generalized cytokine responses to stress may be modified by
specific nutrients. The focus of the Army's current research
program is in this direction, examining the effect of nutrition
on sustainment or enhancement of immune status in healthy
individuals. A current objective of Army operational medicine
research is to identify the effect of operational stressors and
other battlefield hazards on soldiers' immunological and/or
inflammatory host defenses. Problems must be defined in relevant
models of operational stress and in terms of actual disease
susceptibility (Kusnecov and Rabin, 1994); research to develop
nutritional countermeasures is appropriate after problems have
been clearly identified. Stressors that are being investigated
in military studies include chronic anxiety (referred to in the
remainder of this chapter as "psychological stress"), inadequate
restorative sleep, physical exertion, inadequate energy intake,
industrial toxicological hazards, and mechanical/physical
stresses (e.g., blast and lase