---

Be Involved
Why should a “layman” be involved in a site like this? The first and foremost reason is that groups/ institutions loose sight of why they exist at all and........ .................. Read More


How Do Glucocorticoids Influence Stress Responses?
Integrating Permissive, Suppressive, Stimulatory, and Preparative Actions

ROBERT M. SAPOLSKY, L. MICHAEL ROMERO, AND ALLAN U. MUNCK Department of Biological Sciences (R.M.S.), Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305; Department of Biology (L.M.R.), Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155; and Department of Physiology (A.U.M.), Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, New Hampshire 03756

The secretion of glucocorticoids (GCs) is a classic endocrine responseto stress. Despite that, it remains controversial as to what purpose GCs serve at such times. One view, stretching back to the time of Hans Selye, posits that GCs help mediate the ongoing or pending stress response, either via basal levels of GCs permitting other facets of the stress response to emerge efficaciously, and/or by stress levels of GCs actively stimulating the stress response. In contrast, a revisionist viewpoint posits that GCs suppress the stress response, preventing it from being pathologically overactivated. In this review, we consider recent findings regarding GC action and, based on them, generate criteria for determining whether a particular GC action permits, stimulates, or suppresses an ongoing stressresponse or, as an additional category, is preparative for a subsequent stressor. We apply these GC actions to the realms of cardiovascular function, fluid volume and hemorrhage, immunity and inflammation, metabolism, neurobiology, and reproductive physiology. We find that GC actions fall into markedly different categories, depending on the physiological endpoint in question, with evidence for mediating effects in some cases, and suppressive or preparative in others. We then attempt to assimilate these heterogeneous GC actions into a physiological whole.

     Read Article (PDF Reader Required)

          About the Author - Robert Sapolsky


Book Reviews

---

THE GOOD SOLDIERS
by David Finkel. Published in Australia by Scribe Publications by arrangement with Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York. .

Read Review


The Brain that Changes Itself
by Norman Doidge, M.D. (2007)Scribe Publications Pty. Ltd.
P.O. Box 523 Carlton North, Victoria Australia.

Read Review



References and Recomended Reading

---

1 Central effects of stress hormones in health and disease: Understanding the protective and damaging effects of stress and stress mediators.

This article is written by Prof. McEwen, creator of the term Allostasis and explains clearly the effects of chronic everyday life stress on the human body. It is well worth reading in order to get an idea of Mac’s Allostatic Overload theory.

McEwen,B.S., Central effects of stress hormones in health and disease: Understanding the protective and damaging effects of stress and stress mediators.
European Journal of Pharmacology, 2008,. 583(2-3): 174-185

2 NIA Exploratory Workshop on Allostatic Load.
This paper collects together many experts on the effects of allostatic load in the elderly and identifies some directions that research might be taken. Although it focuses on older people it does give insight into the effects of ordinary life stress on the physical and psychological health of older people

Nielsen,L., Seeman,T., Hahn,M.S. (2007) NIA Exploratory Workshop on Allostatic Load. Background Materials and Statements from November 2007 Workshop Patricipants. Behavioural and Social Research Program National Institute on Ageing National Institutes of Health,Washington DC,
nielsenli@nia.nih.gov TSeeman@mednet.ucla.edu hahnan@nia.nih.gov

The following articles and papers were found at: http://www4.infotrieve.com/newmedline/search.asp?q=newmedline/search.asp
By using Google search engine and the prompt “Allostatic load”. There is a fee to download the whole article or paper, however much can be gleaned from reading the abstract which is often free to download.

3 Allostasis and allostatic load: expanding the discourse on stress and cardiovascular disease.
This article discusses the theory of Allostasis and explores the relationship of adaptation, stress and chronic health problems as they impact on the role of nurses.
Logan, J.G., Barksdale D.J. Allostasis and allostatic load: expanding the discourse on stress and cardiovascular disease. Journal of Clinical Nursing 17(7B):201-8 2008

4 Stressfull military training: endocrine reactivity, performance, and psychological impact.
This is a research project that reviews the cortisol (stress hormone) levels that are released in the saliva of soldiers undergoing stressful military training and found that levels rose in response to stress full situations.
Mac & Del have had a proposal before our military to have a similar test done during actual combat situations. We wonder if that might answer the question “What if the cortisol levels remain extremely high for a long period – how long does it take for them to return to normal or what happens if they do not return to normal”?

