The effect of stress on the human immune system has been fully studied and proven. There is a whole science - psychoneuroimmunology, which studies the mechanisms of action of different brain conditions on immunity. It reveals the patterns of the effects of stress on the immune system and the risk of developing diseases as a result of this influence.
Stress concept
Stress (tension) is a characteristic state of the human body that appears as a reaction to a powerful external stimulus. A person considers factors that provoke a stressful state to be threatening.
IN Everyday life Such phenomena occur quite often. People with different mental types or outlooks on life perceive the same situations differently. Because of this, the same phenomenon will become very stressful for one person, while another will not even pay attention to it.
All people can be divided into optimists and pessimists. Optimists perceive what happens to them not as stressful situations, but as a challenge real life which must be overcome. So they gather their strength and mobilize their life support systems to fight. This ultimately helps them cope with the situation and emerge victorious.
Pessimists tend to exaggerate the importance of any phenomenon. The smallest obstacles become the reason that a person begins to withdraw into himself. It seems to him that the issues cannot be resolved positively. A pessimist is constantly at a dead end.
The response to the influence of stimuli from the surrounding world (or stressful situations) is the activation of the sympathetic nervous system. This leads to stimulation of all systems human body, expressed in a reaction to irritation.
All living organisms strive for ideal internal balance. Internal and external influences constantly disrupt it. If the disturbance turns out to be quite severe, then stress appears. The basis of any stress is an imbalance occurring within the body.
Due to the limited amount of energy reserves, the human body is not able to remain in a state of stress for a long time. For this reason, the parasympathetic nervous system tries to quickly return the body to its usual (balanced and calm) state.
Trying to deal with stressors, compensatory forces spend a lot of energy resources. This process is accompanied by the presence of deformation phenomena in the endocrine, nervous and immune systems. They undergo short-term or long-term changes. In most cases, they lead to consequences that worsen the general condition of the body.
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Stress and the immune system
Depending on its manifestations, stress has a positive and mobilizing or negative effect on the body’s activities. Science has proven that experiencing short-term, short-term stress is beneficial. Minor troubles, small mistakes, sensations in extreme situations and physical exertion bring tension, which is a stimulating factor for the functioning of the nervous system.
This is because the immune system receives a certain hardening and intensifies its activity. A striking example of how stress affects the immune system in a positive way is sports (marathon, rowing, wrestling).
Prolonged stress has the exact opposite effect. Stress factors cause deterioration of the nervous system. At first, the problems are purely psychological. They cause anxiety, increased excitability and imbalance. Years pass, emotional instability appears. Episodes of anger are followed by periods of depression.
Since the brain regulates everything biochemical processes, happens negative impact and to other organs of the body. Deviations occur in the functioning of most organs. In particular, the immune system begins to suffer.
The presence of a complex chain of biochemical reactions leads to changes in the quantitative and qualitative composition of the body’s natural protective sources. There is an effect of stress on the immune system.
Being in a normal, calm state, internal protective agents cope with a potential threat without any problems. If there are changes, the immune system can no longer properly perform its functional duties. There is a suppression of its activity. This applies most of all to antivirus resistance. The body becomes easy prey for all kinds of infections and viruses.
Decreased immunity due to stress causes people to often suffer from seasonal colds. Over time, in the presence of constant stress, various somatic diseases develop, and the likelihood of oncological pathology arises. To prevent this from happening, you need to learn how to reduce the impact of stress on your health.
The decline in immunity is influenced by a considerable number of factors:
- environment;
- unhealthy lifestyle (alcohol, smoking, lack of high physical activity);
- chronic fatigue, stress, poor sleep;
- poor nutrition.
Biochemist, executive director of NP Manufacturers of Dietary Supplements, Ponomareva M.N. I am sure that the most dangerous enemy of immunity is stress. In her opinion, not only infectious diseases, but also immune disorders of a non-infectious nature are closely related either to chronic psycho-emotional stress or to experienced stress.
The body's reactions that occur in a stressful situation, as well as the associated hormones (adrenaline, cortisol and others) help to enhance the activity of all protective reactions over a certain period of time. With severe, and even more so with prolonged stress, the body’s reserves approach zero and signs appear, including an immunodeficiency state.
So, the effect of stress on human immunity is quite obvious. Therefore, if you want to boost your immunity, make sure that severe stress does not destroy your body.
Relieve stress - boost immunity
To prevent stress from overwhelming your life, listen to the advice given in the article.
Healthy lifestyle
Learn to think positively and relax.
Different psychological methods, such as: relaxation exercises, stress management training, deep breathing - can provide effective support to the immune system. And physical exercise (bending, turning, twisting is especially useful in this case), running, is something that you should never give up.
