Waking Salivary Cortisol Associated with Magnitude of Cholesterol Reduction in Women Fed a Healthy Whole-Food Diet for 8 Weeks.

Background: Diet and cortisol are independently linked to cardiometabolic function and health, but underlying alterations in circulating cortisol may influence beneficial cardiometabolic effects of consuming a healthy diet. Objective: This study was a secondary analysis to examine whether baseline concentrations of waking salivary cortisol interacted with 8-wk whole-food diet interventions to affect cardiometabolic outcomes. Methods: A randomized, double-blind, controlled 8-wk diet intervention was conducted in 44 participants. The trial was conducted at the Western Human Nutrition Research Center in Davis, California. Participants were overweight or obese women aged 20-64 y, minimally active, and insulin resistant and/or dyslipidemic. Diets were randomly assigned and based on the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) or a typical American diet (TAD). Cardiometabolic risk factors and salivary cortisol were assessed at baseline and at 8 wk. Primary outcome measures included 8-wk change in overnight fasted cardiometabolic risk factors, including blood pressure, BMI, and circulating triglycerides, cholesterol, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), nonesterified fatty acids, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein. This trial was approved by the University of California, Davis, Institutional Review Board. Results: Baseline waking cortisol concentrations interacted (P = 0.0474) with diet to affect 8-wk changes in fasting total cholesterol. Compared with a TAD, a DGA diet was associated with 8-wk decreases in total cholesterol in participants with low (10th percentile of all participants; 2.76 nmol/L) or average (7.76 nmol/L) but not higher (90th percentile of all participants; 13.44 nmol/L) baseline waking cortisol. Consistent with this finding, there was a DGA-specific positive association (P = 0.0047; b: 2.88 ± 0.94) between baseline waking cortisol and 8-wk increases in total cholesterol. Conclusions: The underlying status of waking cortisol may explain interindividual variability in total cholesterol responses to whole-food diets. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02298725) as NCT02298725.

Increasing Dietary Carbohydrate as Part of a Healthy Whole Food Diet Intervention Dampens Eight Week Changes in Salivary Cortisol and Cortisol Responsiveness.

It is largely unknown whether and how whole food diets influence psychological stress and stress system responsiveness. To better understand the effects of whole diets on stress system responsiveness, we examined randomized control trial effects of a whole food diet based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) on cortisol responsiveness. A randomized, double-blind, controlled 8-week intervention was conducted in overweight and obese women to examine differentiated effects between two diet intervention groups: one based on the 2010 DGA and the other one based on a typical American diet (TAD). During a test week that occurred at baseline and again after 8 weeks of the intervention, we assessed salivary cortisol collected at 14 selected times across the day, including upon awakening, at bedtime, and during a test visit, and administered a standardized social stress task (Trier Social Stress Test, TSST). There were no statistical differences between the diet groups in salivary cortisol at baseline or after 8 weeks. However, when considering differences in dietary carbohydrate, but not fat or protein, from the pre-intervention (habitual) to the intervention period, there was a significant (P = 0.0001) interaction between diet group, intervention week, saliva sample, and level of intervention-based change in carbohydrate consumption. This interaction was reflected primarily by an 8-week reduction in salivary cortisol during a period just prior to (log Δ -0.35 ± 0.12 nmol/L) and 30 (log Δ -0.49 ± 0.12 nmol/L), 60 (log Δ -0.50 ± 0.13 nmol/L), 90 (log Δ -0.51 ± 0.13 nmol/L), and 120 (log Δ -0.4476 ± 0.1231 nmol/L) min after the TSST in the DGA group having the highest increase (90th percentile) in carbohydrate consumption. In support of this finding, we also found significant (P < 0.05) and inverse linear associations between dietary carbohydrate and log salivary cortisol, with the strongest negative association (ß: -0.004 ± 0.0015, P = 0.009) occurring at 30 min post-TSST, but only in the DGA group and at week 9 of the intervention. Together, increasing dietary carbohydrate as part of a DGA-based diet may reduce circulating cortisol and dampen psychological stress-related cortisol responsiveness.

Diet Quality for Sodium and Vegetables Mediate Effects of Whole Food Diets on 8-Week Changes in Stress Load.

Very little is known about how whole food diets, such as those based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), influence psychological stress and physiological stress load. To better understand the effects of whole food diets on stress, we examined in a randomized control trial the effects of a DGA-based diet on markers of psychological and physiological stress. A randomized, double-blind, controlled 8-week intervention was conducted in overweight and obese women randomly assigned to one of two diet groups: a diet based on the 2010 DGA or a diet based on a Typical American Diet (TAD). The Perceived Stress Scale and allostatic load were used to assess stress load. Eight-week change in perceived stress did not significantly (p = 0.45) differ between the DGA (+0.53 ± 0.99) and TAD (-0.57 ± 0.99) groups. Likewise, 8-week change in allostatic load did not significantly (p = 0.79) differ between the two diet intervention groups (DGA: +0.001 ± 0.26 vs. TAD: +0.105 ± 0.28). However, we did find strong inverse associations between 8-week change in stress and intervention-based improvements in diet quality (lower sodium and higher vegetable consumption). When statistically accounting for these inverse associations, we found that perceived stress and allostatic load were higher (p < 0.04) in the DGA group. These findings suggest that improvements in dietary vegetable and sodium intake mediated effects of the diet intervention on psychological and physiological stress load. That is, adopting and adhering to a diet of higher quality (DGA) for 8 weeks may have been generally more stressful in the absence of improvements in vegetable or sodium consumption. This study provides further evidence for the mental health benefits of maximizing vegetable and minimizing sodium consumption.

Marketed New Drug Delivery Systems for Opioid Agonists/Antagonists Administration: A Rapid Overview.

Novel drug delivery systems for controlled-release of opioid agonists as a long time painkillers or opioid antagonists for opium, heroin, and alcohol addiction are under development or in clinical use today. In this article, the field of "new drug delivery systems" is momentarily reviewed from the viewpoint of the marketed opioid agonists/antagonists dosage forms today.

Fetishism due to methamphetamine (glass) abuse: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Fetishism is a type of paraphilia. The focus of sexual arousal in fetishism is oriented towards inanimate objects. Sexual arousal and craving are some of the reasons the youth resort to crystal (glass). Drug abuse may cause disorders in sexual function. CASE REPORT: The patient was a 41 years old man. He married in age 22 years and experienced frequent intercourses with his wife from which he gained pleasure and it was his preferable method. Her wife left ten years ago. The patient started crystal administration through insufflations since seven months ago. Simultaneous with crystal abuse, wearing women's underwear was the only medium through which the patient reached sexual orgasm. DISCUSSION: A lot of psychological symptoms related to new substances (for example glass) are new to psychiatrists treating dependency in medical clinics. Fetishism may coexist with addiction as comorbidity. Another point to be mentioned is that, symptoms of fetishism increased and decreased with more and less glass administration, indicating that symptoms of paraphilia emerge as a result of glass use. In addition, prior to glass use, the patient maintained normal sexual tendencies, had experienced sexual intercourse and did not suffer from any type of paraphilia.