Particularly over the last several years, the intimate connection between our emotions and our physical bodies has become more and more evident. Today, the power of this so-called mind-body connection is both well-recognized and widely accepted by the healthcare and scientific communities; there is no longer any question that our feelings and emotions can influence our physical health. It turns out that psychological stress is one of the most powerful of these influences. In this post, I’ll talk about psychological stress and some of the effects it can have on our bodies.

One can think of stress as something our body is doing to prepare for some imminent “action,” whether it be fleeing from danger, fighting an infection, or healing from an injury. These are common physical stresses that we all experience from time to time. Once the stressor is removed or healing has taken place, our bodies “stand down” from this process.

Ongoing, or chronic psychological stress, as it turns out, can have major physical consequences. Whatever its cause, our bodies react to the negative emotions caused by psychological stress by making excess amounts of substances known as inflammatory cytokines. These are protein molecules that are made widely in the body which in turn signal the body and immune system to do nasty things to us.

For instance, these inflammatory cytokines interfere with the normal functioning of insulin receptors (insulin “pushes” glucose from the blood into cells, where it is available for energy production; to do this properly, it has to bind to its receptor). When these receptors are impaired, blood sugar (glucose) rises and can lead to diabetes. Interestingly, adipose tissue (fat) is one of the places in the body where inflammatory cytokines are produced; this may be one mechanism by which obesity can lead to diabetes.

In addition, inflammatory cytokines act to reduce serotonin in the brain, which may lead to a serious depression (serotonin is one of many so-called neurotransmitters used by the brain to allow nerve cells, or neurons, to communicate with each other). In fact, some studies have shown that it is possible to predict whether someone’s depression will be resistant to treatment simply by measuring the blood levels of inflammatory cytokines that are present.

Look for more on the mind-body connection in an upcoming post!