The cumulative negative effects of prolonged Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis (HPA axis) activation are associated with several age-related diseases. Some psychological traits such as optimism and pessimism have been shown to be related to both health and the stress response, although their relationship with the HPA axis is inconclusive. More stable HPA axis biomarkers, such as hair samples of cortisol (HC) and dehydroepiandrosterone (HDHEA), would help to clarify the association between these psychological traits and HPA axis functioning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Openness to experience has been consistently associated with better cognitive functioning in older people, but its association with cognitive decline is less clear. Cognitive reserve has been proposed as a mechanism underlying this relationship, but previous studies have reported mixed findings, possibly due to the different ways of conceptualizing cognitive reserve. We aimed to analyze the potential mediating role of cognitive reserve in the association between openness and cognitive functioning and decline in healthy older people.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuroticism has been associated with a greater dementia risk, but its association with cognitive decline in healthy older adults remains unclear. Stress has been proposed as one of the mechanisms that could explain this relationship. Our aim was to analyse, in healthy older people, the mediating role of perceived stress and the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis in the association between neuroticism and global cognition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeveral studies have demonstrated that a dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is related to worse health status (e.g., depression, posttraumatic stress, or diabetes, among others).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFType 2 diabetes (T2D) has been considered a public health threat due to its growing prevalence, particularly in the older population. It is important to know the effects of psychosocial stress and its potential consequences for some basic cognitive processes that are important in daily life. Currently, there is very little information about how people with T2D face acute psychosocial stressors, and even less about how their response affects working memory (WM), which is essential for their functionality and independence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
November 2020
Objective and subjective health generally have a positive relationship, although their association may be moderated by factors such as gender and personality. We aimed to analyze the association between personality and objective (metabolic syndrome (MetS)) and subjective-physical health in older men and women. For this purpose, in 138 participants (53.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPersonality has been related to health and mortality risk, which has created interest in the biological pathways that could explain this relationship. Although a dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis has been associated with health outcomes and aging, few studies have explored the association between personality and HPA axis functioning in older adults. In addition, it has been suggested that sex could moderate the relationship between personality and HPA axis functioning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
February 2020
The aim of this study was to investigate whether the nighttime cortisol release was associated with subjective and objective sleep quality and the discrepancy between them. Forty-five healthy older adults (age range from 56 to 75 years) collected salivary samples immediately before sleep and immediately after awakening on two consecutive nights. Actigraphy was used to assess objective sleep quality and quantity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrevious studies have shown that healthy older adults may be less sensitive to the effects of acute cortisol levels on memory performance than young adults. Importantly, being overweight has recently been associated with an increase in both cortisol concentration and cortisol receptors in central tissues, suggesting that Body Mass Index (BMI) may contribute to differences in the relationship between memory and acute cortisol. This study investigates the role of BMI in the relationship between memory performance and acute cortisol levels in older people (M = 64.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychoneuroendocrinology
September 2019
Loneliness has been associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia in older people, as well as a dysregulation of Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis functioning. In addition, it has been suggested that women are more vulnerable to the negative effects of loneliness on health. Our aim was to analyze the effect of HPA-axis functioning as a mediator in the relationship between loneliness and cognitive function, and interactions depending on sex, in healthy older people.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE-ε4) allele has been suggested as the main risk factor for late onset Alzheimer's disease (AD), whereas the ApoE-ε2 allele has been proposed as a protective factor. These proposals have increased the interest in the effect of the ApoE genotype in healthy people. Additionally, high cortisol levels have been related to negative effects on cognition.
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