Work Less Stressful than Home? Yes, Says Cortisol Testing

It’s funny… but if you ask most Americans which is more stressful work or home, work always gets the nod. But not so, says the British newspaper reporting on a study done by a California researcher, Arlie Hochschild.

She was curious why employees at Fortune 500 companies did not take advantage of flex time, part time, maternity leave and other family-friendly benefits. It seems many of us see work as an escape from family problems. In fact, 20% of those she interviewed said they felt more supported and appreciated at work.

Then, Penn State researchers took up Hochschild’s work and recruited 122 men and women, most with ‘good’ jobs (not minimum wage, with salaries between $35K and 75K) and used saliva testing (a la www.i-calq.com and www.MySanyx.com) to measure cortisol levels.

As reported in www.bizpsycho.com/tag/cortisol/: “Over a 3-day period each participant gave a saliva sample which was tested for the level of cortisol, a stress hormone.  Each participant was also asked 6 times a day how happy they felt and how much stress they were under. The researchers found that cortisol levels, a biological marker of stress, were significantly lower at work than at home, indicating lower levels of stress at work.

“Although this goes against the idea that work is stressful it supports the fact that people who work have better levels of mental and physical health than people who don’t work.”

According to Peak Biometric Research, the manufacturers of Sanyx, the physician-created ‘Stress Mitigating Compound’ designed to limit the effects of excess cortisol, “We’ve gotten a lot of anecdotal evidence from Sanyx users who test their cortisol levels with the i-calQ smartphone app (www.i-calQ.com). They say their cortisol is higher on weekends when we suppose they’re spending more time at home.”

Stress and resulting excess cortisol have been called the new American health epidemic. That may seem like an exaggeration, but when we see research like this, it makes you wonder if calling it an epidemic is pretty accurate.

High Levels of Cortisol Passed from Mother to Baby

Excess cortisol continues to stun the medical community with its ubiquitous power t cause physical and mental damage. Now a study by the University of Colorado Denver found that low-income groups experienced high level of the stress hormone during pregnancy. You can imagine why. But here’s the kicker – the serious bit: these children face a heightened risk of developing serious diseases later in life.

What diseases?

Several chronic ailments including cardiovascular disease and mental illness.

We’re not kidding.

Researchers studies 64 pregnant women in New Zealand with several stress markers, including unemployment, divorce, and abuse, among a list of 19 stressors.

“The babies of lower socioeconomic mothers had higher cortisol response to the stress of the vaccination," said study author Zaneta Thayer. “Such changes have elsewhere been associated with differences in cognition, temperament and physical health… Our findings suggest that stressful social environments experienced by a mother impact her offspring... and that this is already detectable in the first weeks after birth."

These results are sad and astounding.

At Peak Biometric Research we offer a unique formulation, Sanyx (www.MySanyx.com), which helps reduce the effects of excess cortisol on target organs… BUT, this breakthrough is not meant to be used by pregnant women. We wish it were otherwise.

However, we license a personal, smart-phone based, physician-created testing system, called i-CalQ, which can help women monitor cortisol levels at home, so they and their doctors can take appropriate steps to lower stress. If necessary.

This inexpensive unit attaches to your smartphone and uses a drop of saliva to test. Results are available in minutes.

For more information, please visit www.i-CalQ.com for complete details.

Stress Is Contagious

I've always said that when it comes to stress, some people are carriers. This study seems to agree. And didn't our parents always tell us to stay away from negative people. They were right.

According to a new study which paired observers and stressed-out people of the opposite sex, some 26% of observers experienced a boost in cortisol, indicating stress. "The fact that we could actually measure this empathic stress in the form of a significant hormone release was astonishing," says a study author. The empathic stress occurred in 30% of observers watching the stressful situation through a one way mirror—but another 24% of observers experienced it when they were simply watching the event on video.  "Even television programs depicting the suffering of other people can transmit that stress to viewers," says a study author.

Imagine -- out cortisol levels increase when we're just around stressful situations and not involved. And watching television raised cortisol levels, too. No wonder belly fat, stress and anxiety are at epidemic proportions.

Sanyx (www,mysanyx.com) just might be the most important supplement we'll ever take -- at least when it comes to reducing the negative effects of excess stress.

Too Much Cortisol/Stress Means Not Enough Sex... Particularly for Women

Stress is not good for your sex life. But before you think it’s all about stress ruining the mood, researchers are saying that it’s more about the way your body handles stress, this according to the Journal of Sexual Medicine. Not surprisingly, cortisol levels play a role.

In a recent study, a sample of women were divided into two groups — a high-stress and average-stress — then measured their levels of arousal while they watched an erotic video.

