Relating fatty acid composition in human fingertip blood to age, gender, nationality and n-3 supplementation in the Scandinavian population.

This study investigated data obtained from whole blood fatty acid (FA) composition of 3476 Norwegian and Swedish individuals, which provided background information including age, gender, nationality and self-motivated n-3 supplement consumption. The aim of this paper was to statistically relate this background information on the subjects to their whole blood FA profile, focusing mainly on the n-3 polyunsaturated FA (PUFA). Results showed that age had significant effects on the content of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in blood lipids for the Norwegian individuals, while n-3 PUFA supplementation had a positive effect on EPA and DHA content in whole blood for the investigated population.

Similarities in stress physiology among patients with chronic pain and headache disorders: evidence for a common pathophysiological mechanism?

One common feature of chronic musculoskeletal pain and headaches are that they are both influenced by stress. Among these, tension-type headache (TTH), fibromyalgia (FMS) and chronic shoulder/neck pain (SNP) appear to have several similarities, both with regard to pathophysiology, clinical features and demographics. The main hypothesis of the present study was that patients with chronic pain (TTH, FMS and SNP) had stress-induced features distinguishing them from migraine patients and healthy controls.

Autonomic and muscular responses and recovery to one-hour laboratory mental stress in healthy subjects.

Background: Stress is a risk factor for musculoskeletal pain. We wanted to explore stress related physiology in healthy subjects in order to gain insight into mechanisms of pain development which may relate to the pathophysiology of musculoskeletal pain disorders.

Methods: Continuous blood pressure, heart rate, finger skin blood flow, respiration, surface electromyography together with perception of pain, fatigue and tension were recorded on 35 healthy women and 9 healthy men before, during a 60 minute period with task-related low-grade mental stress, and in the following 30 minute rest period.

Cardiovascular responses to cognitive stress in patients with migraine and tension-type headache.

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the temporal relationship between autonomic changes and pain activation in migraine and tension-type headache induced by stress in a model relevant for everyday office-work.

Methods: We measured pain, blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR) and skin blood flow (BF) during and after controlled low-grade cognitive stress in 22 migraineurs during headache-free periods, 18 patients with tension-type headache (TTH) and 44 healthy controls. The stress lasted for one hour and was followed by 30 minutes of relaxation.

Noradrenaline and cortisol changes in response to low-grade cognitive stress differ in migraine and tension-type headache.

The goal of this study was to explore the relationship between indicators of sympathoneural, sympathomedullar and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) activity and stress-induced head and shoulder-neck pain in patients with migraine or tension-type headache (TTH). We measured noradrenaline, adrenaline and cortisol levels before and after low-grade cognitive stress in 21 migraineurs, 16 TTH patients and 34 controls. The stressor lasted for 60 min and was followed by 30 min of relaxation.