ABSTRACT
Background: Students are susceptible to academic stress which is higher during examination period. Academic stress has been found to activate the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis resulting in increased cortisol and progesterone levels in circulation. This study sets out to investigate the effects of examination stress on ovulation of 32 apparently healthy female students. Methods: Serum levels of cortisol (μg/dl), glucose (mmol/L) and progesterone (ng/ml) was determined using blood samples collected on day 21 of the menstrual cycle before and after examination. Results: The result showed significant elevation in pre-examination serum cortisol (15.3 ± 5.9μg/dl) but significant reduction in Progesterone (3.5± 1.5ng/ml) when compared with post-examination mean serum concentrations of cortisol (10.5 ± 5.1μg/dl) and progesterone (4.2 ± 2.6ng/ml) (P<0.001 and P<0.001) respectively. There was no significance difference in glucose level before examination (5.4 ± 0.8mmol/L) and after examination (5.3 ± 0.7mmol/L) P=0.282. Conclusions: These findings demonstrated that examination triggers stress, which altered progesterone level in female students.
ABSTRACT
Background: The study evaluates the beneficial effects or otherwise of Gongronema latifolium (utazi) consumption on plasma lipid profile and blood glucose in healthy subjects. Methods: The study was conducted on twenty (20) apparently healthy subjects (10 males and 10 females), within the age range of 20-55years who were randomly recruited from Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH) staff and medical students in Nnewi Campus. Twenty experimental subjects (10 males and 10 females) were fed with 5g/day of fresh Gongronema latifolium leaves for six weeks. Blood samples were collected at baseline and every week for six weeks and the biochemical parameters analyzed using standard laboratory methods. Results: There were significant reductions in the levels of plasma glucose (3.85 ± 0.14 vs. 4.92 ± 0.31 mmol/l), cholesterol (3.60 ± 0.43 vs. 4.56 ± 0.67 mmol/l), triglycerides (0.73 ± 0.19 vs. 0.96 ± 0.20 mmol/l), Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (LDL-C) (1.97 ± 0.48 vs. 2.70 ± 0.67 mmol/l) and LDL-C/High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio (1.32 ± 0.44 vs. 2.11 ± 0.72 mmol/l) of the subjects that were fed with Gongronema latifolium leaves for six weeks compared with their baseline values; all P <0.05. Conclusion: The result of this study showed that Gongronema latifolium has hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effect on healthy subjects and might be beneficial for the management of diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases.