The Effects Of Stress On The Human Immune System

Stress affects health is established knowledge. Whereas some research has proven that stress can be detrimental to the immune system, other research proves otherwise. A meta-analysis of two hundred ninety-three studies that were conducted in the previous thirty years solves the jigsaw puzzle. Two eminent psychologists, Suzanne Segerstrom and Gregory Miller, came up with revolutionary findings:

• Stress has negative effects on the immune system.
• Stress factors that are short-term stimulate the immune system. The body’s own response, “fight or flight”, prepares the immune system from getting infected through bites, abrasions, and other potential dangers to the human body.
• Chronic stress increases the vulnerability of the immune system. If the stress prolongs over a long period of time, the adaptive nature of the “fight or flight” response shifts to more harmful changes. This occurs primarily at the cellular level and gradually shifts its focus to the larger immune functions. Stressors that are chronic in nature, which seem never-ending and uncontrollable, cause a tremendous suppression of immune levels. Immune levels throughout the body show a decline when faced with stress.
• Stress affects the immune systems of the elder population and people with illnesses. These people are more vulnerable to the effects of stress.

Immune responses fall under two categories called ‘natural’ and ‘specific’. The researchers have studied the effects of stress on the both these kinds of immunity. The results that they came up with are summarized below:

Natural immunity engages in the production of cells that act quickly and are multi-purpose. These cells directly attack the pathogens that can cause fever and inflammatory diseases.

Specific harmful intruders need specific immunity. Specific immunity takes a few days to develop in the body. The body’s response consists of lymphocytes such as T-cells and B-cells. Both cellular responses and humoral responses are part of specific immunity. Cellular responses battle pathogens that intrude cells, such as viruses. Humoral responses on the other hand tackle those that remain outside cells, including bacteria and parasites. Segerstrom and Miller could gauge the correlation between the various immune responses and different stressors. They were able to do so because the blood markers of the numerous immune responses were identified.

The two scientists categorized stressors into the following types:

Acute short-term stressors
These stressors include challenges like public speaking and math.

Brief common stressors
Academic challenges fall into this category.

Sequence of stressful events
Major life-altering events such as loss of a loved one or a natural calamity can lead to a chain of stressful events. These subsequent events, however, do not last for a long time.

Chronic Stress
These stressors seem never-ending and can alter the lives of people drastically. Hence, people find themselves questioning their identity or modifying social roles. Some of the events that can lead to chronic stress include permanent disability, providing care to a loved one affected by dementia, or in worse cases being taken as a prisoner of war.

Past stressors
Past experiences can be traumatic in nature. In some cases, the trauma is intense that they continue to exercise negative influences on the body because of their emotional and psychological nature. Child abuse is the most common stressor that falls in this category.

Both researchers have analyzed and reviewed the common and the uncommon factors among the two hundred ninety-three studies conducted. The number of subjects that formed part of these studies stands at an astounding number of 18,941. Sequences of stressful events are found to be associated to various immune effects. The nature of the event plays a pivotal role in determining the type of effects on the immune system. Grief followed a different pattern than trauma. However, the associations were not significant and therefore, the scientists could not claim further. Instead, they recommended further research.

The researchers came to a conclusion that stressors chronic in nature did decrease the powers of immunity. Chronic stressors as we have already noted have the power to alter an individual’s identity and social roles. They also seem uncontrollable and sometimes without an end. When faced with chronic stress immune levels across bodily functions dropped drastically. The longer the duration of stress, the more the immune system changed from being adaptive – as in “fight or flight” response – to detrimental. Initially cellular immunity was affected and subsequently the entire immune system. This study indicates that stressful events can turn an individual’s life into a topsy-turvy. In addition, due to the physiological and psychological nature of stress hope is hard to find.

Other factors that increased an individual’s susceptibility to stress are age and existing diseases. We can infer that age and existing disease make the body an easy target for stress.

This meta-analysis conducted is revolutionary. It also throws light on the relationship between stress and the human immune system. This path-breaking approach should lead to advanced treatments and more concise stress management techniques. Ongoing research on diseases that are related to immunity such as AIDS will greatly benefit from this study.

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