Does stress actually make us feel sick?
Washington, July 21 (IANS) Whether it’s getting a cold during exam time or feeling run-down after a big meeting, we’ve all experienced feeling sick following a particularly stressful time at work or school. Is this merely coincidence, or is it possible that stress can actually make us sick? Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser, psychologist from the Ohio State University College of Medicine (OSUCM), reviews research into how stress can wreak havoc on our bodies and offers suggestions. The field of psycho-neuro-immunology (PNI) investigates how stress and negative emotions (such as depression and anxiety) affect our health. Over the past 30 years, researchers have uncovered a number of ways that stress adversely affects our health, and specifically, how stress can damage our immune system. Numerous studies have shown that stressed individuals show weaker immune responses to vaccines, and as Kiecolt-Glaser observes: “The evidence that stress and distress impair vaccine responses has obvious public h
