The Connection Between Stress and Illness

Comments

DUH.

Soupytwist on April 10, 2012 at 11:43 AM

Yeah. Common sense.

Cephalodude on April 10, 2012 at 11:54 AM

Um yeah, animal physiologists have known about the effects of cortisol on immune response for a while...what took human researchers so long to catch up?

lone locust on April 10, 2012 at 12:17 PM

Pfft, NYT... I learned that from daytime TV commercials peddling anti-cortisol pills.

Jenny from the Block on April 10, 2012 at 12:20 PM

@3 Well chimps Can use their feet much like hands, sooo maybe they could cut their lab workload, like, by half.

knobtheunicorn on April 10, 2012 at 12:28 PM

Why give up stress when it's so friggin useful?

imcarey on April 10, 2012 at 12:35 PM

I would, but negotiating time off is stressful.

Zebes on April 10, 2012 at 12:43 PM

I call it an (I'm) sick (of you) day.

on April 10, 2012 at 1:14 PM

I refer to it as calling in well.

bobbelieu on April 10, 2012 at 2:42 PM

I call it a mental health day.

keshmeshi on April 10, 2012 at 3:33 PM

If you've never read anything about the mechanisms by which stress causes illness, then you'll really enjoy Robert Sapolsky's Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, written 18 years ago.

I haven't read the extra material in subsequent editions, but as far as I'm aware, everything from the first has held up, despite lack of mention in the Health & Lifestyle sections of daily papers.

robotslave on April 10, 2012 at 9:33 PM

@11 (robotslave): If I had to guess why zebras don't get ulcers, I'd say:

(1) their GI tracts aren't infected with Helicobacter pylori; and

(2) they've never seen the documentary on African wild dogs that scarred my young psyche. (The dogs didn't bother to kill the zebra before they started feasting on it. Show a zebra that, and I guarantee you it's going to get ulcers, H. pylori or no.)

PCM on April 11, 2012 at 3:42 PM