Hormone Imbalances: High Cortisol https://greenmedinfo.com/taxonomy/term/12656/all en Evidence for stress-like alterations in the HPA-axis in women taking oral contraceptives. https://greenmedinfo.com/article/evidence-stress-alterations-hpa-axis-women-taking-oral-contraceptives PMID:  Sci Rep. 2017 Oct 26 ;7(1):14111. Epub 2017 Oct 26. PMID: 29074884 Abstract Title:  Evidence for Stress-like Alterations in the HPA-Axis in Women Taking Oral Contraceptives. Abstract:  Using oral contraceptives has been implicated in the aetiology of stress-related disorders like depression. Here, we followed the hypothesis that oral contraceptives deregulate the HPA-axis by elevating circulating cortisol levels. We report for a sample of 233 pre-menopausal women increased circulating cortisol levels in those using oral contraceptives. For women taking oral contraceptives, we observed alterations in circulating phospholipid levels and elevated triglycerides and found evidence for increased glucocorticoid signalling as the transcript levels of the glucocorticoid-regulated genes DDIT4 and FKBP5 were increased in whole blood. The effects were statistically mediated by cortisol. The associations of oral contraceptives with higher FKBP5 mRNA and altered phospholipid levels were modified by rs1360780, a genetic variance implicated in psychiatric diseases. Accordingly, the methylation pattern of FKBP5 intron 7 was altered in women taking oral contraceptives depending on the rs1360780 genotype. Moreover, oral contraceptives modified the association of circulating cortisol with depressive symptoms, potentially explaining conflicting results in the literature. Finally, women taking oral contraceptives displayed smaller hippocampal volumes than non-using women. In conclusion, the integrative analyses of different types of physiological data provided converging evidence indicating that oral contraceptives may cause effects analogous to chronic psychological stressors regarding the regulation of the HPA axis. <p><a href="https://greenmedinfo.com/article/evidence-stress-alterations-hpa-axis-women-taking-oral-contraceptives" target="_blank">read more</a></p> https://greenmedinfo.com/article/evidence-stress-alterations-hpa-axis-women-taking-oral-contraceptives#comments Hormone Imbalances: High Cortisol Oral Contraceptives Human Study Thu, 21 Jun 2018 20:42:16 +0000 greenmedinfo 166121 at https://greenmedinfo.com The present study revealed a significant combined effect of walking and the environment on cortisol concentrations. https://greenmedinfo.com/article/present-study-revealed-significant-combined-effect-walking-and-environment-cor PMID:  Front Public Health. 2019 ;7:376. Epub 2019 Dec 12. PMID: 31921741 Abstract Title:  Combined Effect of Walking and Forest Environment on Salivary Cortisol Concentration. Abstract:  We investigated the effects of walking in a forest environment on salivary cortisol concentrations. Seventy-four young male participants walked for 15 min in forested and urban environments, and saliva was collected before and after walking. Our previous study reported salivary cortisol concentrations after walking only. This study was aimed at clarifying the combined effects of walking and environment by comparing post-walking data with pre-walking data. Walking in a forest environment decreased mean cortisol concentration from 9.70 to 8.37 nmol/L, whereas walking in an urban environment barely changed mean cortisol concentration, from 10.28 to 10.01 nmol/L. Two-way repeated analysis of variance revealed a significant interaction effect between the environment and walking (<p><a href="https://greenmedinfo.com/article/present-study-revealed-significant-combined-effect-walking-and-environment-cor" target="_blank">read more</a></p> https://greenmedinfo.com/article/present-study-revealed-significant-combined-effect-walking-and-environment-cor#comments Hormone Imbalances: High Cortisol Shinrin-yoku (taking in the atmosphere of the forest) Risk Reduction Human Study Thu, 13 Feb 2020 01:27:18 +0000 greenmedinfo 211582 at https://greenmedinfo.com