Cognitive Decline Linked to Stress

A 2012 study entitled The ageing cortical synapse: hallmarks and implications for cognitive decline (by John H. Morrison & Mark G. Baxter) postulates the breakthrough idea that mental decline might be related to stress, anxiety and hormonal changes rather than neuronal changes in the brain. The authors go on to suggest that cognitive impairment should be treated as a systemic problem, rather than a localized condition of the prefrontal cortex, for example.

To quote the paper itself: “The data on the effects of stress and sex steroids on the ageing brain and cognition… make it clear that the brain cannot be viewed in isolation with respect to the neurobiological basis of cognitive decline. Given the impact of menopause on women’s health, as well as the requirements to maintain optimal executive function in the face of stressful conditions, future work should target the nature of these interactions with an eye towards interventions that might be behavioural as well as pharmaceutical. “

The research was conducted in monkeys and rodents, but the implications for human cognition are significant.

The link between stress and mental decline needs a lot more research… but for aging boomers, in particular, finding ways to reduce stress and normalize cortisol seems like a very prudent thing to do.

Meditation, massage therapy, supplementation to normalize cortisol (p-serine is a good place to start), and any number of relaxation techniques will help reduce stress and anxiety and that’s always, always a good thing.

NOTE: The use of formulations like Sanyx (MySanyx.com) to lower stress-induced cortisol can be a solid first step in mitigating the negative effects of stress and anxiety. This physician-developed stress mitigating compound is the first of its kind specifically formulated to reduce excess levels of stress-induced cortisol.

You can read the article at http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v13/n4/full/nrn3200.html

Stress Is Neither Sexy nor Appealing

Researchers photographed 52 ‘good-looking’ Latvian women with an average age of 20, then vaccinated each for hepatitis B and measured how many antibodies they produced as a result. However, they also found that cortisol levels were also higher.

A new study confirms the fact that stressed out women are not attractive to men.
The study, done in Finland,  found that women with higher cortisol levels were considered less attractive than those with lower levels. Bottom line: stress plays a more important role is attractiveness than the researchers ever thought. In fact, the results came as a surprise… the study was meant to correlate immunity with attractiveness but then things went awry.

The research team then asked 18 heterosexual male undergraduates to rate the women on their attractiveness and found that higher cortisol levels in the women correlated with how attractive the men found them.

The study also found a link between how much fat each women carried and how attractive they were considered. Too high or low amounts of body fat reduced the women’s attractiveness. In other words, those who were too thin were regarded as just as unattractive as those were seen as too fat.

Dr Markus Rantala speculated that instead low levels of cortisol could signal health in the female face.

“This would be consistent with many studies in humans that have found stress has strong negative effect on health, including immune function, heart disease and susceptibility to cancer, etc…” he said.

Rantala added that an alternative explanation for the findings is that facial attractiveness indicates reproductive potential which is mediated partly by stress hormones. In fact, past research has shown that stress interferes with fertility.

NOTE: A 2010 study showed that when men in the company of a beautiful woman had higher levels of cortisol, especially when left alone for five minutes. And if the men thought the women were out of their league, so to speak, cortisol levels soared. Ahhh… the tension caused by being too close to beauty.

And yes, this is yet another reason to control stress by balancing cortisol output with things like meditation, yoga, exercise, deep breathing and Sanyx Stress Mitigating Compound.

Cortisol and Stress Affect Eating Habits

It’s common knowledge that excess cortisol causes the body to store excess fat around the middle.  Few dispute this fact. When the body is consistently stressed, the effects of elevated cortisol create a demand for more fats to be deposited to the abdominal area, where cortisol receptors are higher.

But the increased girth is caused by other factors, too… related to how and what we eat when were under pressure.

Stress can drive us to eat comfort foods, generally fast foods loaded with salt, fat and sugar. Plus, these foods destroy our self-control. In short, we eat ‘bad’ food in excess.

When we’re stressed we grab the easiest, most convenient, and tastiest food – burgers, pizza, chicken nuggets, chips, etc. You know – a 7-11 diet.

Plus, high consumption of alcohol is also another by-product of stress. Alcohol is caloric… alcohol in excess is excessively caloric. One is never enough and two are just nice.

Three pints of beer = 500 calories. Do this twice a week and you’ve added 4,000 calories in a month. A year later, you’re at least 10 pounds heavier (13.7 pounds to be exact).

Eating and drinking comfort foods can help feel calm, but their long-term effects are horrific to your shape and your health.

Control stress, reduce cortisol… and stay slim around the middle. In fact, controlling cortisol through diet, meditation, biometric (mHealth) testing and supplementation, (see http://www.MySanyx.com), could be the best weight loss plan ever… and the simplest.

Sanyx 101: Manage Stress and Cortisol for Heart Health

We all know that stress can cause a laundry list of health problems… mental and physical. Your hair can fall out, for example; your sleep patterns can be disrupted; your appetite can increase along with your waistline.

A recent study from The Netherlands showed that increased cortisol in the hair samples of older men and women was indicative of cardiovascular health. Essentially, higher cortisol and stress levels – can greatly increase your chance at sustaining future heart disease.

