Can Science Vaccinate Us Against the Ravages of Stress on Immune Systems?

RoseTracker| Helping people live well in a stressful world propels Robert Sapolsky’s search for a stress vaccine. In the late 1970s stress was ignored in medical schools. Doctors understood almost nothing about cortisol levels. In the decades since, we’ve come to understand that stress is at the top of the list in what kills us and triggers a wide assortment of health problems.

Furthermore, the effects of chronic stress directly counteract improvements in medical care and public health. Antibiotics, for instance, are far less effective when our immune system is suppressed by stress; that fancy heart surgery will work only if the patient can learn to shed stress. As Sapolsky notes, “You can give a guy a drug-coated stent, but if you don’t fix the stress problem, it won’t really matter. For so many conditions, stress is the major long-term risk factor. Everything else is a short-term fix.” via Wired

We will be digesting this in-depth Wired article about stress and its impact on our lives. Some readers will want to read it now.