Taylor, MK., Sausen, KP., Potterat EG, Mujica-Parodi LR, Reis JP., Markham AE., Padilla GA., Taylor DL., Stressful military training: endocrine reactivity, performance, and psychological impact. Aviat Space Environ Med, 78 (12): 1143-9 2007

5 Psychiatric problems in medically evacuated service members
This article is a comment on a study by Cohen, S.P., Brown, C., Kurihara,C., Plunkett,A.Nguyen,C.,Strassels,S., PTSD prevalence in military personnel associated with the current actions in Afghanistan and before that Iraq has been reported at between 11.3% and 27.2% in UK and USA personnel. Despite the increased mental health resources available to treat combat stress the incidence of psychiatric conditions continues to increase. This article reviews the co-morbidity of personnel medically evacuated for other conditions that have subsequently been found to have a psychiatric condition and been unable to return to service.
The article does raise the importance of cumulative stress and its effect – and recognises there is a need for further study.

Richardson,D.J.,Sareen ,JElthai,J.D. Psychiatric problems in medically evacuated service members. The Lancet, Vol. 375, Issue 9711,Jan. 23, 2010. pp. 257-259.
and
Cohen, S.P., Brown, C., Kurihara,C., Plunkett,A.Nguyen,C.,Strassels,S. Diagnoses and factors associated with medical evacuation and return to duty for service members participating in Operation Enduring Freedom: a prospective cohort study. The Lancet, Vol. 375, Issue 9711, Jan. 23. 2010. pp. 301-309

6 Prevention of Psychiatric Problems among Military Personnel and Their Spouses
A recent editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine written by Mathew Friedman M.D. PhD. is interesting in that it raises current theories about the action of adrenalin within the body when experiencing pain and trauma. Factors associated with the possible secondary prevention of PTSD by the administration of Morphine during early care of traumatic combat injuries.
This is particularly interesting when read in conjunction with the previous article by Cohen et al as he highlights the numbers of service personnel with musculature and back injuries associated with PTSD – is there a neurological connection? Does morphine break the neurological changes associated with allostatic overload and the subsequent development of new neurological pathways?

Friedman, M., Prevention of Psychiatric Problems among Military Personnel and Their Spouses. The New England Journal of Medicine Volume 362:168-170 January 14, 2010 Number 2

7 The effects of allostatic load on the social gradient in ischaemic heart disease and peridontal disease: evidence from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
The effects of Allostatic load on lower socioeconomic groups and the possible effects on oral and cardiac health are explored in this article.
Sabbah,W., Watt,R.G., Sheiham, A., Tsakos,G., The effects of allostatic load on the social gradient in ischaemic heart disease and peridontal disease: evidence from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Journal of Epidemiology Community Health. 2008 .62(5): 415-420

8 Targeting brain angiotensin and corticotrophin-releasing hormone systems interaction for the treatment of mood and alcohol use disorders.
Although this research has been based on animal studies it is worthwhile reading in the context of the stress reaction and its basic thesis that neurochemical dysregulation underlies negative mood states.
Which begs the question “Why do so many PTSD sufferers also have problems with alcohol??” Is the desire for alcohol a want or a need due to supply those brain chemicals that are disrupted by Allostatic overload maladaption?

Sommer, WH., Saavedra, JM., Targeting brain angiotensin and corticotrophin-releasing hormone systems interaction for the treatment of mood and alcohol use disorders. Journal of Molecular Medicine, 2008 86(6): 723-8.

9. Neurobiological alterations associated with traumatic stress.

This article describes the effects of traumatic on the brain structure and function. It concludes that exposure to traumatic stress causes changes to brain systems especially the HPA axis and the limbic system and can be linked to varying symptoms including hyperarousal.

Weiss,SJ. Neurobiological alterations associated with traumatic stress. Perspect Psychiatric Care, 2007: 43(3): 114-22.

10 Psychological stress, immune function and disease development. The psychoneuroimmunologic perspective.

Accumulation of evidence of a relationship between psychological stressors and the onset or progression of chronic diseases is explored in this paper.

Schultz, K.H., Gold S., Psychological stress, immune function and disease development. The psychoneuroimmunologic perspective.
Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz 2006: 49 (8): 759-772.

 

Archive

---

If you are looking for any of the articles previously displayed on this page, try here