Scientists measure stress through the hormone cortisol in hair

A joint team of researchers from Iceland and Mexico has found evidence that it is possible to measure how stressed a person has been in the recent past by measuring the level of the hormone cortisol in the hair.

It is known that the hormone cortisol is secreted by the adrenal gland and has many functions, but it is usually secreted in abundance in the case of human stress, to the extent that it is sometimes referred to as the stress hormone.

As part of the study conducted by a joint number of researchers from the University of Iceland and the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico City, and published in the scientific journal "Plus Global Public Health", the scientific team tried to determine whether the hormone cortisol reaches human hair, and how it relates to a person's feeling of stress.

Grab hair

The study involved collecting hair samples from 881 women living in different places in Mexico and 398 women from Iceland. The hair of the volunteers in the experiment was pulled, not cut, in order to allow the opportunity to test the hair roots as well.

The researchers made sure that the length of each hair was not less than 3 centimeters, knowing that the normal rate of hair growth is one centimeter per month, and therefore the researchers were able to study the rate of stress over the previous 3 months.

During the study, each woman was asked to respond to a short questionnaire to determine how stressed she felt during the past three months, and then the volunteers were divided into 5 groups according to the degree of stress that each volunteer was feeling during the previous period.

Many people may experience stress and stress, but there are many different ways you can take it to relieve stress and protect your health.  Psychological stress. Source: Hamad Medical Corporation

The level of cortisol in the hair

The research team found a link between the level of cortisol in the hair and the degree of stress, meaning that the higher the degree of stress, the higher the level of the hormone in the hair.

The researchers believe that this experiment proves the possibility of using the hormone cortisol as a biomarker to measure stress in the recent past, with the possibility of using these results in the development of specific drugs or the discovery of some types of diseases.