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Researchers at The University of Western Ontario have provided the first direct evidence using a biological marker, to show chronic stress plays an important role in heart
attacks.
Stressors such as job, marital and financial problems have been linked to the increased risk for developing cardiovascular disease including heart attack. But there hasn’t been a biological marker to measure chronic stress.
Gideon Koren and Stan Van Uum developed a method to measure cortisol levels in hair providing an accurate assessment of stress levels in the months prior to an acute event such as a heart attack. The research is published online in the journal Stress.
Cortisol is considered to be a stress hormone. Its secretion is increased during times of stress. Traditionally it’s been measured in serum, urine and saliva, but that only shows stress at the time of measurement, not over longer periods of time. Cortisol is also captured in the hair
shaft.
”Intuitively we know stress is not good for you, but it’s not easy to measure,” explains Koren, who holds the Ivey Chair in Molecular Toxicology at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine &
Dentistry.
“We know that on average, hair grows one centimetre (cm) a month, and so if we take a hair sample six cm long, we can determine stress levels for six months by measuring the cortisol level in the
hair.”
The study was supported by Physician Services Inc. and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Source:
The University of Western Ontario
(MDN)
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