiate women who had a positive CAR from those who did not, or women who showed strong CDD from those who did not. Conclusion Symptomatic women – defined by hot flash report or symptom total – were not found to have higher salivary cortisol levels.

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“…Participants provided, on average, 19 ± 1.90 FMU samples each (average ± sample SD; range: 13–22). This sampling collection protocol permitted us to determine an average level of FMU cortisol for each individual and monitor day-to-day variation in urinary free cortisol levels within- and among-individuals [35]. Upon waking, participants collected their first urinary voids into sterile, inert plastic containers provided by our research team the night before the collection day.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We have previously argued that the use of first morning urinary cortisol allows for a tighter control of these confounders than cortisol quantification in other matrices such as saliva and blood [34]. Additionally, basal HPAA activity and responsivity varies markedly within and between individuals [35,36]. Thus, the single cortisol measurement frequently used in cross-sectional studies is not adequate to accurately assess HPAA activity [35].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, basal HPAA activity and responsivity varies markedly within and between individuals [35,36]. Thus, the single cortisol measurement frequently used in cross-sectional studies is not adequate to accurately assess HPAA activity [35]. Along the same lines, accurately assessing telomere attrition requires multiple TL measurements across time, which cross-sectional studies lack.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Child mortality, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity and cellular aging in mothers

et al. 2017

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Psychological challenges, including traumatic events, have been hypothesized to increase the age-related pace of biological aging. Here we test the hypothesis that psychological challenges can affect the pace of telomere attrition, a marker of cellular aging, using data from an ongoing longitudinal-cohort study of Kaqchikel Mayan women living in a population with a high frequency of child mortality, a traumatic life event. Specifically, we evaluate the associations between child mortality, maternal telomere length and the mothers’ hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA), or stress axis, activity. Child mortality data were collected in 2000 and 2013. HPAA activity was assessed by quantifying cortisol levels in first morning urinary specimens collected every other day for seven weeks in 2013. Telomere length (TL) was quantified using qPCR in 55 women from buccal specimens collected in 2013. Results: Shorter TL with increasing age was only observed in women who experienced child mortality (p = 0.015). Women with higher average basal cortisol (p = 0.007) and greater within-individual variation (standard deviation) in basal cortisol (p = 0.053) presented shorter TL. Non-parametric bootstrapping to estimate mediation effects suggests that HPAA activity mediates the effect of child mortality on TL. Our results are, thus, consistent with the hypothesis that traumatic events can influence cellular aging and that HPAA activity may play a mediatory role. Future large-scale longitudinal studies are necessary to confirm our results and further explore the role of the HPAA in cellular aging, as well as to advance our understanding of the underlying mechanisms involved.

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Who is stressed? Comparing cortisol levels between individuals

Cited by 21 publications

References 40 publications

Political influence associates with cortisol and health among egalitarian forager-farmers

Political influence associates with cortisol and health among egalitarian forager-farmers

Hot flashes and midlife symptoms in relation to levels of salivary cortisol

Child mortality, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity and cellular aging in mothers

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