Over three months, researchers used scalp hair analysis to identify patterns in levels of cortisol in roughly 300 seniors aged 65 - 85. They found that those with elevated cortisol levels over a period of time were more likely to be at risk for cardiovascular disease, and they also were more likely to have a history of stroke, diabetes, peripheral arterial disease, and coronary heart disease.

"Because scalp hair can capture information about how cortisol levels have changed over time, hair analysis gives us a better tool for evaluating that risk,” said study co-author Laura Manenschijn, MD.

Bottom line: elevated cortisol levels show a strong link to cardiovascular disease.

And while the study was not related to lowering cortisol levels, it seems to follow that doing so, through the use of supplements like Sanyx, could have a positive effect on heart health, among other things.

Sanyx Update: Cortisol, Stress and Decision Making

Can stress and cortisol levels affect how well we make decisions?

You bet.

A study conducted by researchers at the University of Granada Group of Neuropsychology and Clinical Psychoneuroimmunology demonstrated that cortisol levels in saliva are associated with a person's ability to make good decisions in stressful situations. Low levels mean less psychological stress and ultimately better thinking.

The University of Granada researchers evaluated the decision-making process in 40 healthy women. Participants were asked to perform the so-called Iowa Gambling Task. Next, they were presented with a stressful situation in a virtual environment (delivering a speech). Researchers evaluated the participants' response to stress by measuring cortisol levels in saliva at different points of the stressful situation.

Professors Isabel Peralta and Ana Santos state that this study provides preliminary evidence on an existing relationship between decision-making ability… which may play a major role in coping with stress- and low cortisol levels in psychosocially stressful situations.

This means that the effects of psychological stress on the health people with lower cortisol levels might be milder.

Corticosterone and Anxiety

Numerous animal studies continue to expand our knowledge of the role corticosterone plays in anxiety and depression. Balancing cortisol, reducing large spikes between high and low levels, is a promising way to help limit anxiety, and the concomitant cognitive impairment that can follow.

In-home testing, using a smartphone and a 'simple' testing device from iCalQ can help people chart cortisol levels and take appropriate steps (meditation, supplementation, exercise, etc.) to reduce cortisol.

Following are some observations from Stress and anxiety: Structural plasticity and epigenetic regulation as a consequence of stress

Bruce S. McEwen, Ph.D., Lisa Eiland, M.D., Richard G. Hunter, Ph.D, and Melinda M.
Miller, Ph.D.

Neuropharmacology. 2012 January ; 62(1): 3–12  


"Moreover, chronic corticosterone treatment in the drinking water produces an anxiogenic effect that could be due to the glucocorticoid enhancement of CRF activity in the amygdala."

Acute vs chronic stress effects
Responses to acute and chronic stress in both the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex present challenges to our understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms. In the amygdala, while chronic stress causes dendrites in the basolateral amygdala to increase in length along with increased spine density on dendrites, a single acute stress to a naïve rat causes increased spine density without increased dendritic branching or length after a 10d interval. The former increase in dendritic length after chronic stress can be mimicked by a single, acute injection of a large dose of glucocorticoids. Yet, in relation to the effect of the single traumatic stressor, glucocorticoid presence before the traumatic stressor prevents the delayed increase in dendritic spines. This raises, again, the important issue that both glucocorticoid dose and timing are important for the outcome. Since actions of adrenal steroids can directly or indirectly affect gene expression through direct interactions with response elements or indirect signaling via second messenger pathways, the regulation of gene expression may provide some clues. So far the hippocampus has begun to provide some insights.

Dysregulation of Glucocorticoids and Cognitive Impairment

Increasingly, the role that glucocorticoids play in stress response, depression, anxiety and cognitive impairment is coming under study. The effects are well known; what isn't understood are the mechanisms involved.


Adult hippocampal neurogenesis buffers stress responses and depressive behavior

Jason S Snyder, Amélie Soumier, Michelle Brewer, James Pickel, and Heather A Cameron National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD, 20892

Nature; 476(7361): 458–461.
Summary
Glucocorticoids are released in response to stressful experiences and serve many beneficial
homeostatic functions. However, dysregulation of glucocorticoids is associated with cognitive impairments and depressive illness. In the hippocampus, a brain region densely populated with receptors for stress hormones, stress and glucocorticoids strongly inhibit adult neurogenesis. Decreased neurogenesis has been implicated in the pathogenesis of anxiety and depression, but direct evidence for this role is lacking. Here we show that adult-born hippocampal neurons are required for normal expression of the endocrine and behavioral components of the stress response. Using transgenic and radiation methods to specifically inhibit adult neurogenesis, we find that glucocorticoid levels are slower to recover after moderate stress and are less suppressed by dexamethasone in neurogenesis-deficient mice compared with intact mice, consistent with a role for the hippocampus in regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Relative to controls, neurogenesis-deficient mice showed increased food avoidance in a novel environment
after acute stress, increased behavioral despair in the forced swim test, and decreased sucrose preference, a measure of anhedonia. These findings identify a small subset of neurons within the dentate gyrus that are critical for hippocampal negative control of the HPA axis and support a direct role for adult neurogenesis in depressive illness.