Five years is actually not a long time for science to understand a process as complex as the pathways of the oil after a large spill. Some of the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon spill on the marine life and ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico will only become visible in future years. We use oil products daily.
First the researchers examined the effects of lowering cortisol to below a normal (or baseline) level. Then they compared the effects of low, medium, high, and very high cortisol levels in patients undergoing cardiac surgery, a procedure that causes a lot of inflammation.
Inflammation is partly regulated by the hormone cortisol and when cortisol is not allowed to serve this function, inflammation can get out of control, said Cohen, the Robert E. Doherty Professor of Psychology within CMU's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.