“Stress and anxiety have a tremendous impact on our immune system,”
David Tolin, PhD, director of the Anxiety Disorders Center at Hartford Hospital’s Institute of Living
Does psychological stress affect the immune system? YES! It does. Psychological stress weakens our immunity in ways our mind can’t even imagine.
Psychological stress is triggered by plenty of things like work, relationships, family matters, finances, education, etc. In fact for some, even the tiniest thing causes them a lot of stress. Stress has a negative impact on our immunity. It disturbs the harmony connecting your mind and body, leading to a disturbance at the physical and mental planes.
Maybe that is why we hear people saying all the time ” Don’t stress yourself!”
I am sure you have heard these terms “acute“ (severe and sudden in onset)and “chronic“(long-developing syndrome). When a person is stressed for a very long period of time, it is more likely that he is suffering from “chronic stress” or “long-term stress” This makes his body expose and susceptible to invite disease-causing agents.
Any kind of traumatic event does has an effect on the mind of a person. It depends on an individual how they deal with it. Some people can handle it very well but there is always some amount of stress caused by that event. On the other hand, it is very hard for some people to handle traumatic events especially if it is unexpected. Any kind of trauma leads to psychological stress in some way. So let’s say a person couldn’t handle the stress very well and that made him go into depression. Depression is always associated with overeating or not eating at all (yes! depression also impacts physical health along with mental health). Both of these conditions can cause diseases like obesity that lead to heart problems and anorexia nervosa that leads to nutrition deficiencies respectively.
Did you see how all of it affects the immune system? It weakens the natural immunity of our body and disables it slowly. When we’re stressed, the immune system’s ability to fight is reduced.
“Numerous studies confirm that mental stress has a direct effect on the immune system, and therefore probably a decisive influence on the development of disease”
Dr. Annette Sommershof
Stress-immune system is a very vast concept so let us stick to the basics. When we are in situations that cause stress, the power of the immune system is suppressed by stress hormones mainly cortisol. You see the immune system is suppressed which leads to escalating susceptibility to disease-causing agents.
Dr. Sommershof states that PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) patients have reduced immunity.
If you keep worrying and stressing yourself throughout your life your body will never get used to functioning normally because you are constantly giving missions to your immunity which are not required. This really harms your immunity.
TIPS TO REDUCE STRESS
Stress management plays an important role so let us learn how. Start by practicing little things given below:
- Exercise produces endorphins—a chemical in the brain that reduces stress.
- Practice meditation
- Stay in touch with your hobbies because they act as a stress-buster
- Reading articles about stress management and following them in your real life
- Therapy
- Social activities
- Daily journal. Maintain a happy and positive journal wherein you write the best you have seen that day
So yes! that is it. I tried to make this article simple and easy to understand. I didn’t dive deep into medical language as I want you all to chief value and go that is useful and good for your mind.
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Take care & Keep It Healthy !
Keep It Healthie 