Stress, immunity, inflammation and interleukin-6

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, June, 2005 by Robert A. Anderson

In 211 middle-aged men and women undertaking short-term stressful tasks, NK cell counts increased and were positively associated with heart rate variability responses independent of age, sex, socioeconomic status, smoking, and change in hematocrit. Heart rate 45 minutes post-stress was positively associated with plasma interleukin-6, and with TNF-[alpha] changes from baseline, independently of covariates.

Owen N, Steptoe A. Natural killer cell and proinflammatory cytokine responses to mental stress: associations with heart rate and heart rate variability. Biol Psychol 2003 May; 63(2):101-15

COMMENT: Individual differences in sympathetically-driven cardiac stress responses are associated with natural killer (NK) cell and proinflammatory cytokine (IL-6) responses to psychological stress. To re-emphasize, if the stress is short-term, the immune system's adaptive response is pro-inflammatory, initiating the first stage of healing.

Robert Anderson is a retired family physician whose practice took a holistic turn as decades passed. He has authored five major books, Stress Power!, Wellness Medicine, The Complete Self-Care Guide to Holistic Medicine (co-author), Clinician's Guide to Holistic Medicine (McGraw Hill, 2001), and The Scientific Basis for Holistic Medicine, (6th edition 2004), available from American Health Press, holos@nwi.net.Anderson was the founding president of the American Board of Holistic Medicine, past president of the AHMA, former Assistant Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Washington and is currently an Adjunct Instructor in Family Medicine at Bastyr University.