Biological Work and Health Psychology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.
Psychological Assessment and Health Psychology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.
J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2024 Jan 18;109(2):e543-e551. doi: 10.1210/clinem/dgad578.
Overweight and obesity have become a major health burden with a higher prevalence of obesity in women than in men. Mental stress has been discussed to play a role in this context.
We investigated endocrine mechanisms underlying eating after acute psychosocial stress and potential sex differences therein.
A total of 32 male and 31 female healthy participants underwent the Trier Social Stress Test before they tasted ice cream in a bogus taste test 15 minutes after stress. We repeatedly assessed the stress hormone cortisol and the satiety hormone cholecystokinin (CCK) in saliva as well as perceived hunger before and up to 1 hour after stress.
Lower immediate total cortisol stress reactivity predicted higher hunger (Ps ≤ .004), but was not associated with food intake (Ps ≥ .90) or total CCK release (Ps ≥ .84). As compared to men, women ate less after stress (Ps < .001) and had consistently lower levels of hunger (Ps ≤ .024) and cortisol (Ps ≤ .008) as well as a lower immediate total cortisol stress reactivity (Ps = .002). Further, they differed in the kinetics of CCK over the total experimental procedure (Ps ≤ .011), in immediate reaction to stress (Ps ≤ .038), and after eating (Ps ≤ .072), with women's CCK levels continuously decreasing while men's CCK levels were reactive.
We found evidence for lower immediate total cortisol stress reactivity relating to higher perceived hunger, with lower cortisol levels in women. Unlike in men, CCK levels in women were not reactive to acute stress and eating and decreased continuously. Our results may suggest a higher risk for stress-induced eating in women.
超重和肥胖已成为一个主要的健康负担，女性的肥胖患病率高于男性。精神压力被认为在此背景下发挥作用。
我们研究了急性心理社会应激后进食的内分泌机制及其潜在的性别差异。
共有 32 名男性和 31 名女性健康参与者在经历特里尔社会应激测试（Trier Social Stress Test）后 15 分钟在虚假味觉测试中品尝冰淇淋，在此之前和应激后 1 小时内，我们反复评估唾液中的应激激素皮质醇和饱腹感激素胆囊收缩素（cholecystokinin，CCK）以及感知饥饿。
较低的即刻总皮质醇应激反应预示着更高的饥饿感（P ≤.004），但与食物摄入（P ≥.90）或总 CCK 释放（P ≥.84）无关。与男性相比，女性在应激后进食较少（P <.001），且饥饿感（P ≤.024）和皮质醇（P ≤.008）水平持续较低，即刻总皮质醇应激反应较低（P =.002）。此外，她们在 CCK 的动力学方面存在差异，包括整个实验过程（P ≤.011）、应激即刻反应（P ≤.038）和进食后反应（P ≤.072），女性的 CCK 水平持续下降，而男性的 CCK 水平则有反应。
我们发现即刻总皮质醇应激反应较低与感知饥饿增加有关，女性的皮质醇水平较低。与男性不同，女性的 CCK 水平对急性应激和进食没有反应，而是持续下降。我们的研究结果可能表明女性在应激诱导进食方面的风险更高。
