Stress Found to Weaken Resistance to Illness

WashingtonPost ^ | 12.23.03 | Shankar Vedantam

[Cathryn Crawford]

Scientists are gaining new insights into the role of temperament in making some people vulnerable to physical disease through studies exploring how stress influences the immune system, weakening disease-fighting cells and creating fertile environments for pathogens.

This month, a carefully done study showed that shy men have much less resistance to the AIDS virus than extroverted men and benefit far less from treatment with antiretroviral drugs. It is the first study to demonstrate through laboratory tests a connection between being introverted and the course of AIDS in individuals, researchers said.

Such studies are sketching in the details behind the growing awareness that the workings of the body and mind cannot be neatly compartmentalized into the departments and disciplines taught in medical school. As a result, paying attention to the emotional state of patients with infectious and chronic diseases is increasingly more than a matter of good bedside manner; it is becoming an essential part of treatment.

Although the connection between emotion and disease has long been suspected -- physicians as early as the 2nd century A.D. observed a link between "melancholy" and physical illness -- researchers are finally pinpointing networks of biological systems that connect temperament with the progression of illness. Cascades of complex chemical signals flow through pathways from the brain to the body and back, often triggering "fight or flight" responses in the short term but decreasing resistance to illness in the long run. Some signals speed up heart rate; others burn muscle and bone. Some changes make cells more vulnerable to viruses.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

In other news, scientists have discovered that smashing your thumb with a hammer can be stressful.

[Scenic Sounds]

This makes sense to me - the brain and nervous system are important parts of the body. Why shouldn't we expect some interaction?

[RiflemanSharpe]

Stress, Caffeine, and Nicotine, the tri muses of my existence. I would be nothing with out these three.

[theFIRMbss]

>Stress Found to Weaken Resistance to Illness

Oh great. Now that is just one more thing for me to add to my stess list...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Stress, Caffeine, and Nicotine, the tri muses of my existence. I would be nothing with out these three.

The four basic food groups are sugar, salt, fat and caffiene.

Everybody knows that.

[sarasota]

I can't imagine that this would surprise anyone with a history of stress and the companion medical documentation. Hand in hand.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Oh great. Now that is just one more thing for me to add to my stess list...

Wow. You sound like me!

[RJCogburn]

Interesting. It remains unclear which comes first, however. Are stressed, shy types more vulnerable to illness because of their stressed, shy characteristics, or is there another factor that makes those who are more vulnerable stressed and shy?

Norepi speculation is just that.

[DJtex]

Doctor's have known for centuries that "Happy people rarely get sick."

The sad, sad thing is that Western Medical Philosophy from the time of Hippocrates is based on the theory of healing in spite of the patient--not informing him or including him the treatment program.

I know that many of us have good doctors that try to advise us to "clean up our act" but, in general, a doctor passes out Magic Bullets (whether appropriate or not) and believes in that Magic to work whether the patient changes or not.

[Consort]

Don't get stressed. Next thread.

[sarasota]

Doctors prescribe drugs. Yet more and more wellness centers are opening with alternatives to better health through "wellness" training, not sickness benefits. There really is something wrong with the relationship between people and their insurance companies instead of people and their relationship with their own health and well being. I swear, sometimes I think the only reason people work is to get insurance benefits.

[Pearls Before Swine]

shy men have much less resistance to the AIDS virus than extroverted men

Was this careful study "adjusted" for the relative susceptibility of "pitchers" and "catchers", which I would (naively) expect to have some correlation with personality traits.

[fso301]

As an introverted person, I can say the authors reported the obvious. I've recognized for many years the relationship between stress and the resulting vulnerability to illness.

What the authors failed to point out is that there are two types of stress; one positive and the other negative. The positive types of stress are those associated with individual success. The negative stresses are those associated with fear and frustration.

Learning to recognize the two and manage ones environment is very important for ones health and well being.

In school, it was easy to be a high achiever because I avoided the parties, studied and felt good about what I was doing since I perceived a direct link between effort and reward.

In the corporate life, I ran into stress related illness early on and have suffered repeat bouts. I've gotten better at managing my environment but the constant churn of narcissistic supervisors on their petty power trips, seeking continual ego gratification yet unable to perform technically at the level of a fresh graduate takes a terrible toll.

[Hardastarboard]

Well, DUH!!!! I'm sure that millions of taxpayer money was spent to find this out. Doctors have been saying for years that stress can cause or exacerbate heart disease. This falls under the heading of obvious.

[talleyman]

The four basic food groups are sugar, salt, fat and caffiene.

Go to the head of the class!

[VadeRetro]

The four basic food groups are sugar, salt, fat and caffiene.

I've heard "alcohol, sugar, caffeine, and fat," making Irish coffee one of the few nutritionally complete foods.

[VadeRetro]

Don't get stressed.

OK, but don't get caught by the cat, fired, divorced, mugged, assassinated, harassed, terrorized upon, or otherwise caught unprepared for an emergency.

[VOA]

In the corporate life, I ran into stress related illness early on and have suffered
repeat bouts. I've gotten better at managing my environment but the constant
churn of narcissistic supervisors on their petty power trips, seeking continual ego
gratification yet unable to perform technically at the level of a fresh graduate
takes a terrible toll.

You have my sincere sympathy...sounds like we've followed similar paths.

And, just friendly advice in case you've not yet learned that the grass is even browner
in the other field...don't try the world of academia!

The egos are as big, maybe larger...
and the ego-wars are larger in inverse proportion to the $$$ size (or practical
importance) of a issue being warred over!

At least in most of the corporate world, the wars are scaled to the size of
the pot of money involved!

[OXENinFLA]

Great....