Stress And The Immune System
The immune system is a very important part of our bodily functions as
its main function is to protect the body against millions of antigens,
which attack our cells and try to reproduce viruses and diseases. The
immune system can protect the body in three different ways, in which
are:
1. It creates a barrier that prevents the antigens from initially
entering the body.
2. If the antigens do manage to enter the body, then your immune
system will try to detect the virus and abolish it before it
begins to spread.
3. If the virus does reproduce and begins to cause problems, your
immune system is then responsible for eliminating it.
The most important part of the immune system is the white blood cells,
which are also known as leucocytes. The most important type of white
blood cell is the lymphocyte. Lymphocytes are developed as either
T-cells or B-cells. A B-cell is specifically designated to a certain
virus and so when that virus does enter the body, the B-cell will
produce millions of antibodies to eliminate the virus. T-cells are
designed to detect the cells in the body that contain viruses and when
they detect the cell they collide with it and eliminate it.
The General Adaptation Syndrome model suggested that stress does lead
to illness as the body’s resources become insufficient due to severe
stress. In result this means that the necessary proteins for the
immune system are not produced and so the body is less able to fight
viruses. Although, many of the resources do not actually become
depleted under severe stress and so is unlikely to explain the view
that stress...
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...o carried out research into the relationship between
stress and the immune system by experimenting on monkeys. The
executive monkey had to control electric shocks that were dispensed to
itself and another monkey, and provided that the executive monkey
pressed a lever every twenty seconds, neither of the monkeys received
electric shock.
The executive monkey died within a few weeks as it experienced a
perforated ulcer. This outcome implies that the monkey died due to
stress rather than the electric shocks causing the perforated ulcer.
This was evident because both of the monkeys received the electric
shocks but only the executive monkey experienced high levels of
stress. Psychologists have also found that stress is related to
physical illness and so can explain the relationship between stress
and the immune system.
The B cells, T cells, Macrophage, and Antibodies are all a very large part of the immune system. There are two types of T cells, killer and helper T cells. Killer T cells find and destroy cells infected with bacteria, and helper T cells control the activity of other cells in the immune system. Then, B cells are considered the “clean up crew,” attacking any bacteria or viruses the T cell left behind. They also make antibodies, which are essential for trapping invading viruses and
Therefore, prolonged stress included adverse psychological and physical health effects as well as the increased risk of premature death (Denollet, J., et al.
My name is Dr. Carrie Zimmerman; I have been a clinical neuroscientist studying stress for the past five years. This is a personal stress case study on patient H. I have been seeing patient H for four years, and have been building a case study on her stress life for the duration of that time. Throughout this case study I will be consulting “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” by Dr. Robert M. Sapolsky.
The job of the immune system is to keep “foreign” invaders out of the body, or if one gets in, to seek it out and kill it. These foreign invaders are called pathogens, which are tiny organisms that can cause an infection in the body. Pathogens can be bacteria, parasites, and fungi (http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/immuneSystem/pages/whatisimmunesystem.aspx).
“All of us have a personal relationship with stress, but few of us know how it affects us.” In the film “Stress- Portrait of a Killer” by National Geographic, Robert Sapolsky is researching baboon’s to find a link in stress and potential health risks in humans, Carol Shively is also researching macaques for that reason. Sapolsky is an american neuroendocrinologist that went to Africa “on a hunch” to study non-human subjects to test his theory, this experiment actually got Robert Sapolsky “MacArthur Foundations Genius Fellowship”. He did this by darting the baboons with anesthetic to put them to sleep, to make for easier blood samples. In the samples Sapolsky is measuring the levels of stress hormones found in the blood, he devoted thirty years of his life to this study with the help of his wife Lisa Sapolsky. This experiment relates to sociologic analysis, because Sapolsky’s study happens to draw a conclusion between economic activities and how it genuinely affects the quality of life. Some of the sociological themes we’ll be discussing are how “stress impacts our bodies and how our social standing can make us more or less susceptible”.
Discusses the premise that the psychological state affects the immune system with reference to the psychological state of persons with enhanced functioning immune states and those with suppressed immunity, HIV and AIDS. How stress affects the immune system; How psychological health assists the immune system; Advantages of intervention on the psyche and immune system of HIV and AIDS patients.
The function of the immune system is it helps play a vital part of our everyday lives. It helps protect our bodies where ever we go. Our immune systems help defend our bodies against germs and microorganisms. The immune system is made up of various special cells, tissues, organs and proteins. This special system does an amazing job of keeping our bodies healthy and in good shape from different diseases and infections.
Dr Cohen found that the most damaging kinds of stress are caused by long term problems. People are more likely to come down with a cold if they are suffering from stress.
To a great extent, stress can be a helpful response, especially for prehistoric humans. During this era, our species needed to react quickly to outside stimuli through a response of “fight or flight”. Through stress, certain hormones are released to help the individual resist the stressor, which may have meant running away from a natural predator. Thus, stress is a positive response that ensures the survival of the species. However, stress over a prolonged period of time causes exhaustion in the individual. Consequently, although stress can be helpful for individuals today, many often experience chronic stress, inflicting varying degrees of damage to their bodies.
Although gross medical advancements have allowed the human population to live longer and fuller lives without the threat of death from infectious diseases, it is apparent that we are now dealing with a different phenomenon that may be just as harmful to our health. The impact of psychological, social and environmental factors from our daily lives is having a drastic impression on the mental and physical wellbeing of our society. It has been shown in various studies that psychological and neurological factors influence the immune system and can have an effect on our health (Breedlove, Rosenzweig & Watson, 2010). As we allow various stressors, poisonous substances, unhealthy diets and lack of rest to overwhelm our existence, we are inevitably shortening our life span and killing our bodies.
The stress not only causes physiological, but also psychological problems. How does our body react when the stress comes? That will be “hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal”, which is called ATP , the system regulate the stress. When facing stressors, our mouth becomes dry, as it is conserving fluids because our HPA axis sensing danger. It’s used to escape predators or fighting with beasts. But this system isn’t designed for today’s diverse stressors because in modern world, most people need to worry about mortgages, relationships and promotions more than the fight for food. If we continur to let our body work under these stressful conditions, it will break down the strain. This process is called ”allostatic load”. HPA axis also produce serious and long-lasting negative effects, like physical and psychological in our
The purpose of this paper is to define stress and how it effects the body's physiological systems. This paper will include the normal functions and organs involved in the following five physiological systems, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, respiratory, immune and musculoskeletal. This paper will also include a description of a chronic illness associated with each physiological system and how the illness is affected by stress.
Getting sick is another negative factor of being overly stressed. Chronic stress compromises your immune system and stress hormones affect the body’s ability to fight off illness due to the fact that thymus’s ability to stimulate and coordinate the white blood cell activity.
The immune system is a fascinating structure it defends the body against foreign invaders like bacteria, viruses and parasites. There are two primary forms that make up the immune system they are, innate and adaptive systems. Both the innate and adaptive system plays a large role in the immune system. The innate is the primary system to defend against foreign materials and the adaptive is the secondary system that responds to specific issues.
Suppression of the Immunity System: stress causes the immune system of the body to be weakened because it fights of the stress from the stressor. This makes the body even more vulnerable to certain infections, like multiple sclerosis and arthritis. It has been discovered that stress slows the body’s rate of recovery from infections.