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How Does Stress Affect Immunity

Immunity, Stress and Disease

How does stress affect Immunity? Uncertainty shrouds the evidence that stress impairs our immunity systems and increases the risk of illness. Although many laboratory studies under controlled conditions using experimental animals suggests that stress does impair our immunity systems, these control conditions are relatively extreme compared to our real life situations, so a direct comparison would be taking the evidence too far.

Given this, it is still far from clear just how much chronic stress does affect health and makes you vulnerable to diseases that would normally be fought off by the immune system. Many of the studies with humans are conducted retrospectively, and peoples interpretations of stress situations are often distorted and self-induced and left very much to the imagination, thus making it very difficult to quantify any of the information reported.

There are and have been several control groups where studies are conducted over a number of decades, to see whether certain outcomes due to various stressful activities will occur, but these are generally hampered by other factors affecting the outcomes.If you were to study depression you'll find that depressed persons have a tendency to drink more alcohol than others. Also people suffering from bereavement may tend to drink more and smoke more, eat less regularly and eat poorly prepared meals. So that, these are all factors that affect the results of any long term studies of chronic stress and related diseases.

Genetic factors also have to be taken into consideration. There may be people from different societies with a predisposition to various disorders.

The Common Cold

Studies have been conducted that confirm that increased stress is associated with an increase of incidence of the common cold. All you need to do is check university health service records to see how the incidence of students with nose colds increases during exam period.

Sleepless nights, irregular eating habits, stress regarding the exams, lack of exercise all contribute to fatigue which makes us more susceptible to getting a cold.

Studies continue regarding auto-immune diseases and other diseases such as cancer, where your immune systems break down, but as to any certainty of these diseases being related to stress and chronic stress, there is still much work to be done before a direct correlation can be made.

Given this, it is still in everyones interest to employ some stress management techniques. One that I've used that does have some scientific validation of it's positive effects is Transcendental Meditation.

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