Service Dogs Balancing Cortisol Levels in Veterans Experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Of the United States military veterans that are returning from war, about five to twenty percent experience posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)(Rodriguez, 202). PTSD is a stress related disorder that causes those affected by it to have intense and disturbing thoughts long after their traumatic event or events. One way to determine the stress levels in post-military personnel experiencing PTSD is to measure their cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone that can be measured via saliva samples shortly after waking up. It has been found that those who experience high levels of stress often times emit higher intensities of cortisol (“Cortisol”).
Contrary to what most people may believe, the cortisol levels of returning soldiers experiencing PTSD is abnormally low (Rodriguez, 203). As Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a disorder related to stress, this new was shocking as the cortisol levels were below average when they were expected to be much higher.
Those who struggle with PTSD have been provided government aid in trying to assist them to reach their full health. One way in which the government is trying to help veterans is through providing them specially trained service dogs.
"Those who struggle with PTSD have been provided government aid in trying to assist them to reach their full health"
A major way in which former military personnel can begin recovering from PTSD is through balancing their hormones to their normal levels. Through the use of service dogs in treating those who have PTSD, a positive correlation between the amount of cortisol emitted and the use of the dog has been found (Rodriguez, 203). For those who have a service animal, it has been proven that their level of cortisol has been risen to a normal number that someone who is not struggling with PTSD might have (Rodriguez, 203).
In a recent study carried out by Kerri E. Rodriguez, Crystal I. Bryce, Douglas A. Granger, and Marguerite E. O’Haire called “The effect of a service dog on salivary cortisol awakening response in a military population with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)”, 304 military members and veterans were selected to participate in a study to try and affectively link the use of a service dog to balanced cortisol levels. These military members and veterans struggled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In contrast to individuals that are healthy, past military personnel who are struggling with PTSD have atypical cortisol profiles. Atypical cortisol levels lead to more reoccurring and unwarranted stress. The researchers wanted to observe those who had PTSD cortisol profiles to see if the military personnel could reach the profile of someone who is considered to be of good health with the assistance of a service dog.
Cortisol simply was measured during the awakening period of the former and present military personnel. The awakening period can be defined as the time period spanning in which someone initially wakes up to thirty minutes after waking from sleep (Rodriguez, 204). In order to make sure that the participants were awake and testing during their awakening period, their phones were monitored and were went daily reminders to collect their salvia samples.
Through synthesizing and breaking down the meanings of varying cortisol levels, it was reported that those who had a service dog were significantly less anxious, angry, and disturbed in their sleep than those who were on the waitlist for a dog or who did not have a dog. Through the integration of a service dog into the daily lives of those suffering with PTSD, the percentage of alcohol abusers in the tested population went down. After controlling multiple aspects of the experiment to get the most accurate results, it was found that having a service dog is associated with having a higher morning cortisol awakening response, which basically helped to balance the cortisol levels.
With the information found as a result of this study, it is known that service dogs provide positive health benefits to post military personnel who are looking to improve their condition. Hopefully, through funding and government aid, more veterans will be able to receive service animals.
Through integrating this information into the daily lives of everyday people, it is with high hopes that they will take the time to try and understand the illness of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and to assist those in need of help who may be struggling with the disease. Another main point that can be taken away from this article is that stress levels can be managed and somewhat controlled actively through various techniques, rather that be integrating a service dog into one’s lifestyle, by controlling or alcohol consumption, or other activities.
Reflective Rhetorical Analysis
There are many ways in which scientists, students, and even general people intentionally structure their papers and reports, through structure, reference, and language, to most affectively convey the information that they are presenting. Through structuring the paper that I wrote titled “Service Dogs Balancing Cortisol Levels in Veterans Experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”, in a linear fashion, similar to that of an IMRaD formatted paper, paraphrasing confusing sentences from the original natural science article, and describing technical jargon by using simpler terms rather than technical and scientific jargon, the papers central meaning of service dogs helping to balance cortisol to a healthy level in those experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can be discovered by a general audience.
