High levels of stress hormone cortisol may be a sign of cognitive decline in the elderly

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-07-16 01:00

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Looking for high levels of the stress hormone cortisol in elderly people's saliva may be an effective way of testing for cognitive decline, according to US scientists. They measured salivary cortisol in 3,895 people aged an average of 76.7 years and compared the data with measures of cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease. They found that those with the highest levels of cortisol experienced the fastest cognitive decline, while the slowest decline was seen among people whose cortisol levels varied from day-to-day. The team also noticed that cortisol levels tended to be lower among black participants, with lower variation day-to-day, but the link between high cortisol and faster cognitive decline remained. The authors add that no link was found between cortisol levels and the incidence of Alzheimer's disease.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Rush University Medical Center, USA

Funder: This study was funded by grants R01AG058679, R01AG073627 and UH2AG083289 from the National Institutes of Health. Dr Ng was supported by the Cohn Fellowship at Rush University Medical Center during the conduct of this study.

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