A delicate balance exists between the protective effects of adrenal glucocorticoids (GCs) secreted in response to stress and the negative consequences that the excessive production of these hormones may have for numerous systems. GCs are involved in the regulation of the stress response, have effects on feeding and body weight gain and are associated with the acceleration of central nervous system aging. Their production, secretion, and containment are subject to both environmental modulation and individual variation. Neonatal manipulations known to affect the development of the adult hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) response to stress had profound effects on both basal and stress-induced dietary choice, body weight and insulin dynamics. We followed this study with an examination of how the physiological and emotional response to stress can affect diet choices and affective status. Stress had an impact on diet choice and had a strong effect on emotional status but did not affect subjects uniformly. We then explored the reciprocal relationship, i.e. how diet itself can affect the response to stress and found that basal and stress-induced activation of the HPA axis in both young and aged rats is augmented following the feeding of high-fat diets and fat-feeding cause aberrations in glucose-insulin axis. Since aging can be associated with profound changes in HPA axis function, we assessed how dietary habits may contribute to the emergence of the cortisol (F) profile in a population of healthy elderly humans. We found a strong positive relationship between individual F production, feelings of depression and the high fat content in their diets. While dietary habits may have a negative impact on the emergence of an individuals' cortisol profile and on the aging process, we wanted to explore whether a beneficial intervention at mid-life would allow animals to age "successfully" by reducing glucocorticoid production. Environmental enrichment lowered corticosterone lev
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.36842 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Tannenbaum, Beth. |
| Contributors | Meaney, Michael (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001770401, proquestno: NQ69940, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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