Stress and our immune system

Most health care professionals would agree that stress increases your risk for illness and this is particularly true for severe long-term stressers such as caring for a loved one with a chronic medical illness or a past trauma.


However, we still have a relatively limited understanding of exactly how stress contributes to the risk for illness. In the August 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry, researchers shed new light one particular link between stress and illness by describing a mechanism through which stress alters immune function.


Although cortisol levels are similar to others, it has been found that white blood cells suffer genetic damage when under stress. The body is unable to respond to immune threats, and a systematic inflammation tends to occur.


Thus, the current findings might help to explain why caregivers would seem to be in a chronic pro-inflammatory state, a condition of immunologic activation. This activated state could contribute to the risk for a number of medical illnesses, such as depression, heart disease, and diabetes.


The conclusion? Stress is not just damaging for your mood, but your physical, emotional, and immune health. We need to create balance through exercise, massage, meditation, and healthy relationships with others. In these ways, we care for ourselves.

My patients have heard me go on and on about my clear belief that we accept that life is often stressful and difficult. It is, however, OUR responsibility to decide on how much stress we choose to carry around on us and in us. We need to be responsible for how we RESPOND to life's stress. This response is ALWAYS IN OUR CONTROL. If we blame our amount of stress entirely on external factors we will continue to be as stressed as what happens to us. We will have no control. In this scenario, we see ourselves as victims.