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KMID : 0389420040120010009
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Korean Journal of Stress Research
2004 Volume.12 No. 1 p.9 ~ p.20
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Stress and Immunity: Implications to Clinical Practice and Health
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Kang Duck-Hee
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Abstract
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Stress is ubiquitous. A particular significance of stress is that stress can affect the mental and physical health of individuals. Biobehavioral research is the study of the interrelationships among biological, psychosocial, behavioral, and environmental factors and explains biological mechanisms by which psychosocial, behavioral, and environmental factors affect the health. In the field of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), these effects of psychosocial factors (i.e.,stress) are focused on neuroendocrine and immune responses. Stress-induced immune changes, for example, are extensively documented in PNI to include significant alterations in variety of immune parameters of the cell-mediated, humoral, and innate immunity. Similarly, stress is found to influence health outcomes, including cold and wound healing, through well-controlled studies. Biobehavioral research, therefore, has broad implications which enables researchers to examine many health-related issues in his/her own domain of clinical interest. However, several issues need to be considered in the design and conduct of biobehavioral research: Selecting relevant and sensitive biological parameters and measuring them at optimal time points; understanding potential interactions among coexisting factors and investigating their interactions simultaneously; paying greater attention to recovery patterns of altered biolodical responses; recognizing individual differences; and integrating new genetics knowledge and skills into the scientific inquiries. As health-related research in increasingly more complex, interdisciplinary collaborations also are essential to pull the expertise from several different disciplines. When research in properly conducted, the findings of biobehavioral research can make significant contributions to improving clinical practices, promoting the health, and preventing illnesses.
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KEYWORD
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integrative medicine, CAM, lifestyle, stress, spirituality, mind-body
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