Because glucocorticoid hormones are involved in
restraining the immune system, it has been proposed that
decreased responsiveness to stressful stimuli may result in
immune disinhibition, yielding greater levels of autoimmunity
and inflammatory activity [19]. In this issue of the JPR,
the paper by von Kanel et al. [20] provides compelling
additional reinforcement to this hypothesis, with increases in
the proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor α and
decreases in the anti-inflammatory interleukin 4 among
schoolteachers who scored highly the MBI as a whole, and
on each of the individual subscales described above.