Few Allergies in Unstressed Babies, Swedish Researchers Find

A new study has demonstrated that infants who have low concentrations of cortisol, the hormone linked to stress, in the their saliva develop fewer allergies than others. Many factors from lifestyle to environment during a woman's pregnancy and early infancy can have an affect on the rate of which allergic diseases are developed. When studying families who seem to have have relatively low levels of cortisol, the infant was less likely to develop an allergic disease.