Involvement of cardiac, respiratory and gastrointestinal functions in neural responses to stressful events

Body awareness therapy: A new strategy for relief of symptoms in irritable bowel syndrome patients

AIM: To compare irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients with apparently healthy persons and to evaluate body awareness therapy, which is a physiotherapeutic remedy focusing on normalising tensions in the body, for the treatment of IBS with the hypothesis that altered body tension is associated with the syndrome.

METHODS: Twenty-one IBS patients received body awareness therapy two hours weekly for 24 wk. At baseline as well as after 12 and 24 wk, they underwent examinations including resource oriented body examination in combination with body awareness scale evaluation and filled in gastrointestinal and psychological symptom questionnaires. Saliva cortisol was analysed. A group of 21 apparently healthy persons underwent the same examinations once.

RESULTS: Compared to the apparently healthy group, IBS patients scored higher at baseline for gastrointestinal and psychological symptoms. They showed more often alterations in normal body tension patterns, as well as deviating cortisol slopes in saliva. After 24 wk of body awareness therapy, their gastrointestinal and psychological symptoms were reduced overall. Somatic symptoms decreased in parallel with depressive symptoms. Whole body pain score decreased, coping ability as well as biochemical stress markers improved.

CONCLUSION: IBS patients scored higher for gastrointestinal and psychological symptoms, and presented with altered biochemical stress markers. Their body tension deviated compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, body awareness therapy gave relief of both somatic complaints, psychological symptoms and normalised body tension. These findings indicate that distorted tension constitutes an important part of the symptoms in IBS.

In vivo adaptation of attenuated Salmonella typhimurium results in increased growth upon exposure to norepinephrine

Two studies were conducted to determine whether attenuated strains of Salmonella typhimurium, currently being investigated as possible vectors for mucosal vaccines, are able to respond to norepinephrine (NE). Bacteria were tested for NE responsiveness before and for 1 week after passage through juvenile rhesus monkeys. NE significantly increased the growth of the attenuated bacteria after being shed from the animal, but not before animal infection. Follow-up in vitro tests were performed by passaging the bacteria in Lauria-Bertani (LB) broth with or without selective antibiotic for the attenuation insert and supplementing with NE. NE increased the growth of bacteria passaged in LB broth with no selective antibiotic, but not in bacteria passaged in LB broth with selective antibiotic. These results show that the attenuated bacteria assumed to be safe for use as a vaccine are able to respond to environmental stimuli, such as NE, and change their characteristics. The results suggest that there may be problems with the stability of attenuated bacteria used as vectors for mucosal vaccines.