Stress and anxiety and how it effects on the immune system is one of the most thoroughly researched and documented disciplines.
This mind – body – stress -health connection nothing new
Being happy, having good relationships, and positivity strengthen health.
Being stressed out, lonely, depressed are harmful to health. Don’t be surprised if you become susceptible to an illness. Psychologists in the field of “psychoneuroimmunology” have shown that state of mind affects one’s state of health.
The following written content from R. Ader
Psychoneuroimmunology is the study of the interactions among behavioral, neural and endocrine, and immune processes. The brain communicates with the immune system through autonomic nervous system and neuroendocrine activity.
Both pathways generate signals that are perceived by the immune system via receptors on the surface of lymphocytes and other immune cells. Conversely, an activated immune system generates chemical signals (cytokines) that are perceived by the nervous system.
Thus, bidirectional pathways connect the brain and the immune system and provide the foundation for behavioral influences on immune functions. Pavlovian conditioning can suppress or enhance immune responses and stressful life experiences and emotional states (e.g., depression) are generally immunosuppressive.
These effects are biologically meaningful in that they appear to be implicated in altering the development and/or progression of immunologically mediated disease processes.
The direction and/or magnitude of the effects of behavioral factors in modulating immune responses, however, depend upon the nature of the behavioral circumstances, the nature of the antigenic stimulation, and the temporal relationship between them; the immune response and when it is measured; a variety of host factors; and the interactions among these variables.
Documentation of the functional relationships between the brain and the immune system reinforces the hypothesis that immune changes could mediate some of the effects of psychosocial factors on health and disease. Read more from ScienceDirect
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