Stress and the immune system – Part 1
With the Coronavirus outbreak, I thought it would be beneficial to discuss how stress impacts the immune system.
The immune system’s job is to keep the body safe and its very flexible but can be compromised by age and illness.
There are two types of immunity:
- Specific immunity
- Natural immunity
Specific immunity is a slower response than natural immunity as it may take several days. This is about recognition of a particular antigen (e.g. virus) and the production of a cell that specifically recognises this antigen. This may come from having seen that antigen before via a previous illness or via vaccination.
Natural immunity is an all-purpose reaction that may have a short time frame (minutes to hours). You will have experienced natural immunity when you have inflammation or a fever or had a wound that has healed. As part of natural immunity, we produce killer cells that respond to viruses etc.
As coronavirus is a new virus and there is currently no vaccination, we are reliant on natural immunity to protect us.
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Stress and the immune system – Part 2
In part 1, I gave an overview of the immune system works. In this post, I want to explore the impact of short-term stress on the immune system. The immune system is actually very flexible and naturally responds to challenges in your life which means stress modifies our immune system. When we consider the impact of stress on the immune system, we need to consider the duration and course of the stress i.e. how long it will be present and whether or its continuous or not. 1. Acute Stressors – last only minutes e.g. public speak – can cause adaptive up regulation of natural immunity and down regulation of specific immunity. This means you have an increased ability to fight infection but reduced specific response. 2. Brief Naturalistic Stressors – for example taking exams, present a short-term challenge – this means you specific immunity is preserved but less ability to fight infections. In summary in some circumstances, acute short-term stress is part of everyday life, and under some circumstances it can enhance your immunity. Reference https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361287/
Do you know the benefits of drinking tea?
I have to admit that I don't drink tea. I like my herbal teas but lets face it, they don't actually contain any tea. In a morning I like my decaf americano. But having done the research on tea, I may need to change my habits. Prof Feng and his team in collaboration with Essex University and Cambridge have been researching the impact of long term tea drinking habits. They concluded that individuals that drank either green tea,oolong tea or black tea at least four times a week for about 25 years had better brain health than people who don't drink tea. So what are the other benefits of tea?
- Daily consumption of tea reduced the risk of cognitive decline by 50% in older people.
- Improves mood.
- Protects agains cardiovascular disease.
