Word: cortisol
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...theory is that indulging food cravings--especially for energy-dense foods like ice cream and candy--is an expression of chronic stress, triggered perhaps by cortisol, the hormone that mediates stress. Such cravings might have made evolutionary sense in times of scarcity. Now, with energy-dense food available in every convenience store, they work against us. (The cortisol theory of overeating has led to aggressive marketing of dubious dietary supplements that claim to slim you down by reducing cortisol levels without your having to give up foods you like...
Scientists at the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital recently discovered that long-term exposure to stress hormones may be the cause of some symptoms of depression. Researchers wanted to determine the exact nature of the long-recognized link between high cortisol levels and depression. Cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress, increases blood pressure and blood sugar, preparing the body to deal with a stressor. Paul A. Ardayfio, a graduate student at the Harvard Medical School who ran these experiments as part of his dissertation, explained that “we’ve known for over a century that...
...parents what their day's been like, but researcher Sims believes there is a simple way to find out - and to bring some scientific clarity to a debate often ruled by emotional battles about what a "good" mother should do. By measuring children's levels of the stress hormone cortisol, Sims says it's possible to gauge how they're reacting to their surroundings. Her initial research showed that the better the care - "where children felt loved and safe and secure, and where care-givers knew them as individuals" - the lower their cortisol levels. Because chronically high cortisol levels...
...went on the drugs and felt better in two weeks. Author of the recently reprinted handbook Depression Explained (ABC Books), Smith espouses the biological theory of depression, of which, in her view, serotonin deficiency is just a component. "The pathway into depression is via anxiety and the overproduction of cortisol," she says. Depression still descends on her intermittently. She can "feel the biology kicking in," she says; when that happens she knows she's left things too late to recover without drugs, which she uses...
...yearning for supremacy can create its own set of problems. Heart attacks, ulcers and other stress-related ills are more common among high achievers--and that includes nonhuman achievers. The blood of alpha wolves routinely shows elevated levels of cortisol, the same stress hormone that is found in anxious humans. Alpha chimps even suffer ulcers and occasional heart attacks...