BACKGROUND Characteristics of family life are linked both cross-sectionally and prospectively to adult mental and physical health. PURPOSE This paper discusses social and biological processes that may explain how families influence the health of their members. METHODS We review naturalistic studies of short-term biopsychosocial processes as they unfold within the family. RESULTS Day-to-da...

It is challenging to measure long-term endocrine stress responses in animals. We investigated whether cortisol extracted from dog hair reflected the levels of activity and stress long-term, during weeks and months. Hair samples from in total 59 German shepherds were analysed. Samples for measuring cortisol concentrations were collected at three occasions and we complemented the data with indivi...

Various pathological conditions such as stress, infections, inflammations and trauma, result in activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and increase in adrenocorticotropic hormone and adrenal glucocorticoids levels. Furthermore, the cytokines IL-1, IL-6 and TNFα are released from activated macrophages. Thus, the tissue metabolism and the catabolic processes are enhanced [5, 6, 22,...

OBJECTIVE This study examines how the social environment is related to allostatic load (AL), a multisystem index of biological risk. METHOD A national sample of adults (N = 949) aged 34-84 rated their relationships with spouse, family, and friends at 2 time points 10 years apart. At the second time point, participants completed a biological protocol in which indices of autonomic, hypothalamic...