Chronic stress and energy homoeostasis

摘要

Stress is commonplace to modern society and can be a major factor negatively influencing a balanced lifestyle which is crucial to maintain a healthy aging process. While acute stress can be beneficial for dealing with unexpected situations, prolonged stress has been shown to have adverse consequences on many organ systems as well as negative impacts on behavioural and physiological responses including feeding behaviour and energy homeostasis. In humans, stress affects individuals differently with regards to feeding; some decrease food intake and lose weight during or after stress, while most others increase their food intake during stress. Importantly, however, independent of hypo- or hyperphagia, people often report that they prefer highly palatable food during periods of prolonged stress, rich in both sugar and fat, which significantly contributes to the development of obesity. Similarly, when rodents have a choice of highly palatable diet, stress also increases the intake of such calorie dense foods [ ]. Despite these well documented observations in both humans and animals the underlying neuronal pathways that are responsible for controlling this behaviour are still unclear.