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Stress can be good for immune system
Friday June 22, 2012 12:16:49 PM,
IANS
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Washington: Stress is
bad for you -- you've heard it a thousand times. But it can be
good for your immune system, says a study.
Short-term stress, the fight-or-flight response, a mobilisation of
bodily resources lasting minutes or hours in response to immediate
threats -- stimulates immune activity, said Firdaus Dhabhar,
associate professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences and
member of the Stanford University Institute for Immunity,
Transplantation, and Infection.
And that's a good thing. The immune system is crucial for wound
healing and preventing or fighting infection, and both wounds and
infections are common risks during chases, escapes and combat, the
Journal of Psychoneuroendocrinology reported.
Working with colleagues at Stanford and two other universities,
Dhabhar showed that subjecting lab rats to mild stress caused a
massive mobilization of several key types of immune cells into the
bloodstream and then onto the skin and other tissues, according to
a university statement.
This large-scale migration of immune cells, which took place over
two hours, was comparable to the mustering of troops in a crisis,
Dhabhar said. He and colleagues had previously shown that a
similar immune-cell redistribution in patients experiencing the
short-term stress of surgery predicts enhanced postoperative
recovery.
Investigators were able to show that the massive redistribution of
immune cells throughout the body was orchestrated by three
hormones released by the adrenal glands, in different amounts and
at different times, in response to the stress-inducing event.
These hormones are the brain's call-to-arms to the rest of the
body, Dhabhar said.
"Mother Nature gave us the fight-or-flight stress response to help
us, not to kill us," said Dhabhar, who has been conducting
experiments for well over a decade on the effects of the major
stress hormones on the immune system.
The findings paint a clearer picture of exactly how the mind
influences immune activity. "An impala's immune system has no way
of knowing that a lion is lurking in the grass and is about to
pounce, but its brain does," Dhabhar added.
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