Slacker or Sick

dancpsu writes "Researchers at Temple University's College of Health Professions found that early nerve damage caused by repetitive strain injuries can trigger "sick worker" syndrome -- often mistaken for poor performance. They discovered that nerve injuries caused by low-force, highly repetitive work can be blamed on an onslaught of cytokines -- proteins that help start inflammation. Unexpectedly, the researchers also found that the cytokines affected the rats' psychosocial responses. At three weeks, even before the rats experienced pain from their wrist injuries, they began to self-regulate their work behavior. By five weeks to eight weeks, when cytokine production reached "peak" levels, some rats curled up in a ball and slept in between tasks."

Comments

Cytokines

[Red Flayer]

Here's some more info on Cytokines:

http://microvet.arizona.edu/Courses/MIC419/Tutoria ls/cytokines.html

I wish TFA was a little more specific on which kind of cytokines they found... I guess we'll have to wait for the human studies.

Really, though, this should be no surprise. It's been known for some time that stress to the body results in immunological cytokine release.

The symptoms (pre-RSS) that they mention, like depression, fatigue, etc, are eerily similar to Epstein-Barr... I wonder if the immne system is revved up by the repetitive motions (hence feeling sick), or inhibited, like the EBV toxin.