Eating under stress
Due to nervous overstrain, the body is deprived of a significant number of vital substances after stress. The loss of B vitamins is essential for the body, since they help strengthen the nervous system and overcome severe stress. Due to a lack of vitamins A and E, the cells of the thyroid gland remain unprotected (this, as you know, is one of the main organs of our immune system). A big blow to the body after a nervous shock is a decrease in the concentration of vitamin C and magnesium.
Therefore, it is necessary to focus on ensuring that all these substances enter the body in sufficient quantities. Your diet should include foods such as: cauliflower, cottage cheese, black currants, rowan and sea buckthorn berries, fish, herbs, red pepper, liver, .
But such a product as carrots as a fighter for increasing immunity will probably surprise some. This root vegetable is one of the strongest natural immune stimulants. And all because this vegetable contains a large amount of beta-carotene. It is with its help that the body’s defense against viral and bacterial infections is strengthened. According to research by US scientists, with increasing consumption of beta-carotene, the number of protective immune cells increases.
Immune system cells, or white blood cells, reduce their ability to protect the body when they eat sugar. Therefore, if you do not want to weaken your immune system, then limit yourself to sweets.
Drinks for immunity
To strengthen the nervous system, use soothing herbal decoctions. Melissa, hawthorn, valerian, motherwort brewed with boiling water will help (it is recommended to drink 200 ml every day).
You can cope with stress and difficult situations with the help of magical tea made from rose hips, nettles and lingonberries.
First, take berries (1 tablespoon each). After mixing, pour 0.5 liters of boiling water. Then, stirring, add 1 teaspoon of dried nettle leaves. Strain the drink after 15 minutes.
Take this tea for immunity, 0.5 cups 3 times a day for courses of three weeks.
Nettle herb will cleanse the blood, lingonberries will strengthen the heart and improve metabolism, and thanks to rose hips the body will be filled with vitamins.
Rosehip infusion will also be a good help.
The use of adaptogens is also effective in boosting immunity: Rhodiola rosea, Eleutherococcus, ginseng, apilac. If you resort to alcohol extracts, use them in the morning (due to the possibility of insomnia).
A study by scientists from Swinburne University found that including green tea in the diet leads to a reduction in stress levels. Thanks to the substances found in tea, the immune system is strengthened.
Read about the details of using the healing drink.
Sleep from stress
In order to relieve stress and calm your nerves, strive to ensure that yours is one hundred percent healthy. To do this, go to bed no later than twenty-three hours.
If you have difficulty falling asleep, drinks that promote the production of melatonin (sleep hormone) will help you relax: chamomile tea, milk, cherry juice. One glass will be enough.
Conclusion
Fortunately, nature has created various substances that prevent stressful situations - use them to support your immune system. And don't forget about healthy way life, good nutrition.
Relax, game:
Psychoneuroimmunology, one of the youngest health sciences, studies the effect of stress on the immune system. Stress has a very noticeable negative impact on the immune system, and the extent of this impact largely depends on how well we can regulate our emotions and manage our body. By overcoming stress, we take the load off the immune system and thereby strengthen the immune response.
We all experience negative emotions from time to time. However, persistent depression puts continuous pressure on the immune system, which means there is an increased susceptibility to illness, including common cold, increasing the risk and possibility of developing asthma, cancer, diabetes, hypertension.
Stress affects many immune functions. The body's ability to fight viruses is especially weakened. Many viruses can hide inside a cell for the time being and wait for the moment when the immune system response is weak. This allows the virus to multiply and eventually cause illness.
During stress, hormones are released from the adrenal cortex, the adrenal medulla, respectively cortisol and catecholamines, which can suppress any immune activity.
In addition, stress contributes to the occurrence of many diseases, including the cardiovascular system, metabolism, and nervous system.
Stress management
How to deal with stress, and, therefore, how to increase your immunity?
Of course, absolutely no one is immune from stressful situations. But people's reactions to adverse circumstances are completely different. One perceives the vicissitudes of life as a call to mobilize all forces, develops vigorous activity and, in the end, will be able to get out of an unfavorable situation. Such a person, under the pressure of problems, becomes more active and even fruitful, and does not lose control over himself and circumstances. This version of behavior only benefits the immune system.
Another person perceives difficulties as a threat to his existence. Such a person seems to “hide in a hole” and fearfully awaits the consequences. At some point it is determined that control over the situation is lost. As a result of this discovery, the effectiveness of all efforts aimed at resolving the problem is reduced. Such a person experiences anxiety, anxiety and fear. He believes that the situation will be resolved in an unfavorable way. This attitude suppresses the immune system and can lead to illness.
