If anyone knows anything about salivary alpha amylase, I would be interested to hear your experience with collection and analysis.
Blood pressure will also be measured, but I am not sure that is enough of a stress response measure.
Hello Brian, thank you for your answer I will look into ELISA kits.
My concern with salivary cortisol (which may be unwarranted) is the fluctuation and the influences from factors I cannot control. Cortisol seems unstable, yet popular.
Hi Tara! Depending on the time scale you're interested in, measuring cortisol in hair might be a good option for you. 1 cm of hair (measured from the scalp) is equivalent to about a month worth of cortisol deposition, so it averages out all the daily fluctuations. Plus, it's relatively easy to extract and assay. Our lab has worked with a number of different species, including humans, so you'd be welcome to come up to Flagstaff and learn some techniques!
Hi Danielle! That is very interesting! I will keep that in mind for future studies. It doesn't exactly fit my dissertation, but it definitely fits with the work I would like to do in the future. I would be thrilled to visit your lab and learn more about the techniques you use! I will email you to discuss this further, Thank you!!!
The company 'Salametrics' has reliable assays and collection protocols for measuring free cortisol and alpha amylase in saliva. https://www.salimetrics.com/assay-kit/cortisol-salivary-elisa-eia-kit They also have protocols for other hormones that can be measured in saliva, just check out their website,
Measuring cortisol doesn't have to be variable, so long as you control for various factors. Time of day that you are sampling, whether the subject has eaten/drank anything immediately before sampling, don't let them smoke before hand, etc. It's not difficult to do, you just have to carefully consider potential confounds and design your study properly. Look in the literature for studies from David A. Edwards at Emory University. He has done a lot of research looking at cortisol, testosterone, and other things in saliva. His studies are always well designed, so they will be great examples of how to do the collections properly.
With the blood pressure you can also measure heart rate response, skin conductance, maybe respiratory rate. Those parameters would be valuable if you have a polygraph or biofeedback device and can measure it in the real time.
With the blood pressure you can also measure heart rate response, skin conductance, maybe respiratory rate. Those parameters would be valuable if you have a polygraph or biofeedback device and can measure it in the real time.
With the blood pressure you can also measure heart rate response, skin conductance, maybe respiratory rate. Those parameters would be valuable if you have a polygraph or biofeedback device and can measure it in the real time.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Physiology
- Physiological Processes
- Stress