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The scientific and educational community is becoming increasingly aware of the impact of current academic working conditions on graduate students' mental health and how this is affecting scientific progress and ultimately society as a whole. Our study aimed to shed light on the work-related mental health issues affecting graduate students, providing a comprehensive research work including psychological and biological assessment. Our findings showed that a sizeable number of graduate student present anxiety, depression, or high burnout and that the time spent in academia plays an important role. The graduate student population displayed a specific work-related mental health issues profile with an altered hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and low levels of work engagement. Finally, graduate students were equally stressed, with less work engagement, and more anxious and depressed than general workers.
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According to the World Health Organization, an unhealthy diet and insufficient physical activity are the leading global risks to health. Dietary behavior is a modifiable factor in cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention. Furthermore, the fact that cardiovascular events and stress-related emotional disorders share a common epidemiology may indicate the existence of pathways linking these two diseases (Chauvet-Gelinier and Bonin, 2017). Psychosocial stress can lead to changes in dietary patterns (DP) and under chronic stress conditions, high caloric and hyperpalatable foods are preferred. The interplay between these two factors impacts on several biological pathways: for example, it can prime the hippocampus to produce a potentiated neuroinflammatory response, generating memory deficits; it can also affect gut microbiota composition, ultimately influencing behavior and brain health and creating a predisposition to the development of diseases such as obesity, CVD, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Though both cognition and emotion can be heavily affected by caloric intake, diet composition and stress, the molecular pathways involved remain elusive (Spencer et al., 2017). In this review, we describe the interplay between stress and DP at a molecular level, and how these factors relate to brain health and mental fitness. Finally, we show how these findings could give rise to novel therapeutic targets for chronic diseases.
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INTRODUCCIÓN Y OBJETIVOS: Existe un amplio consenso en la comunidad científica en relación con la posibilidad de evaluar el estrés a través de marcadores biológicos asociados a los principales sistemas regulatorios de este proceso: el simpático adrenomedular (SAM), el hipotalámico-hipófiso-adrenal (HHA) y el sistema inmunológico. Sin embargo, persisten interrogantes en relación con el uso de biomarcadores: a)¿Cuáles son los biomarcadores de estrés más utilizados? b)¿Qué técnicas son recomendables para la determinación de los mismos? c)¿A partir de qué muestras biológicas es aconsejable cuantificarlos? El presente artículo tiene como objetivo efectuar una revisión sistemática de la literatura especializada con el fin de analizar dichos interrogantes. MATERIALES Y MÉTODOS: Se efectuó una revisión sistemática en diferentes bases de datos (Pubmed, PMC y MEDLINE), considerando artículos de los últimos 10años. Se identificaron 710 estudios que fueron sometidos al proceso de selección, 33 de los cuales se incluyeron finalmente en la revisión. RESULTADOS Y CONCLUSIONES: Se han publicado numerosas revisiones que buscan establecer un vínculo entre biomarcadores y diferentes problemas asociados al estrés. Si bien los resultados son prometedores, el campo se enfrenta con importantes desafíos, como, por ejemplo, encontrar consenso en la definición de las mejores prácticas para el uso de biomarcadores. A partir de la presente revisión podemos concluir que los biomarcadores predominantemente utilizados para determinar la activación del eje SAM son el ritmo cardíaco y la presión sanguínea; en cuanto al eje HHA, el cortisol ha sido el marcador biológico más comúnmente medido tanto en sangre como en saliva y en cabello. Finalmente, en lo referente a marcadores representativos de la activación del sistema inmune debido a estrés, la IL-6 y la PCR fueron las más frecuentemente analizadas
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: There is a broad consensus in the scientific community regarding the possibility of evaluating stress through biological markers associated with the main regulatory systems of this process -the Sympathetic Medullary Adreno (SAM), the Hypothalamic Hypophysial Adrenal (HHA) and the immune systems. However, questions remain regarding the use of biomarkers: a) Which are the most commonly used stress biomarkers? b) Which techniques are recommended for their determination? c) From which biological samples is it advisable to quantify them? The aim of this article is to carry out a systematic review of the specialised literature in order to analyse these questions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: a systematic review was carried out in different databases (Pubmed, PMC and MEDLINE), considering articles from the last ten years. We identified 710 studies that underwent the selection process, 33 of which were finally included in the review. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: To date, numerous reviews have been published with the aim of establishing a link between biomarkers and different problems associated with stress. Although the results are promising, the field faces important challenges such as, for example, finding consensus on the definition of best practices for the use of biomarkers. From the present review we can conclude that the biomarkers predominantly used to determine the activation of the SAM axis are heart rate and blood pressure; as for the HHA axis, cortisol has been the biological marker most commonly measured in blood, saliva or hair. Finally, regarding representative markers of immune system activation due to stress, IL-6 and PCR were the most frequently analysed