Conventions of structure, reference, and language used in adaptation
I structured my scholarly adaptation paper in a way that indirectly follows the IMRaD format structure of a paper. This means that I incorporated information from each of the major sections of the scholarly article, the introduction, methods, results, analysis, and discussion.
Eliminating the continuous use of technical and scientific jargon, and if technical jargon was used, explaining the terms in a simple approach.
Paraphrasing and summarizing sentences from the original paper in attempt to make the paper less confusing for the general audience.
Direct Examples and/or reasoning for choosing convention
Through doing this, the audience is able to read the paper in a linear and logical manner. For example, the readers are first introduced to background information, then the experiments, and then the steps that went along with the experiment, followed by the results and discussion. This will help to eliminate confusion that the reader may have reading through the paper, as most unknown information is introduced and explained at the beginning of the paper.
I mentioned the term posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and followed it by saying “PTSD is a stress related disorder that causes those affected by it to have intense and disturbing thoughts long after their traumatic even or events”. Through going through and explaining what PTSD is, the reader does not have to question the meaning throughout the rest of the paper where the term is used quite often.
For example, I took the following information “Stress in humans can be measured via the hormone cortisol, a product of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis. Cortisol concentrations can be assayed from saliva samples upon awakening and shortly thereafter to estimate the cortisol awakening response. In healthy individuals without PTSD, the CAR is characterized by a 50-75% increase of cortisol. Studies consistently link individual differences in the magnitude of this increase to both acute and chronic stress” and condensed it a few sentenced that are easily understood. In my adaptation I stated that information like so: “One way to determine the stress levels in post-military personnel experiencing PTSD is to measure their cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone that can be measured via saliva samples shortly after waking up. It has been found that those who experience high levels of stress often times emit higher intensities or levels of cortisol.” In attempt to make the essay easier to follow, I paraphrased and summarized.
This is a graph of the cortisol levels that a healthy individual would experience daily.
Here are some examples of things that you can do to help reduce stress.
In conclusion, I used various rhetorical features in my scholarly article adaptation to convey the information found in the article “Service Dogs Balancing Cortisol Levels in Veterans Experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” in a way that those who were reading a scientific magazine might understand. Through structuring my article in an intentional way, I hope that the audience is able to logically follow and understand the information being stated. By paraphrasing confusing sentences from the original article, I have the hopes that the audience is gaining the same important knowledge that the original article is stating, but in a way that is easier to digest and comprehend. Through eliminating the use of technical jargon without an explanation of the terms, I hope that the readers were not confused with the wording or situations being described. Writing with a specific goal in mind will make for a more effective and worthwhile paper.
Author's Note:
From completing the adaptation and analysis of a scholarly article, I learned how to intentionally write an essay to fit a general audience. I wrote my essay to be published in a magazine or some other type of casual outlet for readers that have a general education to understand. In order to adapt a complex essay, there are many different rhetorical conventions that must be considered and used. These conventions vary from conventions of language to structure to reference. I learned different techniques that writers use to account for their audiences of varying educational backgrounds. For example, I tried not to use technical jargon, and if I did I explained it well enough for a general audience to understand. On my writer’s website, I chose to incorporate pictures of service dogs both with their owners and alone. I did this so that I had a multimodal element that fit the theme of my paper. I also chose to include a button that takes the reader to a website that gives information on how veterans struggling with PTSD can apply for a service dog. I also quoted some information in bold words to pull out major points mentioned in my paper. Another multimodal element that I chose to include was a chart that included the rhetorical conventions that I used. I chose to go this route instead of simply copying and pasting my information into the webpage in the form of an essay because I wanted for my webpage to be more visually pleasing to the viewer. Finally, I chose to include a border around my writing that lead the readers eye down the page. I feel that this made the webpage look much less boring and could eliminate any confusion that the reader may have had regarding where to being reading.
