Adaptation, Psychological

Publication Title: 
Journal of the Royal Society of Health

Morbidity and longevity among the middle-aged and elderly are affected by a variety of factors including genetics, social class, diet, smoking practice, alcohol consumption, and physical activity. Additionally, in some individuals and communities, the factors of attitude, regularity of life and religiosity appear important. In this contribution, some behavioural and metabolic ramifications of adverse attitude are discussed, and some examples are given of benefits conferred in populations, past and present, marked by regularity of life and religiosity.

Author(s): 
Walker, A. R.
Publication Title: 
The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry: Official Journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry
Author(s): 
Panza, Francesco
D'Introno, Alessia
Colacicco, Anna M.
Gadaleta, Annamaria
Capurso, Antonio
Solfrizzi, Vincenzo
Capurso, Cristiano
Del Parigi, Angelo
Publication Title: 
Hormones and Behavior

Vertebrates exposed to stressful conditions release glucocorticoids to sustain energy expenditure. In most species elevated glucocorticoids inhibit reproduction. However individuals with limited remaining reproductive opportunities cannot afford to forgo reproduction and should resist glucocorticoid-mediated inhibition of reproductive behavior. The electric fish Brachyhypopomus gauderio has a single breeding season in its lifetime, thus we expect males to resist glucocorticoid-mediated inhibition of their sexual advertisement signals. We studied stress resistance in male B.

Author(s): 
Gavassa, Sat
Stoddard, Philip K.
Publication Title: 
Psychoneuroendocrinology

Chronically stressed rodents who are allowed to eat calorie-dense "comfort" food develop greater mesenteric fat, which in turn dampens hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis activity. We tested whether similar relations exist in humans, at least cross-sectionally. Fifty-nine healthy premenopausal women were exposed to a standard laboratory stressor to examine HPA response to acute stress and underwent diurnal saliva sampling for basal cortisol and response to dexamethasone administration.

Author(s): 
Tomiyama, A. Janet
Dallman, Mary F.
Epel, Elissa S.
Publication Title: 
Psychoneuroendocrinology

We previously reported that psychological stress is linked to and possibly accelerates cellular aging, as reflected by lower PBMC telomerase and shortened telomeres. Psychological stress is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), with multiple behavioral and physiological mediators. Telomere shortness has been associated with CVD, but the relationship between low telomerase activity, a potential precursor to telomere shortening, and CVD risk factors has not been examined in humans.

Author(s): 
Epel, Elissa S.
Lin, Jue
Wilhelm, Frank H.
Wolkowitz, Owen M.
Cawthon, Richard
Adler, Nancy E.
Dolbier, Christyn
Mendes, Wendy B.
Blackburn, Elizabeth H.
Publication Title: 
Journal of Traumatic Stress

The present study investigated the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and emotional eating in a sample of medically healthy and medication-free adults. Participants with PTSD (n†= 44) and control participants free of lifetime psychiatric history (n†= 49) completed a measure of emotional eating. Emotional eating is the tendency to eat or overeat in response to negative emotions. PTSD participants exhibited greater emotional eating than control participants (?(2) †= .20) and emotional eating increased with higher PTSD symptom severity (R(2) †= .11).

Author(s): 
Talbot, Lisa S.
Maguen, Shira
Epel, Elissa S.
Metzler, Thomas J.
Neylan, Thomas C.
Publication Title: 
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Understanding the malleable determinants of cellular aging is critical to understanding human longevity. Telomeres may provide a pathway for exploring this question. Telomeres are the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes. The length of telomeres offers insight into mitotic cell and possibly organismal longevity. Telomere length has now been linked to chronic stress exposure and depression. This raises the question of mechanism: How might cellular aging be modulated by psychological functioning?

Author(s): 
Epel, Elissa
Daubenmier, Jennifer
Moskowitz, Judith Tedlie
Folkman, Susan
Blackburn, Elizabeth
Publication Title: 
Psychosomatic Medicine

OBJECTIVE: Excessive central fat puts one at greater risk of disease. In animal studies, stress-induced cortisol secretion has been shown to increase central fat. The objective of this study was to assess whether women with central fat distribution (as indicated by a high waist-to-hip ratio [WHR]), across a range of body mass indexes, display consistently heightened cortisol reactivity to repeated laboratory stressors.

Author(s): 
Epel, E. S.
McEwen, B.
Seeman, T.
Matthews, K.
Castellazzo, G.
Brownell, K. D.
Bell, J.
Ickovics, J. R.
Publication Title: 
Health Psychology: Official Journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association

This preliminary study compared the associations between objective and subjective socioeconomic status (SES) with psychological and physical variables among 157 healthy White women, 59 of whom subsequently participated in a laboratory stress study. Compared with objective indicators, subjective social status was more consistently and strongly related to psychological functioning and health-related factors (self-rated health, heart rate, sleep latency, body fat distribution, and cortisol habituation to repeated stress).

Author(s): 
Adler, N. E.
Epel, E. S.
Castellazzo, G.
Ickovics, J. R.
Publication Title: 
Psychoneuroendocrinology

We previously reported that psychological stress is linked to and possibly accelerates cellular aging, as reflected by lower PBMC telomerase and shortened telomeres. Psychological stress is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), with multiple behavioral and physiological mediators. Telomere shortness has been associated with CVD, but the relationship between low telomerase activity, a potential precursor to telomere shortening, and CVD risk factors has not been examined in humans.

Author(s): 
Epel, Elissa S.
Lin, Jue
Wilhelm, Frank H.
Wolkowitz, Owen M.
Cawthon, Richard
Adler, Nancy E.
Dolbier, Christyn
Mendes, Wendy B.
Blackburn, Elizabeth H.

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