Exercise induced seasonal (summer and winter) serum cortisol changes in male students of services institute of medical sciences,Lahore and their effect on platelet count

Background: cortisol being a stress hormone is released in larger quantity during exercise. after exercise it is found that cortisol causes an increase in platelet count. aim: to investigate the effect of resultant serum cortisol levels changes on platelet count. methods: in this 2 stage cross-sectional study,40 male students,aged 18-28 years,of sims,lahore were studied from january,2010 to june,2010. data was collected before and after exercise during summer and winter seasons. serum cortisol levels and platelet counts were evaluated. results: comparing pre-exercise data of summer to winter,serum cortisol and platelet count were significantly higher before exercise in summer. comparing post-exercise data of summer to winter,serum cortisol,and platelet count were significantly higher in summer. conclusions: it could be concluded that cortisol levels are elevated after exercise in both seasons and there was a rise in all the platelet count. thus higher cortisol levels in summer may lead to a compromised body defence especially after exercise.