Cortisol Research Paper

Stress Is the body’s way of responding to the hectic lives most of us live, whether good or bad. The body releases chemicals into the bloodstream, which creates a rush of energy and strength If an individual is feeling stressed. This energy can prove useful if an individual is in physical danger. Because it enables a person’s survival instinct kicks in; it is often described as ‘fight or flight.’ In addition, stress can also have a negative effect on the body, for example: suffering from stress and leaving it unchecked can contribute to health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.

In an acute stressor, the immune system is heightened. But is suppressed in a chronic stressor. In this situation the cortisol levels rise, and weaken the immune system. This weaken system can make the human body more susceptible to serious disease, infections

     Cortisol is in the class of hormones called glucocorticoids and affects almost every organ in the body. One of the most important functions of cortisol is to help regulate the body’s response to stress. Cortisol is also responsible for other necessary functions including: helping to maintain blood pressure and

The biological purpose of the stress response is to help the body to survive either some sort of attack or a serious illness like a stroke or heart attack. During the stress response glucocorticoids divert the bodies energy to the areas necessary for survival like the muscles and the brain and it shuts down the areas that are not necessary for survival like the digestive and immune systems (Sopolsky, 2009). Chronic Stress in this context, is to experience this physical effect on regular or long term basis. This has become a public health issue for humans because we experience this chronic biological response on a too frequent a basis for psychological reasons (Stress, 2008).

Viewed from an evolutionary standpoint, in early times stress caused the stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system resulting in an outpouring of the hormones epinephrine, norepinephrine, and glucocorticoids that were essential to the life-preserving fight or flight reactions of primitive man (Anthony 1988). However, the nature of stress for the individual today is different. It is only occasionally and unexpectedly that one is confronted with overwhelming, life-threatening stresses. Present stresses arise from everyday stresses of work, finances and school. The problem is that the body still continues to respond in the same fashion as primitive times. This makes the large release of hormones very harmful. They can cause an increase in blood pressure, damage muscle tissue, lead to infertility, inhibit growth, damage the hippocampus and suppress the immune system (Carlson 1994). It is therefore, important that individuals learn to control the stresses in their lives. The more detrimental coping behaviors will cause a larger change

How is stressing causing horrible problems for people and continuing with bad outcomes that might lead them bankrupt or dead. How cortisol is effecting humans and making them choose bad mistakes that might be life threatening. I agree that it’ll lead to stupid mistakes that you can never take back. In my personal life I’ve made stupid stuff that caused a lot of trouble and made me label as an idiot. This one time I lost my keys at my cousin’s house and made a fool of myself because they were in my car that whole time. A psychologist named Gary Klien made a discovery on how to prevent stress, by being smart and planning ahead of the time when you are in rush so put the stuff you need in a certain place, to prepare for an doctor appointment

Cortisol is vital in maintaining bodily homeostasis. Some roles of cortisol include, maintaining blood pressure, slowing down the immune system 's inflammatory response and helping the body to respond to stress.

Most widely used matrices for assessing cortisol are blood and saliva. Both these methods are Point estimates oh HPA activities that are subject to circadian station to be confounded by environmental disturbances. Urinary and fecal samples your measurements of cortisol that’s been a number of hours of two a full day in some cases. Collection of multiple samples using any of these matrices be provided rest composite and index of court levels over time. Measuring cortisol has begun to fill the void trip truly long term index and HPA activity. Meyer & Novak 2012 To date, the majority of studies have investigated cortisol responses using samples of serum, saliva, or urine. The most commonly used assays to detect cortisol in these samples are radioimmunoassays

A person suffers from Cushing’s syndrome when there are large proportions of cortisol in his body. Cortisol is a hormone, which is created by the adrenal glands. Cortisol is very helpful for the human, but big amounts of her can damage the human body. It has the ability to help people in stressful circumstances, such as a trauma or illness. It is generated at varying rates during the day, with higher amounts in the morning and less during the night. Cushing’s syndrome produces high cortisol levels whatever the cause or time.

​Emotional eating is such a disorder in which tends people to either eat excessively or abstain from eating anything. It may also be defined as continuous or over eating particularly for relieving the negative emotions. Therefore, many scientists and analysts consider emotional eating as maladaptive coping strategy. It has disastrous consequences for the individuals. For example, if this habit of emotional eating is developed within any individual, it can drift that person towards the risk of other eating disorders as well. These eating disorders include anorexia and bulimia nervosa. The issue of emotional eating is not limited to a particular age group or class. A whole range of individuals including youth and old people may undergo this problem. However, it is pertinent to understand the gravity of emotional eating which can give birth to several psychological problems as well.

Stress is another source of hormonal changes. When you're getting stressed, there is an organ called the adrenal gland that creates the stress hormone cortisol and puts it out into the body to enable the body to deal with stress.

Cortisol level still high after the dexamethasone suppression test, so it means that there is abnormal release of the cortisol hormone which refers to Cushing syndrome. In this case, it could be due to adrenal gland disease such as Adrenal adenomas and Micronodular hyperplasia.

Cortisol – commonly known as “the stress hormone” – is a steroid hormone regulated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, an interaction of endocrine glands thought to be crucial in adapting to behavioural and environmental changes. Cortisol effects many functions within the body, including control of blood sugar levels, regulating the metabolism, reducing inflammation and assisting in immune responses (Randall, 2010; Shu-Fen et al. 2015). The main function of cortisol is to restore homeostasis to the body following stress, and it is the primary hormone responsible for the stress response. Fluctuation of cortisol levels throughout the day is normal for humans, however, sustained high levels of cortisol can have adverse effects. These can include serious health implications

Central stress circuitry includes hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA). There also exist a negative feedback loop between HPA axis and the immune system. Signaling is mediated by corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH), glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoid and their related receptors (Turnbull and Rivier, 1999). There also exists a negative feedback loop via glucocorticoid receptors and melanocorticoid receptors within the hippocampus (Turnbull and Rivier, 1999; Kellendonk et al., 2002). Dysregulation of HPA axis in rodents (Landgraf and Wigger, 2002; Jakovcecski et al., 2011) and in humans (Coryell et al., 2006) leads to anxiety and depression like symptoms respectively. Whereas, correction of the HPA axis with medications have shown improvement in depression (Wilkinson and Goodyer, 2011). Increase in levels of IL-1, TNF–α and increased mortality following immune challenge with LPS (Perretti et al., 1993; Goujon et al., 1996) have been reported in adrenalectomized rodents. The stress response in adrenalectomized rodents is reversible with dexamethasone treatment (Butler et al., 1989).

Stress affects the body in many different ways. Many doctors estimate that stress is involved in more than half of all illnesses (Sapolsky, 21). Stress may cause or prolong an illness or increase its severity. Epinephrine and norepinephrine are hormones that are released during a stress reaction that affect organs throughout the body. As a result from the hormones being secreted, the heart begins to beat more rapidly, muscle tension increases, blood pressure raises, and heavy breathing may occur. This reaction is known as the fight-or-flight response. The fight-or-flight response energizes the body to either confront or flee from a threat. Heredity, learning, and injuries all play a role in determining where or when a stress related illness may occur in a particular individual (Sapolsky, 22).