As stress levels increase our ability to resist infection decreases.

The immune system defends our bodies against invading microorganisms. It does this through barriers, like mucous membranes, but also by phagocytosis. This refers to the deployment of specialised cells, known as phagocytes, which consume and destroy foreign organisms. After a phagocyte has ingested a foreign microorganism, it displays its antigen on the surface of its cell membrane. This antigen is what identifies the cell as foreign or native. If the antigen is foreign, lymphocytes continue the immune reaction.

Lymphocytes are a type of white blood cell. There are two types of lymphocytes – B Cells and T Cells. B cells produce antibodies which go into the fluid surrounding cells to destroy viruses and bacteria, whilst T cells attack viruses and bacteria that get inside a cell.  These processes take several days once a new foreign antigen has been recognised. However, if the same antigen is encountered at a later date, the immune response is much faster because there are also memory T and B cells which recognise it. This is how inoculation works.  

Stress and the Immune System

Kiecolt-Glaser at al. carried out an experiment to see whether stress from taking important exams had an impact on the immune system. They took blood samples from 75 medical students one month before their exams. This was considered the “low stress” condition and then they took samples during the exams – the “high stress” condition.

They measured the T cell activity in the blood samples.  They also gave the students questionnaires to look at other psychological variables such as other life events.  They found that the students had more T cells in their first blood sample (low stress) than in the second blood test (high stress), suggesting that their immune system was not performing so well when they were under stress.  They found that the immune system of students who had other stressful life events or psychiatric difficulties, such as depression or anxiety, were more affected and their immune systems were even weaker. 

In other research, bereavement has been found to affect the immunological system through reducing T cell functioning.  Research by the University of Birmingham found that bereavement can make older people more prone to infections and impair the functioning of their immune system.

They found that older people who had had a recent bereavement had poorer responses to bacteria, so were more vulnerable to infections. They also found that the people who were recently bereaved had imbalances in the stress hormones in their bodies, which affected the body’s ability to fight bugs and infections.  It was found these effects were less obvious in younger people, as their immune system seem more resilient, but the impact was greater in older people. They suggested that bereavement is a key stressor and older people who are bereaved should make sure to stay in touch with others socially (family and friends), eat well, and exercise to reduce the impact of the stress and boost their immune system response.

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