How stress puts your health at risk

If you are reading this blog you will probably already know that unresolved stress and emotional turmoil can result in very real physical symptoms, such as pain. There are more and more studies supporting this but a recent one is the first one to actually measure the effect stressful thoughts have on the body.

The study took 34 women and put them in a stressful situation of having an interview in front of very stern interviewees. Half of this group were then asked to imagine having to give a talk in front of a large audience (which is known to be one of the most common fears, even greater than the fear of death!) and the other half were asked to think about mundane, neutral things.

One of the indicators of tissue inflammation due to the immune system’s initial inflammatory response is C-reactive protein and its level is seen to rise in response to physical tissue trauma or infections. The level of C-reative protein was found to be significantly higher in the group that went on to imagine giving a speech. An hour after the real interview this group’s C-reactive protein continued to rise, yet the level of this protein in the other group fell back to normal.

It has long been known that stress can have a profound effect on the immune system, but this study is the first to actually relate ruminating, or thinking about negative experiences to have a direct effect on the body’s physiology.

Many chronic musculoskeletal conditions are believed to be caused by chronic inflammation and yet we know the majority of these are stress-induced. Now we can see why the inflammatory markers are raised and as the study also shows, stopping any ruminating can help inflammatory levels settle down again.

Part of an individual’s work to resolve their psychophysiological symptoms is to identify and acknowledge past and current unresolved emotional trauma/turmoil. Unfortunately what is often missed is just how powerful our thoughts and learned behaviours are in the creation of their daily self-induced stress, which then fuels the symptoms. Even when this is understood, many people require support and guidance to learn how to identify and deal with their inner gremlins, which often appear to have a life of their own.