Stress and Your Immune System

Not all stress is bad. To be alive is to be under a certain amount of stress, and the body functions well – even excels – under the right kind and right amount of stress. But when the body constantly is forced to draw on inner reserves to respond to negative stressors, health suffers.

The mind has much to do with the body’s health.

“People who feel in control of life can withstand an enormous amount of change and thrive on it,” wrote Joan Borysenko in Minding the Body, Mending the Mind (Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Inc., 1987). “ People who feel helpless can hardly cope at all” (page 22).

In one experiment, psychologist Arthur A. Stone and colleagues gave 30 dental students a harmless protein for slightly more than two months and tracked the level of antibodies the student’s immune systems produced against the protein (this is the way immunization against a virus works).

“Stone and colleagues found that bad moods and relatively low antibody production occurred on the same days, presumably giving the students less ‘protection’ against the foreign protein,” wrote author Marjory Roberts. “Good moods corresponded to a bolstered immune response, better enabling the body to ‘reject’ the substance.”

The researchers concluded that “minor, daily mood fluctuations are associated with immune functioning.”

“Research has repeatedly shown that extreme stress and depression can weaken the body’s ability to fight off potential invaders, but now it seems that even daily ups and downs can toughen the task of the immune system” (M. Roberts, “Moody Immunity,” Psychology Today, November 1987, page 14).

The fact is that “the body cannot tell the difference between events that are actual threats to survival and events that are present in thought alone,” said Dr. Borysenko.

“The mind spins out endless fantasies of possible disasters past and future. This tendency to escalate a situation into its worst possible conclusion is what I call awfulizing, and it can be a key factor in tipping the balance toward illness or health” (Minding the Body, Mending the Mind, page 20).

In another experiment, volunteers were injected with a tiny dose of adrenaline. Researchers found that lymphocytes – the “helper cells” that augment the immune response within the body – immediately declined in their systems.

S.I. McMillen wrote about this effect of adrenaline production and release in a body under stress:

“This reserve of energy [from the adrenaline gland] can be lifesaving if one is running from a lion or crossing a busy highway. But, if a person sits at high noon in the security of his own home and, instead of relaxing, allows his mind to think of burglars or of the man who is out to destroy his business, then his emotional centers will send out alarm messages to the glands, heart, and blood-pressure centers – just as if an individual were actually attacking him. Although the body needs an excess of hormones for genuine emergency situations, an excessive and frequent production of hormones over weeks and months results in harmful effects” (None of These Diseases, Fleming H. Revell Co., 1984, page 131).

“Indeed a primary function of the brain, perhaps as important as rational thought or language, is health maintenance,” wrote Robert Ornstein and David Sobel (The Healing Brain,” Psychology Today, March 1987, pages 48-52).

“The numerous connections between the nervous system and the immune system allow the mind to influence resistance or susceptibility to disease…. Scores of studies on humans shows that various types of social instability and the lack of resources to regain stability are associated with subsequent illness,” the authors continued.

To offset any negative stress and gain peace of mind, then, the individual must get in control of his mind and emotions. That control gives hope for a brighter future.

The value of peace of mind is priceless not only mentally but, science is showing, even in terms of physical health.




Research shown that adrenaline, produced in glands on top of the kidneys (left), suppresses the release of lymphocytes – a group of white blood cells of crucial importance to the body’s immune system.