The Immune System and Stress

By definition, stress means any situation or condition that causes you hardship, disquiet and discomfort. It can take various forms: work-related pressures, relationship conflicts, financial burdens, the loss of a loved one, a diagnosis of cancer.

Humans have survived for millennia thanks mainly to our built-in "fight-or-flight" mechanism. Confronted by danger, we need extra energy in order to fight off our attacker, or to escape. Our heart rate and breathing increase, and our bodies undergo changes to meet the sudden demand for energy. In the modern world, where we have a deadline to meet, a speech to make or a match to win, we can use the increased energy—properly channeled—to give us the winning edge. However, in situations where we have no one to fight and no-where to run, all that angry or fearful energy builds up. Our bodies react with heart palpitations, sweating, increased stomach acidity, stomach spasms, skeletal muscle spasms—and increased blood pressure. We begin to stew. Like a nuclear power plant that can’t be cooled down, and without an outlet for all that energy, we start our own meltdown. The chain reaction can be disastrous. Over time, instead of getting better, we get worse. Our immune system takes a battering.

Fear of the unknown causes the same responses and lowers our tolerance to pain and discomfort. Although everyone has a different personality style, knowing what to expect and learning as much as you can about your condition prepares you for what lies ahead, and can help ease your anxiety. You can’t turn the clock back and rectify the stressful situations that may have contributed to your disease, so it’s your distress (your response) to your current situation with which you need to cope rather than the stress (the cause). Before describing the ways in which you can handle your distress, it is important you know how your responses affect you, and to understand that there is no difference between listening to the wisdom of your body or your mind.

The immune system was once considered autonomous and completely unaffected by any internal, regulatory mechanisms. It used to be thought that whatever memory it had was limited to recognizing foreign bodies (germs and viruses) it had previously encountered and destroyed.

It was later discovered that our first line of defense against foreign organisms is orchestrated by our innate immunity in the form of one group of white cells called leukocytes, and that there is a second line of defense in another group of white cells called lymphocytes. Lymphocytes give us adaptive immunity. They adapt because they "remember." What makes them even more remarkable is that the lymphocytes in our blood have neuro-receptors on them—just as do those parts of the brain that affect emotion and stress.

What this means is that the immune system and the central nervous system interact, and that the immune system, far from being independent, can and does receive and send messages from and to the brain through hormones, chemical messenger molecules known as neurotransmitters, that move through our blood, and from cell to cell in our brain. Neurotransmitters, also known as neuropeptides, are secreted by the brain, the immune system and by nerve cells. They transmit signals from one nerve to another nerve or cell structure to obtain a response, for example, a nerve impulse or a muscle contraction.

In this way, the central nervous system co-ordinates behavioral and immune responses during stressful situations. Physical stress and emotion activate the hypothalamus which, in turn, triggers the pituitary gland to releases a stress hormone, corticotropin-releasing hormone (or CRH), through the bloodstream to the adrenal glands, which lie above the kidneys. These glands, which are part of the body’s hormone system, then release corticosteroids which perform two main functions: they arouse the body to fight or flee when faced with trouble, and they modulate the body’s immune system.

If you have any health or illness related questions you would like me to answer, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment in the section below.  My answers to your questions will be posted on our blog and it is my sincere hope these will be helpful to you.

In light and peace
Joel