George Slavich Finds Out How Stress Influences the Immune System
12.08.2010 17:51
The online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) just published an article by George Slavich in which he and his co-workers describe how our brains respond to social stressors, thus influencing our body’s immune system in ways that may negatively affect health.
George Slavich, who will soon assume a faculty position in the UCLA School of Medicine, is the lead author on this new report documenting the neural bases of inflammatory responses to acute social stress. In the paper, George Slavich and colleagues demonstrate that individuals who are more neurally sensitive to social rejection exhibit greater inflammatory responses to social stress. The finding has important implications for understanding how social stressors may promote susceptibility to several major disorders, including asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and depression.
The article was referenced in the UCLA Newsroom. Read the Newsroom article.
Read the Live Science article with other references to the PNAS article