Can Stress Cause Autoimmune Disease?
Local doctor’s book explores stress as cause of auto-immune disease By JILL MORINO SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL CORRESPONDENT How many of us know someone who just doesn’t feel well. There’s no specific diagnosis, just a general feeling of malaise, some mid-weight gain, insomnia, perhaps depression, sugar cravings and fatigue. Sound familiar? If the person is middle-aged and female, everyone assumes hormones. The allopathic, or standard Western medical, community is now recognizing that middle-aged men may also suffer from hormonal imbalance. But what about the young person with these symptoms who does not fit the profile? Turns out hormones could also be the culprit. Dr. Richard Weinstein in his new book “The Stress Effect” eloquently explains the connection between the stress hormone cortisol and the marked increase in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, insomnia, auto immune impairment and depression, to name a few. Weinstein maintains that in addition to stress, internal inflammation plays a s
