I’ve been stressed lately. Really stressed. It’s a combination of a lot of things coming to a head all at once, and the end result is that I’m cranky and I’m having trouble sleeping.
Then I noticed another weird thing. My hands are sporting quite a few nicks and scratches from my part time job at the cats-only boarding facility. And those little wounds are taking a long time to heal — much longer than normal. That got me wondering how stress affects the immune system.
In the short term, stress can actually boost your immune system. That “fight or flight” response tells the immune system to get ready for work. Under short term stress, your body can actually handle cuts, scrapes, bites, and infections better than normal.
But in the long term, stress suppresses your immune system. Your body just isn’t designed to stay in “fight or flight” mode for a long time. Under long term stress, immune system function drops — you can’t fight infections as well, you can’t heal wounds as well, and you can’t resist inflammation as well as you normally would.
- The longer the stress lasts, the bigger the change in your immune system.
- Stresses that change a person’s identity and/or social roles — like going from “spouse” to “caretaker” for a partner who has Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia — are associated with a severe global suppression of the immune system.
- Age affects a person’s vulnerability to stress-related loss of immune system function.
- Health (and any pre-existing diseases or conditions) affects a person’s vulnerability to stress-related loss of immune system function.
In my case, the various sources of stress ganged up on me about a month ago. I’m fortunate that I’m relatively young (just turned 31) and my pre-existing health issues (depression and allergies) are both under control — and in the grand scheme of things, relatively minor. I would probably be having a much harder time of it if I had a more severe health issue.
For people with severe chronic health issues — like cancer, HIV, and others — it is important to keep stress under control. When your immune system is already struggling, you don’t need the extra obstacle of stress!