Swine Flu - Can Stress Increase Your Chances of Contracting This Virus?
Swine Flu.
H1N1.
These two words have been of enormous concern all over the world.
Rightfully so.
We should all be concerned about our immunity and the health of our family.
We all know with the difficulties of the economy, possible debt, and the health care debate, we are often left feeling very stressed.
This is natural, considering what we all are faced with, but it is now flu season.
This leaves us wondering if we will contract swine flu.
The basic science behind chronic stress and your immune system has to do with the amount of stress hormones produced in your body.
When you are under stress your body goes into the fight or flight response.
This response causes natural physiological changes to your body.
Chronic stress can make your body stay in the fight or flight response for an extended period of time.
During this response your body naturally releases stress hormones such as cortisol, and adrenaline(or epinephrine), to deal with the new demands of the stressor.
This flight or fight mechanism is beneficial, but only if it is temporary.
Your body needs to have a correct balance of these hormones to function well.
Under chronic stress as mentioned the body remains in this state, resulting in the hormones being continuously released, so the hormones begin to do damage to your body and your immune cells.
What type of damage? First, adrenaline has a suppressive effect on the immune system.
This stress hormone lowers your white blood cell count.
Cortisol limits your body's ability to produce the antibodies needed to fight off pathogens.
It suppresses the T-cells or lymphocytes allowing pathogens to proceed quickly.
Elevated levels of cortisol also damage the part of your body that produce immune cells.
These parts are the spleen, lymph nodes, and the thymus gland.
As these hormones build up in your system they begin to attach themselves to your immune cells and thus inhibit your immune system from working properly.
Interesting and scary.
We can see here from studying immunity on a cellular level that stress can leave you susceptible to the swine flu along with other viruses.
You do not have to allow this to happen.
You can be proactive in your own health by decreasing your stress level.
This can be done effectively with stress management techniques, and of course boosting your immune system through healthy eating, vitamins, supplements, and exercise.
Do not wait until you are sick to increase your immunity.
Start taking the proper steps now, and reduce yours and your families' chance of contracting swine flu.
H1N1.
These two words have been of enormous concern all over the world.
Rightfully so.
We should all be concerned about our immunity and the health of our family.
We all know with the difficulties of the economy, possible debt, and the health care debate, we are often left feeling very stressed.
This is natural, considering what we all are faced with, but it is now flu season.
This leaves us wondering if we will contract swine flu.
The basic science behind chronic stress and your immune system has to do with the amount of stress hormones produced in your body.
When you are under stress your body goes into the fight or flight response.
This response causes natural physiological changes to your body.
Chronic stress can make your body stay in the fight or flight response for an extended period of time.
During this response your body naturally releases stress hormones such as cortisol, and adrenaline(or epinephrine), to deal with the new demands of the stressor.
This flight or fight mechanism is beneficial, but only if it is temporary.
Your body needs to have a correct balance of these hormones to function well.
Under chronic stress as mentioned the body remains in this state, resulting in the hormones being continuously released, so the hormones begin to do damage to your body and your immune cells.
What type of damage? First, adrenaline has a suppressive effect on the immune system.
This stress hormone lowers your white blood cell count.
Cortisol limits your body's ability to produce the antibodies needed to fight off pathogens.
It suppresses the T-cells or lymphocytes allowing pathogens to proceed quickly.
Elevated levels of cortisol also damage the part of your body that produce immune cells.
These parts are the spleen, lymph nodes, and the thymus gland.
As these hormones build up in your system they begin to attach themselves to your immune cells and thus inhibit your immune system from working properly.
Interesting and scary.
We can see here from studying immunity on a cellular level that stress can leave you susceptible to the swine flu along with other viruses.
You do not have to allow this to happen.
You can be proactive in your own health by decreasing your stress level.
This can be done effectively with stress management techniques, and of course boosting your immune system through healthy eating, vitamins, supplements, and exercise.
Do not wait until you are sick to increase your immunity.
Start taking the proper steps now, and reduce yours and your families' chance of contracting swine flu.
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