The Enemies of your Immune System!
STRESS, FEAR, WORRY & ANXIETY: The Enemies of your Immune System!
Okay!
You’re surprised too, right?
When you saw the enemies of your immune system, you thought there’ll be some binding and casting of demons,
Yes?
Sorry to burst your bubble. We’d be talking about the everyday emotions that affect the foundational function of our health system. Before you fall ill and your health dips, your immune system is the first line of defense. Coming from the tech perspective, the immune system is like a firewall, any unauthorized personnel encounters when they’re trying to access a system. In basic terms, it’s like trying to gain entrance to a place where you’d like to operate.
Without the key, you cannot go in.
It’s that simple.
So, your immune system is so complex it can record every type of microbe that enters the body. It even keeps a scoreboard for every microbe it has ever defeated. Let’s not get carried away, this isn’t a science lecture, or is it?
The immune system is the combination of billions of cells that journeys to and fro through the bloodstream. They are everywhere in the body — the joints, organs, tissues and systems defending the body from external forces such as bacteria and viruses or any form of germ cells.
We know different microbes can enter the body, weaken the immune system and cause us to fall ill. But how does stress, fear, worry and anxiety (emotions generally) affect the immune system? How can emotions that seem so abstract have a large effect on our physical health? Ever heard of the saying:
“As a man thinks, so he is.”
“So, you’re saying that if I worry too much, I could become sick? Is this even possible?”
“So, Whyss, I can think my way into sickness?”
“Strange right? Let me show you some scientific facts.”
According to Medical News Today, “research uncovers fresh evidence to suggest that frequent exposure to negative emotions such as fear, worry and anxiety may have an important impact on the functionality of the immune system.” Many studies have also shown that a continuous amount of exposure to stress, anxiety and fear can affect the physical state of one’s health.
Hey Tyrell, “How are you doing today?” I greeted as I touched Tyrell. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days and readjusted to see if it was truly me standing in front of him.
“Is that you Whyss?” He asked.
“Sure, it’s me” I responded, looking around to be sure it was just me though.
“How long have you been here?”
“Not long. But I noticed you were staring, but you weren’t really in this realm”
At the end of our conversation, we decided to walk back to the hostel. Tyrell collapse. I rush him to the health center and his BP was as high as the “Elon Musk’s new rocket” (141/80). How does one go from perfectly healthy to being seriously ill in less than 24 hours? Tyrell had been constantly stressed with the school workload and his side hustle. He just got a call from home that his sister needed to go through surgery and the amount needed perform the surgery was outrageously high and they couldn’t afford it. The fear that he might lose his sister grew into something he couldn’t handle.
Research has shown that negative emotions have been found to alter the functions and responsibilities of the immune system which could create a cataclysmic reaction that will affect the whole body. Excessive worry and anxiety can increase the risk of stroke or cardiovascular-related issues (e.g. hypertension). Current research by a team of health researchers (Graham-Engeland and his team) collected blood sample of participants (mainly men) who have been experiencing negative emotions for a while and noticed there was a presence of inflammation biomarkers in their blood. A few weeks later, after their blood samples were taken again having suppressed their negative mood and replaced it with a positive mood — the inflammation level in of their blood decreased.
HOW ARE THESE GUYS ENEMY OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM?
Lemme show you!
Fear (Worry & Anxiety): An Enemy of The Immune System
Fear is a very strong emotion that triggers so much worry and anxiety. When the brain perceives fear and everything that comes with it, it incapacitates some very essential response of the body and sharpens some other functions in the body such as sharper eyesight, heightened blow flows to the muscles (to run faster), and an increase in the flow of the hormones in one area of the brain called the amygdala to help us focus more on the present danger to process and store it in the memory. The more attention is paid to this danger, the body shuts down the part of the body not needed to engage this danger (e.g. The digestive system. That’s why most times we feel nervous or some kind of abdominal pain when we are scared or feel worried). Living under constant fear leads to chronic worry and anxiety which could cause a serious breach to the immune system.
Are you saying being fearful could spell a lot of risk for my physical health?
Well Yes! Here’s what you need to know.
1. Fear destabilizes brain processing, assimilation and reactivity. Fear instigates worry, build tensions and birth anxiety. This disrupts the process of regulating your emotions — then it becomes very hard to detect or comprehend verbal cues, reflect or understand anything presented to you. Hence, this leads to unethically decision making, impulsive reactions and unpredictable heighten emotional reaction.
2. Fear causes memory loss. The “Hippocampus” is the part of the brain that regulations emotions, comprehension and memory. Fear can damage this part of the brain responsible for storing long term memory.
“Have you noticed how hard it is for you to retain anything meaningful when you’re scared. Why do you suddenly stammer or feel like you’ve forgotten all you read when you’re scared or feel nervous (or overly worried)”
Fear clears the history of your memory!
The worst part is, having cleared your memory it retains what you believe to be fearful; leaving you more devastated, in shock and incapacitated.
3. Fear weakens the immune system and can cause all sort of gastrointestinal damage and problems (e.g. Ulcer), and accelerated ageing
Ah! Ulcer ke? Explain yourself Whyss!
Lol! I will.
Now, fear induces adrenaline and causes digestion to be inhibited. Eventually, when the fear stressors dies down, the digestive process is accelerated leading to irritated bowels or gastrointestinal problems (like ulcer, constipation).
4. Fear, when it spans for too long, can be detrimental to mental health. When there’s a recurrent pattern of fear, it could lead to depression, post-traumatic stress (PTSD), generalized anxiety, and Agoraphobia.
There he goes again! What’s Agoraphobia?
My bad!
Agoraphobia is a form of anxiety disorder where one fear his/her environment is unsafe and they cannot escape it.
Stress: An Enemy of The Immune System
Stress weakens the immune system and makes you susceptible to illness. The part of the immune system that fights off antigens is the white blood cells. When you go through stress, it reduces the function of the white blood cells and even lowers the production of these fighting cells. Stress has been largely linked with illnesses such as migraine, flu, common cold, cardiovascular diseases and gastric ulcers. When you go through stress, there’s a massive strain on the circulatory system and this could leave to an increase in blood pressure and high cholesterol levels; hence, leading to hypertension and some serious heart disease. Although, when the immune system is suppressed for a short term, it is not exactly dangerous, when the suppression is sustained for a long time the body becomes vulnerable to illnesses and diseases.
Note, stress isn’t exactly what is causing you to fall ill. While there’s no direct relationship between stress and illness; when the body is the stress it becomes almost impossible to respond to any invaders trying enter into the body making us very vulnerable. Stress keeps your immunity to common illnesses very low. If you catch a cold easily (more than twice a year), get frequent cold sores, and suffer chronic infection often then your immunity might be very low and you need to reduce stress and boost your immune system.
Why are these guys referred to as the enemy of the immune system? It is pretty simple. It is in this quote I’d leave you with.
“When there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do you no harm.”
- Winston Churchill
