Your thoughts and emotions can affect your health. Repressed emotions (especially fearful or negative ones) can zap mental energy, negatively affect the body, and lead to health problems.
Negative attitudes and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness can create chronic stress, which upsets the body's hormone balance, depletes the brain chemicals required for happiness, and damages the immune system. Chronic stress can actually decrease our lifespan. (Science has now identified that stress shortens our telomeres, the “end caps” of our DNA strands, which causes us to age more quickly.)
When we’re stressed, the immune system’s ability to fight off antigens is reduced. That is why we are more susceptible to infections.
The stress hormone corticosteroid can suppress the effectiveness of the immune system (e.g. lowers the number of lymphocytes). In the short term, they benefit us with heightened awareness and increased energy, but when prolonged, the effects are less helpful. They lead to a profound change in the immune system, making us more likely to pick up a bug.
Stress also can over activate the immune system, resulting in an increased risk of autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Skin conditions such as psoriasis, eczema, hives and acne also may worsen, and stress can trigger asthma.
A study conducted by specialists from Pennsylvania State University has found that negative moods may change the way in which the immune response functions, and they are associated with an increased risk of inflammation.
Studies have also shown that individuals who experienced negative moods several times per day for extended periods of time tended to have higher levels of inflammation biomarkers in their blood.
Positive emotions on the other hand have a direct impact on health and wellbeing, and we can develop them ourselves with practice. But we spend too much time ruminating over the minor frustrations we experience bad traffic or a disagreement with a loved ones, this makes us negatively biased.