It should be understood that the reaction to a problem mainly depends on the person, and not on the complexity of the situation. The same difficulties force some to mobilize strength and act, while others force them to give up and suffer. Of course, you can change your attitude towards life, you can psychologically educate and change yourself.
How to achieve this? There are many recommended techniques for dealing with stress. So, they suggest writing down your problems in a diary or journal, there are tips suggesting learning to meditate, indulge in prayers, laugh more, take a warm bath, perform breathing exercises, use massage, consult a psychotherapist, modulate food tastes using foods rich in serotonin. It should be remembered that serotonin calms, helps to concentrate, relieves depression and promotes healthy sleep.
Many doctors note that a strong nervous system is a successful factor in resisting seasonal epidemics. When a person is nervous, anxious or stressed, this makes him defenseless against infections and viruses.
And, in fact, how does stress affect the immune system? Is there a connection between nerves and diseases? And where can you escape from that ubiquitous stress? We are talking about this with Vitaly Ostashkov, a neuropathologist of the highest category.
— That is, the statement “All diseases are from nerves” makes sense?
- This is a proven medical fact. After all, the nervous system is responsible not only for the transmission of impulses or the speed of reactions. The brain contains glands such as the pituitary gland and hypothalamus, which produce certain hormones. In addition, it is in the pituitary-hypothalamic system that the interaction of chemical and electrical reactions that occur at rest or during emotional stress occurs. During stress, neurohormones are released in the pituitary gland, adrenaline and norepinephrine are released in the adrenal glands, which, in turn, act on many organs and systems.
First of all, this concerns the immune system. Stress depletes the body, extracting vitamins and microelements from it (for example, during emotional stress, potassium and sodium ions are excessively released), and therefore the body has nothing to build protection from.
— What happens in the human body during strong emotional stress?
— Under the influence of stress hormones, heart rate increases, blood pressure “jumps,” blood vessels spasm, and blood thickens. Accordingly, a person loses the ability to resist infection, and other somatic manifestations arise - headache, muscle spasms, which, in turn, lead to the development of cardiovascular diseases, pathologies digestive system and others.
However, there are different types of stress. For example, acute stress (caused by fear, some kind of quarrel) is even useful - it mobilizes the body's resources. After all, there are cases when, during a strong fright, people ran at great speed and jumped over high obstacles, whereas in a “normal” state they could not repeat this. But chronic stress is very dangerous. Changes constantly occur in the body, using its resources uselessly, it ultimately destroys it.
Thus, constant vascular spasms turn into vegetative-vascular dystonia, which, becoming chronic, leads to heart attacks and strokes. When the blood thickens (this can happen both as a result of the action of stress hormones and in some behavioral disorders - say, a person often runs “nervously” to the toilet), the heart suffers. Against the background of chronic stress, various neuroses and depression develop. That is, stress is not only a period bad mood, this is a multifaceted reaction of the body.
- What to do? After all, you can’t escape stress...
— No one is immune from everyday stress, but the worst thing is when it accumulates. Since the origin of stress is psychological (it is not the problem that is important, but our attitude towards it), then we must fight it psychologically. No mint tea or valerian will help when a person is dissatisfied with his personal life operates in an environment of constant competition.
Therefore, you need to learn to manage your emotions. This can be achieved through auto-training (but do not confuse this with self-hypnosis). After all, in fact, our inner strength is very powerful, it can influence the body. And it is not necessary to understand this, the main thing is to accept it.
Autotraining is a training system that makes it possible to control the body and emotions. You only need to spend five minutes a day on this. It is advisable that at this time you are not in a hurry, but can completely focus on yourself. First you need to learn to relax. To do this, it is better to lie down, inhale and exhale deeply 2-3 times and try to relax absolutely all the muscles. If you practice every day, for 3-4 weeks you will learn to relax your body. This, by the way, will allow you to get rid of many muscle spasms and tension.
Later, in the same way, it will be possible to mentally “walk” through the internal organs and learn to feel them. And later be able to manage emotions. This way you can get rid of chronic stress, and with it, many diseases.
Unusual or unpleasant circumstances limited in time act on the body in a stimulating way, while a prolonged similar situation weakens it. Long-term stress and immunity, metabolism, the central nervous system are interconnected in that in this mode their resources are mobilized, their Current state. And their development and renewal are postponed until “better times.”
Whether the body is affected by mild or severe stress, immunity does not depend on its magnitude. The main thing here is the “cumulative” effect of it. From the first minutes of stress, the cerebral cortex assesses the situation as urgent and gives a command to the pituitary gland (they and the pineal gland are two “personal” endocrine glands of the brain located inside its hypothalamus). It begins to rapidly produce ACTH - adrenocorticotropic hormone.
