The increasing popularity of RMBD has been demonstrated in multiple studies


For SBP reactivity and recovery, effect sizes of persistent stressor exposure versus high childhood exposure were 58% higher, suggesting the combined impact of adversity across childhood and adulthood may be stronger than childhood exposure alone. Results using continuous stressor variables did not support a multiplicative effect of childhood and adulthood stressor exposures, thus there was little evidence for stress sensitization. The magnitude of associations between adulthood stressor exposure and BP acute stress response were attenuatedby more than half when childhood stressors were included, whereas childhood exposure effect sizes were robust to adjustment for adulthood stressors. These findings generally support the idea that childhood may be a developmental period wherein exposures have more potent effects than those of adulthood exposures , perhaps via alterations in critical biological processes involved in long-term stress response differences that culminate in elevated chronic disease risks . However, the broad age range of our early adversity measures precluded formal tests of exposure effects during more focused developmental periods. Our findings also parallel earlier findings that childhood psychological distress is uniquely associated with midlife cardiometabolic risk,snap clamps for greenhouse even if such distress remitted by adulthood .

The stronger association of the stressor variables with systolic compared with diastolic BP acute stress response aligns with findings that SBP is a stronger determinant of adverse cardiovascular outcomes than BP . While the effect sizes of the stressor variables on BP reactivity and recovery are small, they are comparable or somewhat higher than those reported for life events in a meta-analysis . Another explanation for the differential association of childhood versus adulthood stressors with BP acute stress response is that adverse childhood events are more severe than adulthood stressors. This could be due to methodological differences in item content or to true severity differences in circumstances. Childhood stressors, particularly maltreatment and the conditions under which they occur, could be more enduring than some of the more episodic adulthood stressors included in the life events checklist. Moreover, children who experience multiple psychosocial stressors are likely to grow up in environments plagued by other stressors like poverty and physical risks and encounter more stressors as adults . Thus, the “high childhood exposure” and “persistent exposure” groups may be more similar in their developmental histories than to the “high adult exposure” group. For BRS acute stress response, we observed slower recovery in individuals with persistent stressor exposure, suggesting both distal and proximal stressors may be important for its recovery. Given stressor exposure was unrelated to BRS reactivity, acute stress reactivity and recovery may not relate to exposures in a synchronized manner and their underlying mechanisms may not entirely overlap. The overall pattern in which lifespan stressors related to BRS versus BP acute stress response differed; BRS may be more tightly regulated than BP and therefore less susceptible to external influences. Given scarce research on psychosocial correlates of BRS acute stress response, we consider the current findings preliminary.

Early adversity may contribute to below-average hemodynamic acute stress response via neural mechanisms underlying emotion and motivational processes. Early adversity has been linked to global brain structural variation, and dysregulation in neuroendocrine stress response systems and neural circuits underlying fear learning and emotion regulation , which may explain poorly calibrated responses to challenges. Ginty proposed blunted cardiovascular and cortisol acute stress responses may signal a general “biological disengagement from life challenges” involving inadequate processing of psychologically stressful stimuli, ineffective coordination of motivated behaviors, diminished response to rewards, and dysregulated reward-seeking behaviors. These deficits are also overrepresented among individuals with early adversity . Alternatively, some researchers have wondered if reduced acute stress response may confer short-term cognitive and emotional benefits in the immediate aftermath of stressors . Others suggest depression and cognitive function may be intermediaries linking early adversity with adult stress physiology, but evidence for associations of stressor exposure, neuropsychiatric processes, stress physiology, and health outcomes is often cross-sectional, which may yield biased estimates of longitudinal processes. Research clarifying directionality among these complex developmental processes is needed. Our results do not suggest a stress-buffering effect of optimism on adult hemodynamic acute stress response, but in path analyses lower optimism at least partially accounted for associations of lifespan stressor exposure with diminished SBP and DBP reactivity and slower recovery. We also observed a main effect of higher optimism on higher BP reactivity and faster recovery, suggesting optimism is associated with a more flexible hemodynamic system that engages with and bounces back from environmental demands.

