Sweat and saliva cortisol response to stress and nutrition factors

Abstract

Cortisol is a biomarker for stress monitoring; however, the biomedical and clinical relevance is still controversial due to the complexity of cortisol secretion mechanisms and their circadian cycles as well as environmental factors that affect physiological cortisol level, which include individual mood and dietary intake. To further investigate this multifaceted relationship, a human pilot study examined cortisol concentration in sweat and saliva samples collected from 48 college-aged participants during aerobic exercise sessions along with mental distress and nutrition surveys. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays determined highly significant differences between apocrine-dominant sweat (AP), saliva before exercise (SBE), and saliva after exercise (SAE) cortisol concentration (AP-SBE: p = 0.0017, AP-SAE: p = 0.0102). A significantly greater AP cortisol concentration was detected in males compared to females (p = 0.0559), and significant SAE cortisol concentration differences were also recorded between recreational athletes and non-athletes (p = 0.044). However, Kessler 10 Psychological Distress Scale (K10) scores, an examination administered to deduce overall wellness, provided no significant differences between males and females or athletes and non-athletes in distress levels, which statistically signifies a direct relationship to cortisol was not present. For further analysis, dietary intake from all participants was considered to investigate whether a multiplexed association was prevalent between nutrition, mood, and cortisol release. Significant positive correlations between AP cortisol, SAE cortisol, K10 scores, and fat intake among female participants and athletes were discovered. The various machine learning algorithms utilized the extensive connections between dietary intake, overall well-being, sex factors, athletic activity, and cortisol concentrations in various biofluids to predict K10 scores. Indeed, the understanding of physiochemical stress response and the associations between studied factors can advance algorithm developments for cortisol biosensing systems to mitigate stress-based illnesses and improve an individual’s quality of life.

Factors associated with xerostomia in perimenopausal women

“…Furthermore, cortisol secretion is influenced by both the circadian rhythm and environmental factors, which include an individual's mood and dietary intake. 26 One study found a negative correlation between severity of xerostomia and salivary 17β-estradiol concentrations in menopausal women, 27 contrary to our findings. In another study, a xerostomia inventory 28 was used to evaluate xerostomia.…”

Electron transfer studies of a conventional redox probe in human sweat and saliva bio-mimicking conditions

“…There are a numerous distributions that propose utilizing human sweat and salivation rather than blood, for assessing metabolites present in sweat and salivation towards the development of electrochemical biosensors 17 – 20 . Many literature reports that deal with utilizing change in viscosity 24 , pH 25 , measurement of stress biomarkers like Cortisol 26 and concentration of chloride ion 27 in human body fluids are available. These studies clearly demonstrate the possibility of using sweat and saliva for health care diagnostics.…”

The Effects of Physical Exercise on Saliva Composition: A Comprehensive Review

“…A relation between salivary cortisol and anxiety has been suggested [ 119 , 120 ]. Depressive patients before and 10 min after the exercise sessions appear to have significantly decreased levels of salivary-free cortisol [ 23 , 24 , 28 ]. In addition, physical exercise has been found to decline the rate of cortisol [ 12 , 22 ].…”