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Article: "Associations Between Acute Lipid Stress Responses and Fasting 
Lipid Levels 3 Years Later," Andrew Steptoe, D.Sc., and Lena Brydon, 
Ph.D., University College London; Health Psychology, Vol. 24, No. 6.

Full text of the article is available from the APA Public Affairs Office 
or at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/hea246601.pdf.
Public release date: 22-Nov-2005
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/apa-msm112105.php

Contact: Pam Willenz
[log in to unmask]
202-336-5707
American Psychological Association

Mental stress may be another culprit in raising cholesterol levels in 
healthy adults

Increases risk for later heart problems

There is good evidence to show that stress can increase a person's heart 
rate, lower the immune system's ability to fight colds and increase 
certain inflammatory markers but can stress also raise a person's 
cholesterol? It appears so for some people, according to a new study 
that examines how reactions to stress over a period of time can raise a 
person's lipid levels.

This finding is reported in the November issue of Health Psychology, 
published by the American Psychological Association (APA). In a sample 
of 199 healthy middle-aged men and women, researchers Andrew Steptoe, 
D.Sc., and Lena Brydon, Ph.D., of University College London examined how 
individuals react to stress and whether this reaction can increase 
cholesterol and heighten cardiovascular risk in the future. Changes in 
total cholesterol, including low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and 
high-density lipoprotein (HDL), were assessed in the participants before 
and three years after completing two stress tasks.

Our study found that individuals vary in their cholesterol responses to 
stress, said Dr. Steptoe. "Some of the participants show large increases 
even in the short term, while others show very little response. The 
cholesterol responses that we measured in the lab probably reflect the 
way people react to challenges in everyday life as well. So the larger 
cholesterol responders to stress tasks will be large responders to 
emotional situations in their lives. It is these responses in everyday 
life that accumulate to lead to an increase in fasting cholesterol or 
lipid levels three years later. It appears that a person's reaction to 
stress is one mechanism through which higher lipid levels may develop."

The stress testing session involved examining the participants' 
cardiovascular, inflammatory and hemostatic functions before and after 
their responses to performance on moderately stressful behavioral tasks. 
The stress tasks used were computerized color-word interference and 
mirror tracing. The color-word task involved flashing a series of target 
color words in incongruous colors on a computer screen (ex. Yellow 
letters spelling the color blue). At the bottom of the computer screen, 
four names of colors were displayed in incorrect colors. The object of 
the task was to match the name of the color to the target word. The 
other task used was mirror tracing, which required the participant to 
trace a star seen in a mirror image. The participants were told to focus 
more on accuracy than on speed in both tasks.

At the follow up three years later, cholesterol levels in all the 
participants in the study had gone up, as might be expected through 
passage of time. However, individuals with larger initial stress 
responses had substantially greater rises in cholesterol than those with 
small stress responses. The people in the top third of stress responders 
were three times more likely to have a level of 'bad' (low-density 
lipoprotein) cholesterol above clinical thresholds than were people in 
the bottom third of stress responders. These differences were 
independent of their baseline levels of cholesterol levels, gender, age, 
hormone replacement, body mass index, smoking or alcohol consumption.

The authors found no sex differences among the participants in their 
cholesterol levels and response to stress. Steptoe and Brydon speculate 
on the reasons why acute stress responses may raise fasting serum 
lipids. One possibility may be that stress encourages the body to 
produce more energy in the form of metabolic fuels – fatty acids and 
glucose. These substances require the liver to produce and secrete more 
LDL, which is the principal carrier of cholesterol in the blood. Another 
reason may be that stress interferes with lipid clearance and a third 
possibility could be that stress increases production of a number of 
inflammatory processes like, interleukin 6, tumor necrosis factor and 
C-Reactive protein that also increase lipid production.

Even though these lipid responses to stress were not large, said Dr. 
Steptoe, "the levels are something to be concerned about. It does give 
us an opportunity to know whose cholesterol may rise in response to 
stress and give us warning for those who may be more at risk for 
coronary heart disease."
-- 
Kathrynne Holden, MS, RD < [log in to unmask] >
"Ask the Parkinson Dietitian"  http://www.parkinson.org/
"Eat well, stay well with Parkinson's disease"
"Parkinson's disease: Guidelines for Medical Nutrition Therapy"
http://www.nutritionucanlivewith.com/

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