Effect of Various Grades of Exercise on Serum Cortisol

Abstract

Increasing incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases are mostly due to improving socio-economic statusand changes in modern lifestyles, including diets which are high in salt, sugar, and undesirable fats anddecrease in physical activity levels in Indian population. The present study evaluates the effect of variousgrades of exercise on serum cortisol in healthy young Indian adults. The objective of the study was toevaluate the pre and post exercise changes in serum cortisol levels. A total 56 healthy First year MBBSstudent’s age between 18-27 yrs of either sex were taken at G.S.V.M. Medical College Kanpur. The subjectswere treated with moderate and heavy exercise. Pre-exercise determination of serum total cortisol of all thesubjects was done. Post-exercise determination of serum total cortisol of all the subjects after duration ofone week and 12 weeks of exercise was done. After completion of 12 weeks of exercise a comparison wasmade between pre and post exercise values of total serum cortisol. Statistical Analysis was done by pairedstudent ‘t’ test and 95% level of confidence was taken significant (p<0.05).Results indicated that Serumcortisol varies with different grades of exercise and there was slight increase in serum cortisol concentrationafter moderate exercise but it was of not very much significance. There are some divergent findings alsoand most literature has cited that an approximate 60% exercise intensity threshold is necessary to elicit asignificant increase in blood cortisol.Thus, according to our study, there is correlation of the serum cortisollevels according to the different grades of exercise.