Think Positively
Psychologists and other medical professionals have for years studied the relationship between stress and health. The latest research indicates optimism—that feeling that you can handle whatever life has to offer—is a stress-buster and key to healthy living.
Although stress doesn't cause disease, it can be a contributing factor, said Debora Baldwin, University of Tennessee associate professor of psychology and director of the experimental program. Baldwin teaches health psychology, research methods, motivation and behavior medicine.
“If you have a pre-disposition to an illness, stress can activate the onset,” Baldwin said.
Doctors say stress can disrupt the body's production of certain hormones, including cortisol. In correct amounts, cortisol helps regulate many bodily functions and keeps blood sugar levels in check. When too much or too little cortisol is produced, as can happen with chronic stress, blood pressure increases, blood sugar can plummet or soar, and the immune system becomes suppressed. All of that can leave the body prey to illness.
Among the conditions that that have been linked to stress: headaches and migraines, hypertension or high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, eczema, irritable bowel disease and Graves disease. Unpleasant conditions such as weightgain, rapid aging and insomnia have also been associated with stress.
As early has 1981, researchers were finding evidence that the immune system can be influenced by things outside the body, including stress, Baldwin said.
More Stress=More Colds
In 1991, researcher Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University did a landmark study in England that showed people under stress were more likely to get colds than people who didn't feel stressed.
Cohen sequestered 400 people in a hotel. After surveying them about the amount of stress they were feeling, he inoculated them with a rhinovirus—a virus that causes the common cold. Nurses then monitored the people, looking for cold systems, counting the number of tissues in their waste baskets and doing blood work.
“The individuals who reported the most life stress, showed the most illness,” Baldwin said.
The big question, Baldwin said, is “Why is it the same people respond differently to same stressor?
“Lawyer A is sweating bullets, has stomach ache and head problems. Lawyer B seems to be hunky-dory. Why?
“They have the same pressure but they may not process that information the same way. One person succumbs to the pressure and one person thrives.”
There's a host of factors that seem to make the difference.
For instance, people who feel social support—anything from the support of friends and family to knowing they have adequate insurance or money in the bank to cover an emergency—seem to weather life's storms better than people who feel they're going it alone.
Things like exercise and meditation seem to have physiological and psychological benefits.
Positive Psychology
More recently, researchers have looked at “positive psychology,” or the importance of optimism in keeping stress at bay and helping people maintain their health.
In 2003, Baldwin and UT colleagues Lana Chambliss and Kerry Towler published “Optimism and Stress: An African-American College Student Perspective,” a study involving 106 black students at Dillard University in New Orleans. The students were asked to complete several questionnaires.
“As expected, individuals who scored high on measure of optimism reported significantly less perceived stress than their pessimistic counterparts,” Baldwin and her colleagues reported.
The good thing is, you can train yourself to be an optimist, Baldwin said.
“You have to change the way you think about events that happen to you,” Baldwin said. “If you expect something good to happen, you are more likely to strive toward your goal.”
The very act of working toward a goal provides joy and happiness. Achieving the goal evokes elation and bolsters self-worth.
Having realized it's possible, a person begins to expect success.
“With enough successes, a pessimist can become an optimist,” Baldwin said.
In other words, feeling good can be contagious.