TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Level stress a person apparently can be analyzed by means of earwax. This was revealed from research conducted in London and outlined in a study in the journal Heliyon involving 37 participants.
Researchers, namely Andrés Herane-Vives and colleagues at University College London’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Institute of Psychiatry found that cortisol is more concentrated in earwax than in hair, making it easier to analyze.
Cortisol is an important hormone that jumps up when a person is stressed and decreases when they are relaxed. These hormones often increase consistently in people with depression and anxiety.
As reported by LiveScience, the researchers said that earwax was stable and resistant to bacterial contamination so it could be sent to a laboratory easily for analysis. Additionally, earwax can keep logs of cortisol levels for weeks.
On the other hand, the swab or swab technique the researchers used to collect earwax, according to the participants, was much more comfortable than other methods.
In fact, apart from earwax, the method of examining cortisol can be through saliva, blood and hair. However, according to the researchers, saliva and blood samples only capture a moment and cortisol fluctuates significantly throughout the day.
Even the experience of dealing with needles to draw blood can increase stress and raise cortisol levels.
While using a hair sample, it can provide a brief overview of cortisol for several months but hair analysis is expensive.
Examination through the earwax itself was also painful previously as it involved a needle and syringe. For this reason, Herane-Vives and his colleagues developed a swab that, when used, would be less stressful.
“After this successful pilot study, if our device can be further investigated in a larger trial, we hope to transform diagnosis and treatment for millions of people with depression or cortisol-related conditions such as Addison’s disease and Cushing’s syndrome, and possibly many other conditions, “the investigators said in a statement.
In the future, they hope that earwax can also be used to monitor other hormones.
Researchers also need to follow up research on Asians, who were not included in this pilot study because in part they produced earwax dry, not wet and waxy earwax.
– .
