The Stress–Immune Loop: Why Your Body Can’t Heal Until It Changes
Psychoneuroimmunology is a big, long for the interdisciplinary study of: the mind (thoughts), the nervous system (includes the brain) & the immune system.
If you’ve been following me, you probably know that I went through my own health crisis with mold, autoimmunity and multiple infections.
As I write this, I’m on a ‘working vacation’ in Mexico, enjoying good health.
So how did I get from there to here?
There were many decisions and actions along the way, and I was far from ‘perfect.’ But I did some things right, and those things involved psychoneuroimmunology.
Nervous System Overload Drives Chronic Immune Symptoms
“…although immune system function was historically thought to be regulated primarily by pathogen exposure, physical injury, and internal physiological processes, numerous studies have now shown that immunologic activity is also related to psychosocial factors, such as life stress, negative emotions, and social support.14-17 Whereas chronic stress has been reported to suppress cellular and humoral immunity18 and to increase nonspecific inflammation,5 for example, psychosocial resilience factors, such as social support and connection, have been found to mitigate the negative effect that life stress has on immune function and health.” (source)
The above quote from the JAMA Psychiatry Journal, June 2020 shares critical points:
The immune system is not only affected by injury, mental stress and pathogens
But also life stressors, negative emotions and lack of social support
Suppressing both branches of immunity…
Increasing non-specific (systemic) inflammation…
But building resilience with social support and connection can help.
All too often you are presented with a physical detox plan only to help with chronic illness. Or perhaps you have also added a separate nervous system retraining program. Maybe you are getting help here and there, but is it all coming together in a way that really moves the needle on your health?
Exhibit A: Repetitive Thoughts
How many hours a day are you worrying about your health, wondering if it will ever end, wondering why it’s still happening, why if you are doing the right things?
I get it- it’s legitimately ruining your life. But it’s time, love, to also ponder that rumination. Is the rumination helping or hurting?
Take a look at this study, because that rumination may be hurting you more than you realize.
“Negatively valenced RT (repetitive thought) correlated with markers of poor health, including poorer subjective health, lower cellular immunity, higher cortisol awakening response, higher risk for coronary heart disease, higher resting blood pressure, and vulnerability to depression and anxiety; however, specific types may also assist with future planning. Positively valenced RT types, such as emotional approach coping and trait reflection, are associated with successful cognitive processing and preparation, which is related to better health and lower systemic inflammation.”(source)
The quote from a study entitled, Repetitive thought, cognition, and systemic inflammation in the Midlife in the United States Study, summarizes that too much time spent in negative thought (worry, rumination, and depressive rumination) depresses immune markers and increases inflammatory markers.
However time spent in healthy coping, processing and planning has the opposite effect.
In the age of internet, it is way too easy to overthink, over-research, over-question. It is important to start to acknowledge the dis-ease that this creates, and reverse the habit.
Exhibit B: Anxiety
Anxiety is the high-strung cousin of rumination. I read a beautiful description of it recently by author Cyndi Dale. She referred to it as being too far forward in your chakra energy. Anxiety feels like an inability to rest in the moment, to trust in the future (and in yourself).
It’s a horrible feeling, and it’s related to many inflammatory markers. Interestingly, it may be secondary to chronic inflammation. But once it’s in motion, it’s also contributing to chronic stress.
“There is growing evidence for immune-mediated pathogenic mechanisms in several psychiatric disorders with discrete profiles of inflammatory mechanisms. Epidemiological evidence has shown an increased risk of mood disorders and psychosis in people with a history of severe infection or autoimmune conditions…
Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is the most common anxiety disorder, with a degree of associated disability equivalent to that of major depressive disorder (MDD). Despite psychopharmacological and psychological treatments showing effectiveness in GAD, 42% of people living with GAD experience ongoing symptoms after 12 years, and half of remitted patients experience recurrence.” (source)
Exhibit C: Chronic Stress
“In stressful event sequences, a focal event, such as the loss of a spouse or a major natural disaster, gives rise to a series of related challenges. Although affected individuals usually do not know exactly when these challenges will subside, they have a clear sense that at some point in the future they will. Chronic stressors, unlike the other demands we have described, usually pervade a person’s life, forcing him or her to restructure his or her identity or social roles. Another feature of chronic stressors is their stability—the person either does not know whether or when the challenge will end or can be certain that it will never end.¨
¨Chronic stressors…have negative effects on almost all functional measures of the immune system. Both natural and specific immunity were negatively affected, as were Th1 (e.g., T cell proliferative responses) and Th2 (e.g., antibody to influenza vaccine) parameters.¨ (source)
A very slippery slope is the lengthening of illness into chronicity. If symptoms and their related effect on lifestyle go on and on, hope can fade, and you can take on the identity of a sick person. This leaves you feeling disconnected from your community and purpose.
It is very important to keep things moving along on your journey (within financial reason).
I have seen clients insist on continuing to live in their moldy home to wait for their son to finish high school (in three years) or because they continue to battle their HOA out of righteous indignation. Meanwhile they keep getting sicker, and their identity as a ‘misunderstood sick person’ becomes entrenched.
On the other hand, I have seen clients take radical action that paid off for their health. Was it messy? Yes. Was it easy? No. But it was the right decision.
In my own mold journey, I was sicker than my then-husband, and I was the one who dreaded moving out. To some extent, I think your exhausted mitochondria will ‘tell you’ not to move. But you should. Even if it means humbling yourself to sleep with relatives or downgrade your lifestyle for a while.
Because when things are hard, but you are moving towards a goal, there are positive health implications:
“In stressful event sequences, a focal event, such as the loss of a spouse or a major natural disaster, gives rise to a series of related challenges. Although affected individuals usually do not know exactly when these challenges will subside, they have a clear sense that at some point in the future they will.” (source)
The Good News
The good news is that you CAN help yourself, despite your circumstances. There is a huge body of evidence supporting:
as a way to support your nervous system and, consequently, your immune function and inflammation markers.
I Want To Be Your Community!
I’ve been practicing natural medicine for 21 years, and I’ve helped many clients, with everything from tennis elbow to Ehler’s Danlos; first as a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, and later as a functional health coach.
In the last few years, frustrated with the functional medicine environment, I took a step back to regroup. My reflection and exploration brought me back to the medicine I began with: holistic, intuitive, natural and personal.
If you’ve been stressing and worrying, and piecing together a million different things, with little result, I see you.
Would you like to get better sooner, with more ease and less expense?
My new community, Her Healing Hive, is now open and you can read all about it here!
Yours, Bridgit
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