Tuesday, December 1, 2015

IL-6 and Psychological Well-Being

According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases are the disorders of the hearts and blood vessels. The at-risk population consists of individuals with high blood pressure, glucose, and lipids. Furthermore, it also consists of obese individuals. In addition to cardiovascular diseases, immunity is very important in the avoidance of such diseases and illnesses. Many studies have been conducted in order to better understand how such diseases can be avoided or risk can be reduced.

During this semester, Dr. Boylan spoke to us about her relevant research regarding this disease. She studied the neuroscience between such diseases. Dr. Boylan particularly studied interleukin-6 (IL-6). IL-6 acts as  pro-inflammatory cytokine and anti-inflammatory myokine. It is secreted by by cells which control immune response in humans. Essentially, Dr. Boylan’s study was a moderation approach. She studied previous cases and statistics to explore the association of psychological well-being in terms of education attainment and levels of IL-6. Her hypothesis was that increased levels of psychological well-being protects against high IL-6 among a less educated population. The results of her study were generally consistent with her hypothesis. The implications of her study was that scientists and doctors can better treat patients with immune or cardiovascular diseases if they understand the neurochemistry behind it such as the role of IL-6, specifically.

There was a relevant study done a few years ago in the PubMed journal. The researchers  hypothesized that psychological well-being would result in lower plasma levels of inflammatory factors in aging women. The design consisted of 135 women (ages 61-91 years old). It was a self-report design where the participants completed a questionnaire. Afterwards, blood samples for analysis were obtained. The results of this study indicated that plasma IL-6 levels were lower in women who had a higher sense of well-being. Overall, results suggest a pattern between life inflammatory processes and psychological factors. The implications of this study are very important because understanding the role that IL-6 plays in well-being can influence the study of diseases that often are more likely due to low psychological well-being.

With the increasing rate of diseases and individuals with low psychological well-beings—it is important that enough research is conducted on the causes and factors that play a role in these diseases. This will help to better understand how to treat and prevent such diseases and issues.

- Nisha Patel

References:


Image: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interleukin_6 

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