Those who visit my blog on a regular basis and those who already touched base with biestmilch know probably that biestmilch is a stress modulator and therefore a remedy in the most different diseases, occasions and conditions. Now, I just bumped into an article on the American Scientific’s website about the implications of stress on the immune system, a publication that cites two studies. Here is an excerpt.
Ohio State University psychologist Janice Kiecolt-Glaser and her partner, Ronald Glaser, an OSU virologist and immunologist, have spent 20-odd years researching how stress affects the immune system. They worked with caregivers for years, a job that definitely brings up a lot of stress situations.
In one experiment, Kiecolt-Glaser and her colleagues administered flu vaccines to caregivers and control subjects and compared the numbers of antibodies that the two groups produced in response. Only 38 percent of the caregivers produced what is considered an adequate antibody response compared to 66 percent of their relaxed counterparts, suggesting that the caregivers’ immune systems weren’t doing their jobs very well—and that the stress of caregiving ultimately put them at an increased risk of infection.
The immune system steers healing processes
This an essential aspect that athletes should pay attention to. Many of them who suffer from injuries, or undergo operations don’t take into consideration that an intact immune system is pivotal for recovery which is identical with healing. The two above named researchers were also able to demonstrate how stress affects the healing process. Immune responses are responsible for healing, Thus, if immunity is impaired, then it should also affect how well the body heals itself. In one particularly study the scientists afflicted a group of caregivers with small arm wounds using a tool dermatologists use to perform skin biopsies. The caregivers’ wounds took 24 percent longer to heal than wounds that they had afflicted to non-caregivers.
They performed yet another experiment in which they produced tiny lesions in the mouths of—quite appropriately—11 dental students at two different points in time. Once was during their summer vacation, when they were relaxed, and once was during the fall, several days before a difficult exam. The lesions done before the exam took from two to eight days longer to heal than the summer wounds. For some subjects, the exam wounds took nearly twice as long to get better.
In her most recent study, Kiecolt-Glaser found that when people are under lots of stress—for instance, when they are forced to deliver a speech or do difficult math problems on the spot—their allergies worsen over the course of the next day.
Stress and its regulation by the stress system (nervous system, immune system and hormones) is essential for our well-being. Stress are all stimuli that endanger our body’s balance. There is a lot more to say, if you feel for reading more then go to the American Scientific about Stress or to our Biest-Magazine.
