Abstract
Stress is an extremely adaptive phenomenon in human beings and cortisol is a known stress hormone. Examination has been described as a naturalistic stressor capable of affecting human health. To estimate the relationship between serum cortisol, adrenaline, fasting blood glucose (FBG) and lipid profile during examination stress. Two hundred and eight (208) apparently-healthy undergraduate students (aged, 24 ± 6 years) were involved in the study. Exactly 5 mls of venous blood was collected from each subject 1-3 hours before a major examination. A second assessment was done on the same students 3-4 weeks before any examination (control samples). Cortisol and adrenaline were assayed using ELISA techniques, FBG was assayed using enzymatic method while lipid parameters were assayed using standard enzymatic-spectrophotometric methods. There was statistically significant increase in serum cortisol, adrenaline, Total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels in students under examination stress compared to the non examination period (p=0.001, 0.013, 0.0001, 0.0001 and 0.0001, respectively). FBG showed no significant increase. There was also significant positive correlation (r=0.297, p=0.032) between serum cortisol and TC/HDL ratio (cardiac risk factor) before examination stress but not during the stress period. Significant positive correlation was observed between cortisol and TC/HDL ratio before examination stress.
Highlights
Physical and psychological stresses can induce a wide range of immunological alterations in the cell mediated and humoral immunity[1,2]
The results showed significantly increased serum levels of cortisol, adrenaline, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol (P = 0.001, 0.013, 0.0001, 0.0001 and 0.0001, respectively) during examination compared to the non-examination period (Table 2)
There was no statistical difference in fasting blood glucose before and during examination stress
Summary
Physical and psychological stresses can induce a wide range of immunological alterations in the cell mediated and humoral immunity[1,2]. The basic neurochemistry of the stress response is well understood, much remains to be discovered about how the components of this system interact with one another, in the brain, and throughout the body[3] Both negative and positive stressors can lead to stress. Objectives: To estimate the relationship between serum cortisol, adrenaline, fasting blood glucose (FBG) and lipid profile during examination stress. Results: There was statistically significant increase in serum cortisol, adrenaline, Total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels in students under examination stress compared to the non examination period (p=0.001, 0.013, 0.0001, 0.0001 and 0.0001, respectively). There was significant positive correlation (r=0.297, p=0.032) between serum cortisol and TC/HDL ratio (cardiac risk factor) before examination stress but not during the stress period. Conclusions: Significant positive correlation was observed between cortisol and TC/HDL ratio before examination stress
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