Cortisol on Circadian Rhythm and Its Effect on Cardiovascular System.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review synthesizing mechanistic and secondary literature without systematic review protocol
PubMed 33466883 · doi:10.3390/ijerph18020676
What was done
A literature search of Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scopus was conducted using terms relating to circadian rhythm, cortisol, acute coronary syndrome, arrhythmias, sudden cardiac death, stroke, and cardioprotective agents. A total of 120 articles were retrieved and qualitatively synthesized to examine cortisol's circadian regulation and its cardiovascular impacts.
What was found
The abstract reports no quantitative pooled metrics or effect sizes. It reports that cortisol exhibits lowest levels at sleep onset and peaks upon waking. It describes 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β-HSD1) as a key mediator of cortisol excess, noting that 11β-HSD1 inhibition mitigates metabolic abnormalities associated with metabolic syndrome and type-2 diabetes mellitus.
Why it matters
It outlines how circadian cortisol fluctuations influence cardiovascular and autonomic function, emphasizing 11β-HSD1 as a candidate molecular target for cardioprotective interventions.
Limits
The paper is a narrative review rather than a formal systematic review or meta-analysis; search parameters, study selection criteria, and quality appraisals are not systematically defined. No primary empirical data, numerical findings, or quantitative risk estimates are reported in the abstract.
Cited by
- context Cortisol levels begin rising approximately 30 minutes before waking up.