- Stress and Immunity
People ask Psychologists to help them with all sorts of things. A few years ago a young man whom I will call Allan, asked me to help him to improve his immune responses. He thought he was getting too sick too often, and believed that it was the result of stress on his immune system. He thought that if he could do something to effectively control his stress, he would not get sick so often.
As it happened Allan was a "natural" at deep relaxation (self-hypnosis/ meditation), gaining immediate and striking relief from his feelings of stress. He quickly learned how to recreate the state of deep relaxation on his own, and began to set up a new lifestyle in which relaxation practice and other methods of stress management were a normal part of his daily pattern. He was very happy with his progress at the time, and even years later he called me to let me know that he had hardly ever been sick since our sessions together, and he was quite convinced that his immune response had been restored to its proper functioning.
The hypothesis that individuals who suffer from stress may be more prone to disease, such as infectious processes, autoimmune diseases, and cancer is now taken very seriously by many authorities, including medically trained researchers, immunologists, and psychologists. Some people seem to think that believing in such ideas is like believing in magic, but the scientific argument is substantial.
One explanation for stress effects on immune responses focusses on the neuro-endocrine hormones that are known to be produced during stress. These hormones which are under the control of the central nervous system and the pituitary gland, seem to reduce the number and activity of important immune cells. The most important of these hormones is cortisol. Cortisone, another form of this hormone, is used in transplant operations to deliberately suppress the immune system so that the transplant will not be rejected.
Some immunologists think of the immune system acting like a surveillance process, almost like another sensing system spread throughout the body, defending against bacteria, viruses, and other foreign antigens and against disturbances of internal systems. They suggest that there are many connections between the central nervous system and the immune system, in both directions, so that emotional changes can affect the immune system, and immune changes can affect central processes.
One way that such changes have been demonstrated is by stimulating brain cells, and then measuring immune changes, and conversely, by stimulating immune cells and then measuring differences in the electrical signals given off in particular parts of the brain.
A little less than thirty years ago Roger Bartrop, an Australian Psychiatrist/researcher and his colleagues, found a decrease in immune cell activation associated with bereavement experiences. Since then a number of other researchers have found similar effects in husbands of women terminally ill from breast cancer, and in males reporting family deaths or serious family illness in the preceding six months. Other studies showed that the astronauts anticipating space flights suffered immune deficits even before blast off.
More recently researchers in many parts of the world, have observed that academic stress is associated with a decline in the number or percentage of various T lymphocytes (immune cells which originate in the Thymus), a decline in the activity of Natural Killer cells (which are thought to be involved in defences against cancer processes), and with the ability of immune cells to multiply under appropriate stimulation. The more cells produced, the better the fight by the immune system.
Of course not everyone responds the same way to environmental stressors. Individuals who cope poorly with such stressors are likely to suffer much more than others. And of course things that affect our coping at any given time may help shape our sensitivity. American researchers found a negative relationship between reports of loneliness and the activation levels of immune cells. Taken together these reports suggest that it is the way that people respond to stress, rather than the objective events themselves, that determine the immune effects. And this is where the Psychologist might have an influence. Psychological processes such as hypnosis, meditation, and relaxation aimed at producing a state of profound calmness in the individual, may help to reverse the neuro-endocrine effects of stress, and therefore lead to the recovery of immune responses.
More readings will be added to my blog from time to time. Have a quick look now to see the first posting on my blog PSYC1PLUS