Effects of acute carbohydrate administration on central and peripheral hemodynamic responses to mental stress

Essential hypertension is closely related to conditions with impaired glucose tolerance and hyperinsulinemia. To evaluate a possible interaction between the sympathetic nervous system and carbohydrate ingestion on the circulatory responses to psychosocial stress, we compared the hemodynamic effects of an oral glucose challenge with those observed after placebo in 10 glucose-tolerant, normotensive young men at rest and during standardized mental stress. After glucose, resting cardiac output increased by 20% (p less than 0.05), which was mainly due to an increased heart rate (+14%; p less than 0.001). Since total peripheral resistance decreased by 13% (p less than 0.02), mean arterial pressure was unaffected by glucose. In spite of this, glucose loading was associated with a slight increase in systolic blood pressure and a gradual decrease of diastolic blood pressure. Resting forearm blood flow was unaffected by glucose. The stress response after placebo was characterized by the expected increase in cardiac output and mean arterial pressure, and an unchanged total peripheral resistance. By contrast, in the postprandial state the pressor response to stress was solely dependent on an increased systemic vascular resistance, and cardiac output was unaffected by stress. After glucose, the stress-induced muscular vasodilation in the forearm was reduced to 40% of that observed after placebo (p less than 0.01). Thus, acute carbohydrate administration has significant hemodynamic effects in humans. Furthermore, during the postprandial period there is a marked alteration of the pattern of the circulatory responses to psychosocial stress, characterized by attenuated muscular vasodilation and a rise in systemic vascular resistance.