Humans and their primate cousins are in the unusual and unfortunate position of being intelligent enough to make themselves ill, through stressing about things that are not actually life threatening!
Humans and their primate cousins are in the unusual and unfortunate position of being intelligent enough to make themselves ill, through stressing about things that are not actually life threatening!
Consequences
So far, we know stress has an alarming effect on the brain: it compromises the blood-brain barrier, resulting in the over-stimulation of neurons, and cell death.
The brain loses the ability to form new connections and process sensory information, the hippocampus shrinks, and it becomes much harder for us to store new memories.
When it comes to our immune system, acute stress may activate it, but chronic stress harms it. Activation of white blood cells produces cytokines which fight infection, but these same molecules cause the nasty illness symptoms such as fever, fatigue, lack of energy and no appetite. This is why psychological stress causes real physical illness. Over time, the stress hormone cortisol interferes with cytokine production and in situations of chronic stress, illness immune response is weakened.
Stress has also been linked to the development of the ear condition tinitus .
Solutions
So what can you do to help? Studies have shown that simply having social support (especially from a loved one) has therapeutic benefit. There are plenty of evidence-based techniques for stress reduction too: progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic training, relaxation response, emotional freedom techniques, guided imagery, diaphragmatic breathing, transcendental meditation , mindfulness -based stress reduction and emotional freedom techniques.
For the last 70 years we have known that profound connections between psychological stress and various diseases exist. In the next 70 years I hope we learn more about the extremely complex biology of stress to address this growing problem.
Article by
Dr Anu Arasu
Medical Writer and Practising GP
Dr Anu Arasu practises functional medicine and bio-identical hormone replacement at The Hale Clinic. She combines evidence based medicine, complementary practices, advanced diagnostic testing and nutritional therapy.
Discover more
Article by
Dr Anu Arasu
Medical Writer and Practising GP
Dr Anu Arasu practises functional medicine and bio-identical hormone replacement at The Hale Clinic. She combines evidence based medicine, complementary practices, advanced diagnostic testing and nutritional therapy.
Discover more
By Dr Anu Arasu
By Dr Anu Arasu 