The women in the high-stress group showed lower levels of genital arousal, higher levels of distraction, and higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which researchers hypothesize contributed to decreased physical arousal.

In other words, when your brain is preoccupied with stressful thoughts your below-the-belt area isn't primed to operate at peak performance.

Again, too much cortisol, not enough sexual arousal. Ironically, the best way to improve sexual arousal is to get some action. According to experts, having an orgasm is a great way to relieve stress.

Again, I think we all knew that.

Children of Poverty – Cortisol/Stress Affects Cognitive Development

As reported in The Washington Post, "Chronic stress from growing up poor appears to have a direct impact on the brain, leaving children with impairment in at least one key area – working memory."

A study of 195 children (ages 9, 13 and 17) from households living above and below the poverty line took a look at stress levels by measuring the stress hormones cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine with blood pressure and body-mass index data.

The unfortunate results?

"The longer they lived in poverty, the higher the allostatic load (wear and tear on the body) and the lower the working memory score," the study found.

New questions are arising based on this research. What about stress caused by factors other than poverty? What about adult brains and an increased allostatic load?

The Post asks: “What is the effect of the allostatic load in women from the chronic dangers and stresses of being treated as second-class citizens all their lives? What does the allostatic load do to the working memory of males who are shorter and more slenderly built than the bullies at school? And what does it do to members of any devalued racial or ethnic group in society?”

Seems that continues stress in all shapes and forms has severely negative effects on cognition and overall brain performance.

Now it’s clear to see why controlling excess cortisol via products like Sanyx (http://www.MySanyx.com) -- and measuring the results using biometric devices -- are so important to overall health and well being. It’s no exaggeration that cortisol agonists can be among the most important supplements we can take… given the laundry list of harmful effects excess stress and cortisol can encourage.

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.

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.

Stress, Cognitive Impairment and Cortisol

Repeated Stress Causes Cognitive Impairment by Suppressing Glutamate Receptor Expression and Function in Prefrontal Cortex

Eunice Y. Yuen, Jing Wei, Wenhua Liu, Ping Zhong, Xiangning Li, and Zhen Yan

(Neuron 73, 962–977, March 8, 2012)

In the Introduction to this important article related to chronic stress and maladaptive changes, the authors clearly outline the relationship between adrenal corticosterone and a number of cognitive and emotional distrubances.


Adrenal corticosterone, the major stress hormone, through the activation of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), can induce long-lasting influences on cognitive and emotional processes. Mounting evidence suggests that inappropriate stress responses act as a trigger for many mental illnesses. For example, depression is associated with hypercortisolaemia (excessive cortisol, whereas posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been linked to hypocortisolaemia (insufficient cortisol), resulting from an enhanced negative feedback by cortisol (Yehuda, 2002). Thus, corticosteroid hormones are thought to serve as a key controller for adaptation and maintenance of homeostasis in situations of acute stress, as well as maladaptive changes in response to chronic and repeated stress that lead to cognitive and emotional disturbances symptomatic of stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders...

Chronic stress or glucocorticoid treatment has been found to cause structural remodeling and behavioral alterations in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) from adult animals, such as dendritic shortening, spine loss, and neuronal atrophy, as well as impairment in cognitive flexibility and perceptual attention...

Cortisol and Abdominal Obesity

Interesting observation taken from:

The molecular neurobiology of depressionVaishnav Krishnan and Eric J. Nestler


Published in final edited form as:

Nature. 2008 October 16; 455(7215): 894–902. doi:10.1038/nature07455.

Abstract
Unravelling the pathophysiology of depression is a unique challenge. Not only are depressive syndromes heterogeneous and their aetiologies diverse, but symptoms such as guilt and suicidality are impossible to reproduce in animal models. Nevertheless, other symptoms have been accurately modelled, and these, together with clinical data, are providing insight into the neurobiology of depression. Recent studies combining behavioural, molecular and electrophysiological techniques reveal that certain aspects of depression result from maladaptive stress-induced neuroplastic changes in specific neural circuits. They also show that understanding the mechanisms of resilience to stress offers a crucial new dimension for the development of fundamentally novel antidepressant treatments.

Here's the interesting bit related to obesity:

Several metabolic abnormalities that are often associated with depression, such as insulin resistance and abdominal obesity, can be at least partly explained by an increase in glucocorticoids. Hypercortisolaemia in depression is manifested at several levels, including impaired glucocorticoid-receptor-mediated negative feedback, adrenal hyper-responsiveness to circulating adreno-corticotropic hormone (ACTH) and hypersecretion of cortico tropinreleasing factor, the hypothalamic activator of ACTH release from the pituitary. In line with these findings, glucocorticoid and corticotropin-releasing factor receptor antagonists are currently being tested in clinical trials.