Health & Medicine - Posted by A'ndrea Elyse Messer-Penn State on Monday, February 22, 2010 15:50 - 4 Comments 
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(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Stress hormone raises obesity risk in girls
The hormone cortisol (seen above in blue) regulates various metabolic functions in the body and is released as a reaction to stress. Researchers have long known that depression and cortisol are related to obesity, but they had not figured out the exact biological mechanism. Scientists believe the way girls cope with anxiety—by stress eating and estrogen release—may be why high cortisol reactions translate into obesity only for girls. (Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons)
PENN STATE (US)—Depression raises stress hormone levels in adolescents, but may also lead to obesity in girls. Researchers say early treatment of depression may help reduce stress and control obesity.
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“This is the first time cortisol reactivity has been identified as a mediator between depressed mood and obesity in girls,” says Elizabeth Susman, the Jean Phillips Shibley professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State.
Details are reported in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
“We really haven’t seen this connection in kids before, but it tells us that there are biological risk factors that are similar for obesity and depression.”
The hormone cortisol regulates various metabolic functions in the body and is released as a reaction to stress. Researchers have long known that depression and cortisol are related to obesity, but they had not figured out the exact biological mechanism.
Scientists believe the way girls cope with anxiety—by stress eating and estrogen release—may be why high cortisol reactions translate into obesity only for girls.
“The implications are to start treating depression early because we know that depression, cortisol, and obesity are related in adults,” says Susman.
If depression were to be treated earlier, she notes, it could help reduce the level of cortisol, and thereby help reduce obesity.
“We know stress is a critical factor in many mental and physical health problems,” Susman says. “We are putting together the biology of stress, emotions and a clinical disorder to better understand a major public health problem.”
Susman used a child behavior checklist to assess 111 boys and girls ages 8 to 13 for symptoms of depression. The children’s obesity and the level of cortisol in their saliva were measured before and after various stress tests.
“We had the children tell a story, make up a story, and do a mental arithmetic test,” explains Susman. “The children were also told that judges would evaluate the test results with those of other children.”
Statistical analyses of the data suggest that depression is associated with spikes in cortisol levels for boys and girls after the stress tests, but higher cortisol reactions to stress are associated with obesity only in girls.
“In these children, it was mainly the peak in cortisol that was related to obesity,” Susman explains. “It was how they reacted to an immediate stress.”
Researchers from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and University College London contributed to the study, which was supported by National Institutes of Health.
Penn State news: http://live.psu.edu/
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4 Comments
This is a really interesting link between stress , depression and obesity . It could really explain the rise of some of the increase in weight in children over the last 20 years or so. Even though life is becoming less taxing as it used to e, it has created new stresses and pressures.
Children are not taught about stress and its effects and how to handle it in their lives, perhaps with this new information it will have to be considered in the school curriculum.
Shari
This is very interesting, however, I think the reason we have so many obese children has far more to do with the processed foods in our grocery stores than children not being able to deal with their stress. I would not push anti depressants on adolescents before looking at the more plausible causes of their weight gain: bad food and not enough exercise.
momentus
Unfortunately, even the early detection of depression mentioned may reduce cortisol levels which in turn may reduce obesity, the very treatment of depression with ssri’s increases apetite and weight gain leading to obesity……….
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