Hormones, Stress and Immunity

First published in IQ Nexus Journal XIII, from December 2013

It is well-known that hormones are responsible for a large number of control processes inside the human organism. What might be less known, and very interesting, is that hormones can on the one hand cause stress and weaken the immune system and on the other hand fight stress and strengthen the immune system. A team of researchers based in Vienna, Austria, around Uwe Rohr, MD, PhD and Anca Gocan, MD is dealing with the related mechanisms. What's fascinating: The balancing of these hormones makes novel treatment strategies possible for severe mental diseases such as schizophrenia on the one hand and for severe physical diseases involving the immune system such as particular types of cancer on the other.

As Professor Alfred S. Wolf (Ulm, Germany) explains, stress is a vital reaction cascade of the human body. However, if a person gets into burdensome situations again and again without time to relax in between, he or she will gradually become exhausted, and this will cause a loss of energy and depression. According to Wolf the consequences of stress are still underestimated.

"Everybody knows that emotional stress has a negative impact on the immune system, and medical doctors additionally know that it is cellular stress which degrades the immune system", says Rohr. What is not widely known yet is how this connection is controlled. This is where Rohr's own research comes into play: "We have been able to prove that conversion of stress hormones such as pregnenolone, 17-hydroxy-pregnenolone and most of all aldosterone into protecting immune hormones alleviates stress and increases immunity." These protecting immune hormones are primarily the so-called adiols, metabolites of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and testosterone.

"In contrast to cortisone and related substances the adiols regulate the human immune system. Although cortisone reduces inflammation, it can also cause infections. Therefore cortisone may be applied only for a short time. Moreover, cortisone also acts against the formation of new, healthy tissue, while adiols support the formation of muscles, skin and bones", Rohr explains. This also offers new opportunities for treatment of severe muscular and neural diseases.

By encouraging the formation of protecting adiols from stress hormones Rohr has managed to treat very severe mental diseases that are usually resistant to therapy, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Moreover, he was able to repair damaged organs and achieve positive effects in the treatment of epilepsy, lethal muscular diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and multiple sclerosis (MS). The stimulation of the immune system also had benefits in the treatment of allergies, viral diseases and various forms of cancer, such as particular brain tumors of children.

"Interestingly, no undesired side-effects occur, since only disadvantageous hormone balances are corrected", Rohr says. There does not seem to be the danger of overdosage, either. "What's most important for the doctor is that the effects cannot only be visually observed – the skin perfusion is improved, the patients become calmer -, but one can even measure markers in the blood." The concentration of several blood lipids, including triglycerides, is decreased by the treatment. According to Rohr this is especially remarkable since there has not been any medical drug before able to decrease the concentration of triglycerides.

Rohr also explains that stress not only decreases immunity but also causes dyspnea since the lung volume is reduced. This is always related to increased anxiety.

To make it short: An increase of stress always causes an increase of cellular stress, which will also increase emotional stress and cause severe mental diseases on the one hand and severe immune disorders on the other. The relation also works in the other direction.

With their research, Rohr and Gocan follow the tradition of the Viennese School of Medicine and continue the works of famous doctors and scientists such as Pietro Mattioli, Sigmund Freud and Carl Djerassi.

Claus Volko, cdvolko (at) gmail (dot) com

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