Word: cortisol
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...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...
...thing, being overweight or obese is linked to hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol, all of which contribute to blocked arteries and decreased blood supply to the brain. "Fat alone," she adds, "could be the problem, as it leads to increased levels of brain-attacking hormones, such as cortisol...
...people, relaxation techniques such as yoga and meditation may help. Stress contributes to hypertension, in part by causing the release of cortisol and adrenaline, which in turn boost blood pressure. In one recent study at Yale University, volunteers in a small sample group showed measurable relaxation of arteries after sessions of yoga and meditation, although the improvement was not enough to eliminate elevated pressure. Doctors treating hypertension or prehypertension thus do not recommend relaxation as a substitute for diet, exercise and medication. As an adjunct, however--one more way to unknot the body--it may help...
...according to an article in the current issue of Brain, Behavior and Immunity. Stanford University's Dr. David Spiegel and his colleagues point to studies showing that shift workers have higher rates of breast cancer than women who sleep normal hours. Two possible culprits are the hormones melatonin and cortisol. Melatonin is an antioxidant that mops up damaging free radicals, but the body produces less of it when sleep cycles are disrupted. Cortisol, which helps regulate the immune system, may also be compromised by troubled sleep. Says Spiegel: "Cancer might be something to lose sleep over, but we'd rather...
...UCSF research, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is that it suggests that the extra girth can actually have a calming effect on the brain. Something in the abdominal fat--the researchers aren't sure what--seems to lower the rats' production of cortisol and other stress hormones. "This is absolutely a working hypothesis," says Mary Dallman, the neuroscientist who led the UCSF experiments. "But everything we see says there's a feedback from the belly fat to the brain...