scholarly journals Mindfulness interventions for offsetting health risk following early life stress: Promising directions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily K Lindsay
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
At Risk Populations

Early life stress (ELS), common to childhood maltreatment, socioeconomic disadvantage, and racial discrimination, is thought to create a proinflammatory phenotype that increases risk for poor health in adulthood. Systemic change is needed to address the root causes of ELS, but a substantial number of adults are already at increased health risk by virtue of ELS exposure. Interventions that target stress pathways have the potential to interrupt the trajectory from ELS to inflammatory disease risk in adulthood. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs), which train acceptance toward present-moment experience, have shown promise for reducing stress and improving a variety of stress-sensitive health outcomes. Although MBIs have primarily been conducted in more advantaged populations, evidence suggests that they may be uniquely effective for improving mental health and health-related quality of life among those with a history of ELS. Whether these effects extend to physical health remains unknown. To shed light on this question, I review evidence that MBIs influence inflammatory markers in at-risk samples, explore the promise of MBIs for improving stress-related health outcomes in diverse at-risk populations, and describe adaptations to MBIs that may increase their acceptability and efficacy in populations exposed to ELS. This prior work sets the stage for well-controlled RCTs to evaluate whether MBIs influence stress and inflammatory pathways among those exposed to ELS and for pragmatic and implementation trials focused on disseminating MBIs to reach these at-risk populations. Overall, the evidence assembled here shows the potential of MBIs for offsetting physical health risk related to ELS.

scholarly journals EARLY LIFE STRESS AND GENETIC RISK FOR NEUROTICISM PREDICTING HEALTH OUTCOMES IN OLDER SWEDISH TWINS

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. 591-592
Author(s):  
K. Lehto ◽  
I. Karlsson ◽  
C. Lundholm ◽  
N.L. Pedersen
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Genetic Risk ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress

scholarly journals Exacerbated obesogenic response in female mice exposed to early life stress is linked to fat depot-specific upregulation of leptin protein expression

2020 ◽  
Vol 319 (5) ◽  
pp. E852-E862
Author(s):  
Jacqueline R. Leachman ◽  
Mathew D. Rea ◽  
Dianne M. Cohn ◽  
Xiu Xu ◽  
Yvonne N. Fondufe-Mittendorf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Protein Expression ◽  
Fat Mass ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Maternal Separation ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Female Mice ◽  
Fat Depot ◽  
Leptin Expression

Early life stress (ELS) is an independent risk factor for increased BMI and cardiometabolic disease risk later in life. We have previously shown that a mouse model of ELS, maternal separation and early weaning (MSEW), exacerbates high-fat diet (HF)-induced obesity only in adult female mice. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate 1) whether the short- and long-term effects of HF on leptin expression are influenced by MSEW in a sex-specific manner and 2) the potential epigenetic mechanisms underlying the MSEW-induced changes in leptin expression. After 1 wk of HF, both MSEW male and female mice displayed increased fat mass compared with controls ( P < 0.05). However, only MSEW female mice showed elevated leptin mRNA expression in gonadal white adipose tissue (gWAT; P < 0.05). After 12 wk of HF, fat mass remained increased only in female mice ( P < 0.05). Moreover, plasma leptin and both leptin mRNA and protein expression in gWAT were augmented in MSEW female mice compered to controls ( P < 0.05), but not in MSEW male mice. This association was not present in subcutaneous WAT. Furthermore, among 16 CpG sites in the leptin promoter, we identified three hypomethylated sites in tissue from HF-fed MSEW female mice compared with controls (3, 15, and 16, P < 0.05). These hypomethylated sites showed greater binding of key adipogenic factors such as PPARγ ( P < 0.05). Taken together, our study reveals that MSEW superimposed to HF increases leptin protein expression in a sex- and fat depot-specific fashion. Our data suggest that the mechanism by which MSEW increases leptin expression could be epigenetic.

scholarly journals Methylation of the glucocorticoid receptor promoter in children: Links with parents as teachers, early life stress, and behavior problems

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Elena Silvia Gardini ◽  
Simone Schaub ◽  
Alex Neuhauser ◽  
Erich Ramseier ◽  
Arna Villiger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Behavior Problems ◽  
Glucocorticoid Receptor ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Parents As Teachers ◽  
Cpg Site ◽  
Glucocorticoid Receptor Gene ◽  
And Behavior

Abstract The present study examined the effect of early life stress (ELS) on the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) methylation, the associations between NR3C1 methylation and behavior problems, and the effect of the program Parents as Teachers (PAT) on NR3C1 methylation. Participants included 132 children, 72 assigned to the PAT intervention group and 60 to the PAT control group. Children were aged 3 years, and were living in psychosocially at-risk families. We assessed NR3C1 methylation of the NGFI-A binding regions of exon 1F via sodium bisulfite sequencing from saliva DNA. Results indicated that (a) children living in families receiving PAT had decreased methylation at one single cytosine–guanine dinucleotides (CpG) site; (b) current maternal depressive symptoms and parental disagreement were predictive of increased methylation of mean NGFI-A and three single CpG sites; and (c) increased methylation of mean NGFI-A and one single CpG site was significantly associated with increased internalizing and externalizing symptoms. In addition, mean NGFI-A was a mediator of the association between parental disagreement and a child's affective problems. These results suggest that PAT may contribute to preventing NR3C1 methylation in preschool children living in psychosocially at-risk situations, and confirm previous findings on the associations between ELS, NR3C1 methylation, and behavior problems.

Mgat5 modulates the effect of early life stress on adult behavior and physical health in mice

2016 ◽  
Vol 312 ◽  
pp. 253-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Feldcamp ◽  
Jean-Sebastien Doucet ◽  
Judy Pawling ◽  
Marc P. Fadel ◽  
Paul J. Fletcher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Health ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Adult Behavior

scholarly journals Positive memory specificity reduces adolescent vulnerability to depression

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Dahl Askelund ◽  
Susanne Schweizer ◽  
Ian M. Goodyer ◽  
Anne-Laura van Harmelen
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Stress System ◽  
Low Mood ◽  
Memory Specificity ◽  
Morning Cortisol ◽  
One Year ◽  
Positive Memories

Depression is the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide1. A known risk factor of depression is exposure to early life stress2. Such early stress exposure has been proposed to sensitise the maturing psychophysiological stress system to later life stress3. Activating positive memories dampens acute stress responses with resultant lower cortisol response and improved mood in humans4 and reduced depression-like behaviour in mice5. It is unknown whether recalling positive memories similarly reduces adolescent vulnerability to depression. Here we used path modelling to examine the effects of positive autobiographical memory specificity on later morning cortisol and negative self-cognitions during low mood in adolescents at risk for depression due to early life stress (n = 427, age: 14 years)6. We found that experimentally assessed positive but not negative memory specificity was associated with lower morning cortisol and less negative self-cognitions during low mood one year later. Moderated mediation analyses demonstrated that positive memory specificity reduced later depressive symptoms through lowering negative self-cognitions in response to negative life events reported in the one-year interval. Positive memory specificity actively dampened the negative effect of stressors over time, thereby operating as a resilience factor reducing the risk of subsequent depression7. These findings suggest that developing methods to improve positive memory specificity in at-risk adolescents may counteract vulnerability to depression.

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