Without further elaboration, there is evidence that important innate immune genes are activated in the antiviral response in young women who enter into romantic relationships. Love appears to be a powerful immune modulator.
emotions and infection
The hormone cortisol is involved in a series of basic physiological functions Examples include sleep-wake cycles, blood pressure regulation, or salt balance in the body. At the same time, it is an important hormone that triggers states of alarm or stress in the face of physical or psychological risks.
What does alert status mean?mainly Activate defense mechanisms Face real dangers such as accidents, robberies and assaults or being late for important professional appointments.
But perhaps most interestingly, it is also activated in response to potential emotional risks that our brains perceive as threats: difficulties making ends meet, expectations at work, or the fear of failing a test. And, of course, there’s the threat of a romantic breakup.
Cortisol has a Overall impact on our bodies, getting him ready for fight or flight. Among other things, it speeds up the heart and oxygen consumption, and releases glucose into the bloodstream so that the muscles are ready to respond to real or perceived threats.
At the same time, non-priority functions are hindered during these trance states, such as appetite and even digestion can be cut off. Immune responses, which consume large amounts of resources and energy, are also suppressed.
What does alert status mean? Mainly the activation of defense mechanisms against real dangers, such as accidents, robberies and assaults or being late for important professional appointments.
This in itself is a wonderful result of biological evolution natural selection, which protects us and keeps us safe as a species. But only as something concrete. Because the body cannot be alert all the time.
Elevated cortisol due to life pain and chronic stress is associated with increased susceptibility to different diseases, particularly those related to the immune system and viruses.
The good news is that when in a relationship, in addition to noticing butterflies in our stomachs, we also experience lower cortisol levels. This can ease the stress response.
The long shadow of cortisol
In one experiment, a group of volunteers whose basal cortisol levels were measured were infected with a common cold virus. The results left no doubt: There was a strong correlation between the volunteers’ cortisol, infection risk and clinical symptoms.
These data were later corroborated by numerous studies that found the same relationship between stress and the likelihood of catching a cold. By the same token, caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients experiencing emotional stress showed higher cortisol values and lower responses to the flu vaccine. Stressed caregivers had significantly lower levels of IgG antibodies than volunteers of the same age and condition.
Furthermore, in a macro study conducted in Sweden, which included 144,000 patients with post-traumatic stress disorder Compared with more than one million control volunteers, the patients were found to have a higher incidence of very serious infections during their lifetime. The researchers concluded that early exposure to trauma may have a lasting impact on the likelihood of developing serious infectious diseases, because in children who experienced trauma as children, this susceptibility also manifested itself in adulthood.
As if that wasn’t enough, there is evidence that the traumatic stress caused by parental divorce in children can have permanent effects related to infectious diseases throughout their lives. A research team at the University of Pittsburgh observed that adults whose parents separated and had never spoken during childhood were three times more likely to develop symptomatic infections when exposed to cold viruses than adults from intact families.
Love and heartbreak affect us
In contrast, people whose parents were separated but communicated with each other did not show an increased risk. This surprising result was explained in terms of stress-induced epigenetic modifications of DNA that permanently alter the expression of immune system genes.
There is evidence that the traumatic stress caused by parental divorce in children can have permanent effects related to infectious diseases throughout their lives.
What about the heartbreaks we experience ourselves? Does it affect our immune system? Very big.So much so that you can tell whether a person is in love by their appearance blood test! There are a range of biological markers associated with love. For example, in young women who enter a relationship, interferon pathway genes and dendritic cells are activated, which are critical for the antiviral response.
Published data shows that there is only one type of health and that there is a strong interrelationship between mind and body. The placebo and nocebo effects are an obvious example. There is a need to study the biological basis linking the two to develop new global treatment strategies to improve our quality of life.
This article originally appeared on The Conversation. You can read it here.