Chronic stress can wreak havoc on mind and body and has been implicated in many health problems including autoimmune disorders. New research helps shed light on how stress may increase the risk of an autoimmune disease similar to multiple sclerosis which causes damage to the nervous system.

Normally, stress sets off a chain reaction in your body that includes the release of the hormone cortisol that helps you handle stressful situations (fight or flight). Cortisol also helps regulate your immune response. In small doses, your body’s reaction to stress is protective; higher or unrelenting amounts of stress have the opposite effect.

Using mice, the scientists showed how chronic stress may damage the body’s ability to regulate immune function. They found that autoimmunity results when chronic stress alters the effectiveness of cortisol to regulate the inflammatory response because it decreases tissue sensitivity to the hormone. Specifically, immune cells become insensitive to cortisol's regulatory effect. In turn, runaway inflammation promotes the development of autoimmunity.

Moreover, the researchers found that exposure to high levels of corticosterone (the equivalent of cortisol in rodents) simulating chronic stress reduced the number of immune cells. This increased the number of cells that encouraged damaging inflammation compared to those that inhibit it.

This mechanism appeared more pronounced in females than in males and may explain, in part, the higher rates of autoimmune disease in women than in men.

This study also supports previous research that found that a high proportion (up to 80%) of patients with autoimmune disorders reported uncommon emotional stress before disease onset. Unfortunately, not only does stress cause disease, but the disease itself also causes significant stress in the patients, creating a vicious cycle.

Take Aways

The researchers say the results of this study suggest that while a high level of cortisol may generally protect against the worsening of autoimmune diseases, in those exposed to chronic stress, steroids could lead to a worsening of their symptoms.

Therefore, even though steroids is one of the treatments for chronic inflammation, use of such a treatment – particularly in patients suffering from chronic stress – should be carefully weighed and considered.

We can all achieve health benefits by reducing the amount of stress in our lives. You can find tips and ideas to tame stress with Strategies for a Stressed Out Society.

Sources:

Ben-Gurion University of Negev
Science Daily
PubMed

Listening to music on an iPod in a quiet place may be cheaper, but I can't think of too many things more relaxing and enjoyable than a massage. If you been looking for health-related reasons to justify having them on a regular basis, consider today's post your ticket to paradise, a better bodily immune system and a decrease in the stress hormone cortisol that slows down healing, according to a recent study.

Scientists studied the effect of different kinds of massage on two sets of healthy patients. One group received 45 minutes of light touch massage while the other experienced a Swedish massage for the same duration. Before their massages, patients were hooked up to IVs so that blood samples could be drawn before, during and after their massages.

For those receiving Swedish massages, the benefits were very obvious, as scientists noted increases in the level of lymphocytes (white blood cells that defend the body from disease), and drops, not only in cortisol levels, but arginine vasopressin (a hormone contributing to aggressive behavior and increasing the amount of cortisol in the human body) and cytokines (signaling proteins produced by white blood cells).

The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine September 1, 2010

ScienceDaily September 9, 2010

No question, chronic stress can be very harmful to your health, particularly when you don't take the right steps to treat it. But, how much of the chronic stuff does it really take to put your health at risk?

A consortium of scientists from Israel and Canada may have found a biological marker by measuring the amount of the hormone cortisol, secreted during times of stress, in a 1.2-inch (3 cm) strand of human hair. They compared hair samples taken from 56 male heart attack patients to a control group of equal number who were admitted for unrelated medical reasons (infection, chest pains).

Compared to the control group, higher levels of cortisol were found in the hair samples of heart attack patients, even after taking other risk factors (like BMI) into account.

As always, however, there are caveats. Even though previous research determined cortisol levels in hair match those found in blood, scientists are unsure if those elevated levels match up with a patient's actual feelings of stress, and whether these test results would even be valid for women. If cortisol testing is viable for women, one mental health expert believes it could be a boon for doctors monitoring chronic stress felt by pregnant moms and their unborn children.

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