The short-term stress response – Mother nature’s mechanism for enhancing protection and performance under conditions of threat, challenge, and opportunity
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Abstract
<p class="first" id="P2">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.
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