Does Depression Weaken The Immune System

Does Depression Weaken The Immune System – Medically reviewed by Debra Rose Wilson, Ph.D., MSN, RN, IBCLC, AHN-BC, CHT — By Kristeen Cherney — Updated September 22, 2022

Living with chronic anxiety can cause physical stress on the body, especially on the nervous, cardiovascular, digestive, immune and respiratory systems.

Does Depression Weaken The Immune System

Everyone feels anxious sometimes, but chronic anxiety can affect your quality of life. Although it is perhaps best recognized through behavioral changes, anxiety can also have serious consequences for physical health.

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Anxiety is a natural part of life. For example, you may feel nervous before speaking to a group of people or during a job interview.

In the short term, anxiety increases breathing and heart rate, focusing blood flow to the brain where you need it. This physical response is preparing you to face a stressful situation.

However, if it is too intense, you may start to feel dizzy and nauseous. Excessive or persistent anxiety can seriously affect your physical and mental health.

Between adolescence and young adulthood. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), women are more likely to have an anxiety disorder than men.

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Your risk of developing an anxiety disorder is good. Symptoms may begin immediately or many years later. Having a serious medical condition or substance use disorder can also lead to an anxiety disorder.

GAD is marked by excessive worrying for no reasonable reason. ADAA estimates that GAD affects approximately 6.8 million adults in the United States each year.

. If you have mild illness, you can complete your usual activities. More serious cases can have a profound effect on your life.

Social anxiety disorder involves a paralyzing fear of social situations and of being judged or humiliated by others. This severe social phobia can make a person feel embarrassed and lonely.

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Number of adults in the United States who have social anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. More than a third of people with social anxiety disorder wait a decade or more before seeking help.

People with OCD may feel overwhelmed by the desire to perform specific rituals (compulsions) over and over again or experience unwanted, intrusive thoughts that can cause distress (obsessions).

Common compulsions include the habit of washing hands, counting, or checking something. Common obsessions include concerns about cleanliness, aggressive impulses, and a need for symmetry.

Phobias include fear of confined spaces (claustrophobia), fear of heights (acrophobia), and many others. You may feel a strong desire to avoid the feared object or situation.

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This causes panic attacks, feelings of anxiety, terror or spontaneous doom. Physical symptoms include heart palpitations, chest pain, and difficulty breathing.

These attacks can happen at any time. You may also have another type of anxiety disorder along with panic disorder.

Prolonged anxiety and panic attacks can cause the brain to regularly release stress hormones. This may increase the frequency of symptoms such as headaches, dizziness and depression.

When you feel anxious and stressed, your brain floods your nervous system with hormones and chemicals designed to help you respond to the threat. Adrenaline and cortisol are two examples.

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While helpful for occasional instances of high stress, prolonged exposure to stress hormones may be more harmful to physical health in the long term. For example, prolonged exposure to cortisol may contribute to weight gain.

Anxiety disorders can cause increased heart rate, palpitations, and chest pain. You may also have an increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease. If you already have heart disease or anxiety disorder

Anxiety also affects the excretory and digestive systems. You may experience stomach upset, nausea, diarrhea, and other digestive problems. Loss of appetite may also occur.

There may be a link between anxiety disorders and the development of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) after an intestinal infection. IBS can cause vomiting, diarrhea or constipation.

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Anxiety can trigger your flight or fight stress response and release large amounts of chemicals and hormones, like adrenaline, into your system.

In the short term, this increases heart rate and respiratory rate so the brain can get more oxygen. This prepares you to respond appropriately to a stressful situation. Your immune system may even be boosted in the short term. When stressed regularly, your body will return to normal functioning when the stress passes.

But if you have chronic stress, your body will never get the signal to function normally again. This can weaken your immune system, making you susceptible to viruses and illnesses more often.

Anxiety causes rapid and shallow breathing. If you have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), you may be at higher risk of hospitalization due to anxiety-related complications. Anxiety can also worsen asthma symptoms.

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If you have PTSD, you may have flashbacks, reliving the traumatic experience over and over again. You may easily become angry or scared and may become emotionally withdrawn.

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Our experts continuously monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles as new information becomes available. When we think about improving our immune system, the most important thing is often what we do or what we eat. In conclusion, another tip is to relax and put your feet up to increase your immune function!

Getting sick after a stressful event is not accidental. As you know, everything in the body is interconnected – your brain and immune system are in constant communication with each other, which means psychological disorders can lead to physical symptoms .

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Chemical reactions triggered by stressful situations lead to an onslaught of stress hormones, such as cortisol, being pumped throughout the body. While these hormones are beneficial in acute or short-term situations, if they persist for long periods of time, they can lead to inflammation, reduced immune function, and increased susceptibility to infection.

Stress is the body’s natural response to something that could harm us – it’s our built-in alarm system. We have all heard of the “fight or flight” response, which is the body’s natural response to a threatening situation and it is a normal and healthy response. One of the things that happens to the body when we encounter a threatening event is that we release adrenaline – this gives us a burst of energy to run away from danger or face it. The problem with this response is that our modern lifestyle has many more triggers, causing it to go from a short-term reaction to a long-term depletion of the body’s resources.

What happens to the body when we are stressed? We have high levels of adrenaline in our bodies to provide energy to run or fight.

In the long term – our adrenal glands never rest or have a chance to stop producing this adrenaline, until we eventually enter a state of adrenal fatigue – a classic cause of the condition. Chronic low energy.

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Our digestive system is shutting down! Who needs to digest food when we’re running from a bear?

In the long term: this means our digestive system is sluggish, suffering from constipation or diarrhea, food sensitivities, inflammation, allergies, bloating, flatulence.

In the long term: we forget how to breathe with our diaphragm, which means our oxygen exchange is less than ideal and we use accessory muscles to breathe, leading to neck and shoulder tension and headaches.

Our immune system is suppressed due to the amount of cortisol (stress hormone) secreted into the blood.

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So, in summary: Short-term stress = OK. Prolonged stress = health problems So, other than mentally “turning off” at any opportunity, how else can we reduce stress to improve immunity? SLEEP

Making sure you get enough sleep on a regular schedule is important. Interrupted or insufficient sleep increases cortisol levels, hindering immune function.

The diaphragm is our main respiratory muscle. It is located below the lungs and must be used every time we breathe. Few of us actually use it when we are stuck in the fight or flight response. Using the diaphragm to breathe allows for complete oxygen exchange in the lungs and actually suppresses the fight or flight response, allowing our bodies to return to “rest and digest” mode. Take time to focus on your breathing for 20 minutes a day to improve your immune system as well as your heart and brain.

When you exercise, stress hormones in your blood are redirected to help you exercise, helping to reduce the burden on your body. Exercise improves the ability to cope with stress, increases resistance to infection as well as other obvious physical benefits.

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Chiropractic can help turn off the fight or flight response and activate the rest and digestive parts of our nervous system. Studies have shown that chiropractic care improves immune function. Additionally, chiropractic care can help you exercise better and breathe better, which also helps boost immune function. It’s a win-win situation for everyone!

James M. Allen Chiropractic Effects on the Immune System: A Review of the Literature Chiro J Aust 1993 (December);

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