TY - JOUR
T1 - The short-term stress response – Mother nature's mechanism for enhancing protection and performance under conditions of threat, challenge, and opportunity
AU - Dhabhar, Firdaus S.
N1 - Funding Information:
I am deeply grateful to Bruce McEwen for the invaluable support, guidance, and encouragement that he has given me starting even before I joined his laboratory at The Rockefeller University. He has shown all of us (who have been fortunate enough to be mentored by him) how to conduct innovative and rigorous science while caring for all those you work with. I thank all current and previous members of my laboratory, and particularly, Dr. Kavitha Viswanathan, Dr. Alison Saul, Jean Tillie, Christine Daugherty, Nicole Taylor, and Alesha Cox-Harris, whose work and publications are among those discussed in this manuscript. I also thank my mentors, colleagues and collaborators for their significant contributions. I am grateful for all the studies that we have done together and the fun that we have had doing them. I am also grateful for support from the following agencies and foundations that has been critical for enabling us to conduct our research: The NIH ( AI48995 , AR46299 , CA107498 ), The Office of Naval Research , The Dana Foundation , and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation .
Funding Information:
I am deeply grateful to Bruce McEwen for the invaluable support, guidance, and encouragement that he has given me starting even before I joined his laboratory at The Rockefeller University. He has shown all of us (who have been fortunate enough to be mentored by him) how to conduct innovative and rigorous science while caring for all those you work with. I thank all current and previous members of my laboratory, and particularly, Dr. Kavitha Viswanathan, Dr. Alison Saul, Jean Tillie, Christine Daugherty, Nicole Taylor, and Alesha Cox-Harris, whose work and publications are among those discussed in this manuscript. I also thank my mentors, colleagues and collaborators for their significant contributions. I am grateful for all the studies that we have done together and the fun that we have had doing them. I am also grateful for support from the following agencies and foundations that has been critical for enabling us to conduct our research: The NIH (AI48995, AR46299, CA107498), The Office of Naval Research, The Dana Foundation, and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2018/4
Y1 - 2018/4
N2 - Our group has proposed that in contrast to chronic stress that can have harmful effects, the short-term (fight-or-flight) stress response (lasting for minutes to hours) is nature's fundamental survival mechanism that enhances protection and performance under conditions involving threat/challenge/opportunity. Short-term stress enhances innate/primary, adaptive/secondary, vaccine-induced, and anti-tumor immune responses, and post-surgical recovery. Mechanisms and mediators include stress hormones, dendritic cell, neutrophil, macrophage, and lymphocyte trafficking/function and local/systemic chemokine and cytokine production. Short-term stress may also enhance mental/cognitive and physical performance through effects on brain, musculo-skeletal, and cardiovascular function, reappraisal of threat/anxiety, and training-induced stress-optimization. Therefore, short-term stress psychology/physiology could be harnessed to enhance immuno-protection, as well as mental and physical performance. This review aims to provide a conceptual framework and targets for further investigation of mechanisms and conditions under which the protective/adaptive aspects of short-term stress/exercise can be optimized/harnessed, and for developing pharmacological/biobehavioral interventions to enhance health/healing, and mental/cognitive/physical performance.
AB - Our group has proposed that in contrast to chronic stress that can have harmful effects, the short-term (fight-or-flight) stress response (lasting for minutes to hours) is nature's fundamental survival mechanism that enhances protection and performance under conditions involving threat/challenge/opportunity. Short-term stress enhances innate/primary, adaptive/secondary, vaccine-induced, and anti-tumor immune responses, and post-surgical recovery. Mechanisms and mediators include stress hormones, dendritic cell, neutrophil, macrophage, and lymphocyte trafficking/function and local/systemic chemokine and cytokine production. Short-term stress may also enhance mental/cognitive and physical performance through effects on brain, musculo-skeletal, and cardiovascular function, reappraisal of threat/anxiety, and training-induced stress-optimization. Therefore, short-term stress psychology/physiology could be harnessed to enhance immuno-protection, as well as mental and physical performance. This review aims to provide a conceptual framework and targets for further investigation of mechanisms and conditions under which the protective/adaptive aspects of short-term stress/exercise can be optimized/harnessed, and for developing pharmacological/biobehavioral interventions to enhance health/healing, and mental/cognitive/physical performance.
KW - Amateur/elite athletes
KW - Armed forces/special operations forces
KW - Eustress/distress
KW - Infection/autoimmune disease/cancer
KW - Performers/entertainers
KW - Psycho-neuro-endocrine-immunology
KW - Sleep
KW - Stress optimization
KW - Stress reduction
KW - Wound healing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85044724495&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85044724495&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.yfrne.2018.03.004
DO - 10.1016/j.yfrne.2018.03.004
M3 - Review article
C2 - 29596867
AN - SCOPUS:85044724495
VL - 49
SP - 175
EP - 192
JO - Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology
JF - Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology
SN - 0091-3022
ER -