The main purpose of ACTH is to increase the secreting activity of the adrenal cortex. And already subject to its increased level in the blood, the adrenal glands increase the synthesis of stress hormones:
- cortisol;
- dopamine;
- norepinephrine;
- adrenaline.
Only cortisol stands apart among them. The remaining 3 are produced from the common amino acid tyrosine and are chemical precursors to each other. The chain of dopamine, norepinephrine and adrenaline is also called catecholamines. All stress hormones influence body systems towards mobilization:
- increase blood pressure due to narrowing of blood vessels in the mucous membranes and abdominal organs;
- dilate muscle blood vessels;
- speed up the heartbeat;
- make cell membranes more permeable to sugar;
- suppress prolactin synthesis (responsible for breast-feeding after childbirth and emotional lability – in all other cases).
The action of cortisol is in many ways the opposite of catecholamines. It stimulates brain and nervous activity, increasing concentration, but also reduces blood sugar consumption by muscles and inhibits insulin production in the pancreas. If catecholamines strive to optimize and accelerate the consumption of glucose, then cortisol strives to accumulate and save it. It stimulates the activity of protective bodies by increasing their “appetite” for glucose. This is also facilitated by changes in blood flow in certain areas of the body.
Why is the decline happening?
If the negative situation “lingers”, increased level adrenaline and blood sugar, blood pressure, low insulin also become chronic. Not a single organ or system can work “to the point of wear and tear” for a long time, and their initial mobilization gradually turns into failure.
- Shallow sleep and insomnia result in constant drowsiness. It intensifies when it is necessary to increase mental activity.
- Other signs of central nervous system burnout are also increasing - apathy, a decrease in the speed and strength of all nervous reactions. Anxiety increases, the sensitivity of the limbs decreases, a tendency to convulsions, chronic muscle spasm, and tremors develop with additional nervous tension.
- In men, impotence occurs, in women, frigidity and cycle disruptions occur.
- Constantly high level Blood glucose triggers weight gain, prediabetes and type II diabetes.
Immune defense deteriorates for 2 reasons. The first is the dependence of the secretory activity of the thymus gland and bone marrow, the speed and quality of blood circulation on the characteristics of the hormonal background, and it is greatly changed during periods of stress. The second reason why stress is that the body saves a biological resource (in anticipation of new troubles).
How to boost immunity after stress?
External negative factors can reduce resistance only indirectly. They hit mainly the central nervous and circulatory systems, and affect the protective system last. Cora cares about this because her critical fall is more dangerous than any reprimand from her superiors. Several measures help restore the functioning of the central nervous system.
- Complete rest for 15-30 days. The recommended duration of sleep is 8 hours or more (optional) in a quiet, shaded, well-ventilated room.
- Balanced diet. The central nervous system needs cholesterol, proteins and carbohydrates, plus all B vitamins. Immune defense requires calcium, selenium, all the same proteins with carbohydrates, A, C, D, E to work. Most of its agents are produced in the bone marrow, and he sees Its main “option” is the synthesis of red blood cells. Difficulties with it are prevented by taking iron, but only trivalent iron. Plant products they are not suitable as its sources (where it is divalent) - only animals.
- . If you are not sure what part of the indicated elements is contained in the food, it is better to buy them separately, as part - “Alphabet” (about 420 rubles), “Vitrum” (within 515 rubles), “Centrum” (similar to “ Vitrum" not only due to the versatility of its composition, but also its price).
- Physical activity. It is needed for sound sleep and reducing the weight gained due to cortisol. But you need to start with long walks in quiet and safe places. You should visit public places and events only if you have an irresistible desire. It’s easy to catch a respiratory infection in them, and the noise, bustle and abundance of alcohol will again hit their frayed nerves painfully.
- Avoidance of CNS stimulants. These include coffee, strong tea, drinks with ephedrine and guarana. This also includes alcohol – the most deceptive of “relaxation” options. In fact, ethanol is a strong “accelerator” (what kind of relaxation and rest is that) for the limbic system, which is responsible for human adaptation and behavior. And its intermediate metabolite acetaldehyde is simply extremely toxic.
Prevention
No matter how negative stress, mental state and thinking are, it is completely impossible to avoid them for objective reasons. One of the main techniques for saying goodbye to half of them is the ability to not worry about events that we cannot change for the better. Hobbies and sports also help a lot.
At the same time heavy physical exercise are types of stress, and if they are the cause of them, it is better to take a break from them at your leisure. It's the same with hobbies. Any leisure time in front of a computer/TV/tablet/phone monitor will not help with stress. The flickering of the screen creates new centers of tension in the already working cortex. Communication with gadgets outside of work is one of the main reasons for the appearance of symptoms of stress and insomnia when there are no reasons for them in real life.