As the Penn State Plague is hitting, it makes me wonder, is everyone getting sick because of stress? PJ Rosch says “stress can cause hypertension, heart disease, ulcer, cancer, emotional illness, or an upset in a sporting event”. According to Bert Uchino, Timothy Smith, Julianne Holt-Lustan, Rebecca Campo and Maija Reblin, “the emergence of psychoneuroimmunology as a discipline in the early 1970s has resulted in the immune system becoming a third major physiological perspective, which links stress to health outcomes”.
So what exactly is this stress thing that’s causing health problems? Lazarus and Folkman say it is “defined by the perception of the environment event. This perception involves the appraisal of potential harms, threats, and challenges … stress arises when a person … does not have an appropriate coping response immediately available”. They also say, “…stress can influence health by increasing the frequency of unhealthy behaviors, by decreasing the frequency of healthy behaviors”. When you are stressed you tend to forget to exercise, eat healthy or sleep, this can then cause illness. After these factors come together and an individual falls sick, the individual is still stressed out and pushes off seeking health care which causes the illness to get worse.
In 1979 an experiment was held to see if stress had anything to do with colds- “52 volunteers were given experimental colds through nasal inoculation with rhinovirus during the course of a 10-day residential stay at the Common Cold Research Unit, Salisbury. Prior to their inoculation, they were assessed on 5 different measures of recent life stress”. It was found that “…’changing gear’ seems more important in relation to colds”. It was also found that the level of social activity (whether an individual is an introvert or extrovert) had an impact on how sick a person would become.
In 1991 another test was done by Dr. Sheldon Cohen, Dr. David Tyrrell and Dr. Andrew Smith to see if stress and colds had any relation to one another. 394 formerly healthy patients were given nasal drops containing one of five different versions of rhinovirus. 26 others were given normal saline drops. The conclusion from this experiment was “Psychological stress was associated in a dose-response manner…. [it] was attributable to increased rates of infection”.
So overall, yes stress has a huge impact on your health- and we found that from some very unethical testing. The consequences of being stressed out can lead to colds or even heart disease. So don’t procrastinate, to do some meditating and stay relaxed during this hectic time of our lives.
I have always wondered if stress actually caused illness, or if it was just an excuse. In this case, I think I have gotten sick from stress many times. It is strange that this happens, because times where you are stressed are the exact times you cannot afford to be sick, which I always seemed to realize when I felt a cold coming on. A persons environment around them and feelings inside really effects your health, and this is a perfect example of that.
I have definitely experienced how stress can cause illness, especially when its finals week and I can no longer breathe from my nose. I did find it odd however, that in the 1991 study performed by Dr. Tyrrell and Dr. Smith that only 26 out of the total patients in the experiment were given regular saline drops. I feel as though it might have been more effective if the distribution was more evenly split among who received the rhinovirus versus who didn’t.
Your blog post was very interesting. I like how you made it so relatable to Penn State students and even giggled about how you called in the “Penn State Plague.” My favorite part of your analysis was when you said that “When you are stressed you tend to forget to exercise, eat healthy or sleep, this can then cause illness” and that “After these factors come together and an individual falls sick, the individual is still stressed out and pushes off seeking health care which causes the illness to get worse” because I also agree that sickness can be caused by stress. Even though a few of the tests you found were done pretty unethically, I think overall they lead to a good conclusion on how much stress is related to sickness. Just like we learned in class, correlation does not necessarily mean causation, and it is true in this situation too. Stress, like you previously mentioned can cause lack of exercise, unhealthy eating habits, lack of sleep, etc, which can then lead to sickness. So, there are multiple third party variables, which proves however that stress IS in one way or another linked somehow to becoming sick.