From InFocus Newsletter, March 2008

The long-held theory that there is no connection between the brain and the immune system has been disproved in research carried out by Kevin Tracey, M.D., at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, at the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, in Manhattan, NY.  Dr. Tracey's research shows that the brain communicates directly with the immune system to send out commands that control the inflammatory response to an infection and several autoimmune diseases.

In this most recent research, Dr. Tracey found that the vagus nerve, the longest of the cranial nerves, communicates directly to the immune system through a neurochemical, a chemical in the nervous system called acetylcholine.  He also found that, by stimulating the vagus nerve, the researchers were able to send signals to the immune system which told it to stop pumping toxic inflammatory markers.  This gave them the tools needed to be able to shut off abnormal responses from the immune system.

Dr. Tracey and his team are now conducting research to discover whether they can tweak the brain's acetylcholine system as a way to control the inflammatory response.  Inflammation is the key component in many different diseases, including autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's and rheumatoid arthritis.

--Source: "Researchers Discover Possible New Way to Control Autoimmune Diseases," Regina Sass, Associated Content, October 25, 2007