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WINSTON-SALEM, NC – November 16, 2020 – Even before the pandemic and the presidential election, Americans reported some of the highest perceived stress levels in the world, according to the American Psychological Association. Not only does stress have negative effects on work and personal relationships, it also increases the risk of many chronic diseases, such as heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease, and is associated with higher mortality rates.
But eating a Mediterranean diet may provide a relatively simple way to help reduce the physiological effects of stress and promote healthy aging, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine, part of Wake Forest Baptist Health.
The results of the study, the first preclinical study to measure the effects of long-term consumption of a Western versus Mediterranean diet on stress under controlled experimental conditions, are published in the current online edition of the journal. Neurobiology of Stress.
“It’s very difficult to control or reduce the stressors in our lives,” said Carol A. Shively, Ph.D., professor of pathology and comparative medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine and principal investigator on the study. “But we know we can control our diet, and previous observational studies have suggested that less perceived stress is associated with high fruit and vegetable consumption.
“Unfortunately, Americans consume a diet rich in animal protein and saturated fat, salt and sugar, so we wanted to find out if that diet worsened the body’s response to stress compared to a Mediterranean diet, where much of the protein comes from. and vegetable fats “.
The researchers studied the chronic stress effects of low social status and the acute stress of being socially isolated for 30 minutes in 38 middle-aged animals that were fed a Mediterranean or Western diet. The diets have been formulated to closely reflect human diets, with proteins and fats derived largely from animal sources in the Western group and mainly from plant sources in the Mediterranean group.
To determine the effect of diets on stress responses, scientists measured changes in the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and adrenal gland hormone cortisol in response to acute and chronic stress.
The sympathetic nervous system is involved in the “fight or flight” response and regulates bodily functions such as heart rate and blood pressure. The parasympathetic nervous system has opposite effects that help the body return to a calmer state. High sympathetic nervous system activity can be detrimental to health, so it’s important to maintain a healthy balance between the two systems, Shively said.
Cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone, helps the body access the resources it needs to fight or flee. However, if the stress is continuous, cortisol levels remain high and damage tissues.
Compared to animals fed the Western diet, those fed the Mediterranean diet showed greater resilience to stress, as indicated by the lower sympathetic nervous system and cortisol responses to stress, and faster recovery after the end of stress. said Shively.
“Our study showed that the Mediterranean diet shifted the balance towards the parasympathetic nervous system, which is good for health,” Shively said. “In contrast, the Western diet has increased the sympathetic response to stress, which is like having a panic button all the time – and that’s not healthy.”
As the animals passed the 31-month study, which equates to about 9 years in humans, the research team noted that sympathetic nervous system activity increased. However, the Mediterranean diet slowed the aging of the sympathetic nervous system.
The study’s findings suggest that population-wide adoption of a Mediterranean-style diet may provide a relatively simple and inexpensive intervention to reduce the negative impact of psychological stress on health and delay nervous system aging, Shively said. .
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The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health R01HL087103, RF1AG058829, R01HL122393, U24DK097748 and the Wake Forest Claude D. Pepper Older American Independence Center P30AG012332.
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