NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Research has indicated that chronic stress can take a hefty toll on a person’s health, and a new study offers one potential reason why.
Investigators found that older people under chronic stress had higher-than-normal elevations of interleukin-6 (IL-6), an immune-system protein in the blood that promotes inflammation. IL-6 has been linked with various age-related conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, frailty and certain cancers.
“This is how chronic stress can really affect health,” said study author Dr. Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser, a professor of psychiatry at Ohio State University in Columbus.
This is from the American Cancer Society site: “Do We Know What Causes Multiple Myeloma?”, growth of this cancer is stimulated by interleukin-6 (IL-6), a hormone released by certain bone marrow cells. Treatments to block this hormone’s action are being tested in clinical trials. One effect of IL-6 is to stimulate angiogenesis (blood vessel growth). This leads to more blood delivered to tumor cells, which can increase their growth.
Chronic stress elevates IL-6, and IL-6 stimulates the growth of MM?