Testing the Stress-Disease Link
Social Support and Social Isolation
What the data show: the fewer social relationships a person has, the shorter his or her life expectancy, and the worse the impact of various infectious diseases. ==Relationships that are medically protective== can take the form of marriage, contact with friends and extended family, church membership, or other group affiliations. (Location 2691)
The impact of social relationships on life expectancy appears to be at least as large as that of variables such as cigarette smoking, hypertension, obesity, and level of physical activity. For the same illness, people with the fewest social connections have approximately two-and-a-half times as much chance of dying as those with the most connections, after controlling for such variables as age, gender, and health status. (Location 2695)
isolated people are less likely to comply with a medical regime. (Location 2712)
Bereavement
People tend to marry people who are ethnically and genetically quite similar to themselves. Intrinsic in this trend toward “homogamy” is a tendency of married couples to have higher-than-random chances of sharing environmental risk factors (as well as to disproportionately share disease-related genes, making this component of the Lifestyle Route not really related to lifestyle). This makes it more likely that they will get sick around the same time. (Location 2732)
The Common Cold
More Stress equaled about three times the likelihood of succumbing to a cold after being exposed to the virus. Prolonged stressors more than a month long that were social in nature provided the greatest risk. (Location 2752)
Aids
Suppose you grow human lymphocytes in a petridish and expose them to HIV. If you expose the cells to Glucocorticoids as well, they become more likely to be infected with the virus. Moreover, ==Norepinephrine can also make it easier for the Virus to invade== a lymphocyte and, once inside, enhances replication of the virus. (Location 2763)
see also
Tags: neurobiology science
Superlink: 051 ☣Neurobiology 050 🧠Neuroscience, 091 🏃Body and Medicine
Source
8 Immunity Stress and Diseases
Created: 16-09-22 16:38