Impact of Stress on Physiology of Endocrine System and on Immune System: A Review

Stress is a condition of the body which change the equilibrium between the body and its environment. Stress is either short term or long term. short term stress may lasts for few hours but long term lasts for few months. long term stress causes many health problems like respiratory infections, lack of sleep, poor diet etc. Many hormones involve in the stress response like cortisol, epinephrine, norepinephrine, gonadotropins. Immune system also affected with stress. Stress weakened the immune system. Stress causes an increase in the white blood cells (WBC) in the blood. This review discusses the effect of stress on hormones and on immune system. Chronic or long-term stress can suppress the pathological and protective immune responses While short-term stress can increase the expression of pathological and protective immune responses.