Um yeah, animal physiologists have known about the effects of cortisol on immune response for a while...what took human researchers so long to catch up?
If you've never read anything about the mechanisms by which stress causes illness, then you'll really enjoy Robert Sapolsky's Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, written 18 years ago.
I haven't read the extra material in subsequent editions, but as far as I'm aware, everything from the first has held up, despite lack of mention in the Health & Lifestyle sections of daily papers.
@11 (robotslave): If I had to guess why zebras don't get ulcers, I'd say:
(1) their GI tracts aren't infected with Helicobacter pylori; and
(2) they've never seen the documentary on African wild dogs that scarred my young psyche. (The dogs didn't bother to kill the zebra before they started feasting on it. Show a zebra that, and I guarantee you it's going to get ulcers, H. pylori or no.)
I haven't read the extra material in subsequent editions, but as far as I'm aware, everything from the first has held up, despite lack of mention in the Health & Lifestyle sections of daily papers.
(1) their GI tracts aren't infected with Helicobacter pylori; and
(2) they've never seen the documentary on African wild dogs that scarred my young psyche. (The dogs didn't bother to kill the zebra before they started feasting on it. Show a zebra that, and I guarantee you it's going to get ulcers, H. pylori or no.)