HD Lighthouse Contributing Editor's Comment: This review article has relevance for the HD community for two reasons. First, stress reduction is an important goal for all those dealing with HD. Second, diet is one of the three components of the HD triad. Foods rich in Omega 3 fatty acids and in antioxidants almost certainly benefit people with HD, given what we know about the disease at this point. It may be hard though to achieve a good diet given other problems caused by the disease.

The article is well worth a close look -- and some subsequent detective work. The authors summarize what is known about food and stress -- how stress affects what and how much we eat and how what we eat affects our ability to handle stress. People under stress tend to eat low protein, high carbohydrate foods because they raise serotonin levels. A depletion of serotonin is associated with depression. Antioxidant rich fruits and vegetables would be ideal for this purpose since they are known to improve cognitive function but as the authors note, studies show that people of normal weight who are 'high reactors' to the stress hormone cortisol are likely to eat high calorie, sugary carbohydrates instead when they are under stress. Studies also show that overweight binge eaters tend to have higher levels of cortisol. (Gluck et al. Psychosom Med. 2004 Nov;66(6):876-881.) Many people with HD also crave sugary snacks - could there be a connection?

A search of Pub Med turns up an article from 1995 by Leblhuber and colleagues (J Neurol Sci. 1995 Sep;132(1):76-9) which shows that cortisol levels do tend to be elevated in people with HD. Perhaps this accounts for the attraction to high calorie carbohydrates that is often seen with this disease.

A related issue in this review article is relevant for Phds, late night snacking. Night eating is known to be associated with stress, an inability to achieve desired weight loss, and disturbances in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Again, could there be a connection to HD where late hours and snacking are relatively common?

A Pub Med search turned up an article by Heuser and colleagues (1991) which showed that the functional integrity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is impaired in HD. In fact the authors felt that "the result suggest that patients with HD have an endogenous CRH overdrive, possibly due to a loss of (GABA) gamma-aminobutyric acid-containing neurons, and that age might have an effect on the outcome of LHPA axis function tests in patients only."

Taking steps to reduce stressful factors in one's environment and exercising to reduce the effects of stress may make it easier to achieve a healthier diet -- and a healthier diet may make it easier to handle stress.
--Marsha L. Miller, Ph.D.
Posted to the HDL: 15 Jan 2005

Stress control and human nutrition

Stress is a pervasive factor in everyday life that critically affects development and functioning. Severe and prolonged stress exposure impairs homeostatic mechanisms, particularly associated with the onset of depressive illness. Brain food is aimed at preventing as well as treating a growing number of stress-related mental disorders. Some topics on the association of stress and nutrition is reviewed. (1) An increased activity of serotonergic neurons in the brain is an established consequence of stress. An increase in brain tryptophan levels on the order of that produced by eating a carbohydrate-rich/protein-poor meal causes parallel increases in the amounts of serotonin released into synapses. (2) Eating is thought to be suppressed during stress, due to anorectic effects of corticotrophin releasing hormone, and increased during recovery from stress, due to appetite stimulating effects of residual cortisol. (3) A strong inverse association between coffee intake and risk of suicide. (4) Night eating syndrome has been found to occur during periods of stress and is associated with poor results at attempts to lose weight and disturbances in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. (5) Dietary antioxidants present in fruits and vegetables may improve cognitive function. Therefore, it is concluded that the establishment of functional foods that correctly regulate stress response must be firmly based upon scientific knowledge and legal regulation.

To see the entire article, go here: http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jmi/51/3,4/139/_pdf

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