Findings on optimism were largely maintained after adjustment for depression, suggesting the observed associations were not due primarily to a lack of negative affect. Failure to detect an optimism-by-stressor exposure interaction could be due to having few individuals who developed high optimism despite having high stressor exposure. Of participants in the highest optimism quartile, 74% had low lifespan stressor exposure, compared with 4% who had high lifespan stressor exposure. Perhaps the physiological benefits of optimism were not limited to individuals with high stressor exposure levels. The dose-response association between stressor exposure and optimism suggests that stressful life circumstances may limit opportunities to cultivate confidence in one’s ability to overcome challenges and achieve positive outcomes over the life span . Several limitations should be considered. First, our data were cross-sectional and reverse causality is possible. Second, our measures of stressor exposure were retrospective and can be susceptible to the influence of later-life circumstances and potential bias by unreliable or inaccurate recall, or current mood. However, a comparison study suggested that associations between childhood exposures and midlife outcomes were highly similar between prospective birth cohort data and retrospective life history data . Third, as our acute stressor tasks were laboratory-based and represent situations requiring a high cognitive load, they may have limited ecological validity and generalizability to other psychologically stressful situations. Individual differences in task engagement, for which we do not have a measure, may influence acute stress response. Fourth, we did not distinguish between stressor type or severity. However, compared with prior studies using MIDUS II data , we augmented our early adversity measure with negative life events to increase content coverage and representativeness, and observed the same pattern of findings for BP outcomes. Moreover, Keogh et al. did not observe differential associations of childhood trauma subtypes with BP acute stress reactivity. Finally, our study did not include a replication sample, thus findings are not yet conclusive. We hope these findings motivate additional research that replicates and extends them, by leveraging existing data and materials or by designing studies to address the research questions directly. In summary, the current study informs theory on the developmental timing of stressor exposure in relation to hemodynamic acutestress response. We offer novel evidence on the sensitivity of the baroreflex mechanism to background and acute stressors. Interventions that promote psychosocial resources to manage stressors and their aftermath may be relevant for fostering both optimism and more adaptive hemodynamic stress responses. By addressing psychological and physiological factors upstream to cardiovascular disease development,greenhouse snap on clamp this study informs the identification of potential targets for primordial intervention efforts aimed at mitigating the lifelong impact of stress on health.An adverse food reaction is defined as any abnormal clinical response that occurs following ingestion of a food or food component . It is often unclear if the pathologic mechanisms of AFR represent a specific immune-mediated response to food antigens, or if the mechanism is related to non-immune intolerance to a component in the food . When manifested as dermatological signs, an AFR is termed a cutaneous adverse food reaction . In addition to cutaneous signs, gastrointestinal signs, symmetric lupoid onychodystrophy, conjunctivitis, sneezing, and anaphylaxis have been associated with AFR in dogs; gastrointestinal and respiratory signs, conjunctivitis, and hyperactive behavior have also been reported in cats .

Of these clinical signs, diarrhea and frequent defecation were most often diet-responsive in dogs; in the cat, diet-responsive clinical signs included vomiting and diarrhea . Among dogs and cats presented to their veterinarian for pruritus, the median prevalence of CAFR is estimated to be between 15% and 20% . In dogs in Australia, Europe, and North America, the most common food antigens causing CAFR are beef, dairy products, chicken, wheat, and lamb . In cats, the most common food antigens that are incriminated are beef, fish, and chicken . The best diagnostic procedure for identifying CAFR in companion animals is an elimination diet with subsequent provocation trials . To reliably diagnose CAFR in more than 90% of dogs and cats, elimination diet trials should last at least 8 wk and can be either homemade or commercially produced . Although veterinary dermatologists often consider home cooked diets as their first choice, many pet owners prefer the convenience of commercial “novel” or “hydrolyzed” protein diets, and rely on package labels to select diets that do not contain previously fed ingredients . There are concerns that these diets may contain unlisted food sources, and that unidentified ingredients might cause clinical reactions in hypersensitive patients . Unidentified dietary allergens could preclude a resolution of clinical signs in CAFR-affected patients, yielding misleading results for the elimination diet trial. Inadvertent cross-contamination of pet foods appears common, even in those with “limited ingredients” proposed for elimination diets . Rigorous quality control to screen for accidental contamination using real-time or quantitative polymerase chain reaction has been used in both human and animal food manufacturing as a rapid and sensitive point-of-care application to screen for food-borne bacteria, viruses, or allergens, which can be identified at low concentrations . This screening method has also been used in the production of veterinary prescription diets to validate their contents in order to avoid inadvertent allergen exposures for sensitized pets . Of the quality control analysis methods available, DNA-based protocols are considered most reliable for detecting animal species in processed pet food manufacturing . A subset of commercially available diets includes raw meat based diets . Historically, these diets were fed to racing greyhounds and sled dogs; this feeding practice began to be extended to pets and became increasingly popular in the 1990’s . Despite evidence of nutritional deficiencies or excesses and potential health risks of feeding raw or under cooked animal source proteins, advocates of RMBD claim anecdotal health benefits, such as improvement in coat and skin, and a reduction in medical conditions such as allergies . A 2008 telephone survey revealed approximately 30% of dogs and 15% of cats in the United States and Australia consumed a combination of “unconventional” diets and commercial pet foods . A more recent anonymous Internet-based American survey indicated that 46% of dog owners and 38% of cat owners had fed RMBDs to their pets . Additionally, sales of RMBD have increased annually by as much as 15% in recent years . Over the past decade, this feeding practice has continued to increase, and market locations have expanded to include grocery stores, mass merchandisers, pet specialty stores, and veterinary clinics . A 2019 Italian-based survey shed light on dog owners’ motivations for adopting this feeding method . About 80% of respondents reported that they abandoned feeding commercial diets due to distrust in the clarity of ingredients commercial prescription veterinary diet, veterinarians may acquiesce to such requests. However, the reliability of RMBD for this purpose has not been evaluated. The primary aim of this study was to use PCR to test commercially available RMBD for the presence of DNA of animal origin other than that declared on the labels. A secondary objective was to determine the consistency of DNA presence between different batches of the same diets. The hypothesis was that the diets would contain unlisted protein ingredients, and that these unlisted proteins would vary between batches. To the authors’ knowledge, no previous studies have examined these issues. Nine commercial canine and feline RMBD were selected for analysis. All diets were marketed as balanced for complete feeding. The selected diets included a variety of commonly available North American RMBD, some formulated with novel animal source proteins , or limited ingredients , or grain-free diets which may be potentially selected for use as an elimination diet. The diets evaluated were not specifically marketed for feeding as elimination diets, but contained ingredients which may be considered by pet owners for this feeding purpose.