--- The Immune System ---

The immune system, like most of the body, requires balance to function properly. T-helper 1 cells (Th-1) and T-helper 2 cells (Th2) help regulate the body’s response to foreign invaders. Th1 uses white blood cells to go after viruses and cancer cells. Th2 immune cells use antibodies to go after bacteria. Normally, the body strikes a balance by switching back and forth between Th1 and Th2. In a person with an autoimmune disorder, one dominates and suppresses the other. Trans fats, mercury and other heavy metals, sugar and processed foods, alcohol, lack of sleep, lack of exercise, and stress are part of a modern lifestyle that can disrupt the Th1/Th2 balance.

Th1 dominance in women is associated with autoimmunity and recurrent miscarriage in the first trimester of pregnancy. Additionally, children in the autism spectrum tend to be Th1 dominant. Besides autoimmunity, Th2 dominance is characterized by a tendency toward allergies, frequent colds and viral infections, and cancer.

Both Th1 and Th2 cells make a protein substance known as cytokines. Cytokines cause inflammation. This inflammation should be a temporary response to injury or infection. Cytokines are a necessary part of our immunity. It is the overproduction (too many) of certain small cytokine molecules that leads to the invasion and inflammation of an organ or body system.

In the brain, cytokines can cause behavioral changes. They can either prompt or worsen depression, anxiety, or anorexia. They may cause a person to become withdrawn. Cytokines create fatigue and interfere with sleep patterns. They are one thing responsible for what has been termed “brain fog.”

Autoimmune conditions are named or categorized according to where in the body cytokines are being overproduced and how the disease manifests itself. For example, an overproduction of these cytokines in the joints causing pain and swelling is called Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). It may go by different names and occur in different places in the body, but ultimately, autoimmunity is one disease with many different faces.

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.” - William James

Some psychologists and life-style gurus teach that there is no such thing as “negative” emotions and that feelings are never “wrong”. You may or may not agree with this philosophy. Your immune system, however, definitely operates by a different standard. Immune function reflects the good and bad that you feel and do. It will hold you accountable for all of your thoughts and feelings, both positive and negative. As far-fetched as it may sound, optimal immune function is impossible unless you are willing to live according to the dictates of your own conscience.

--- The Body-Mind Connection ---

“It’s not what you think you are - but what you think, you are.” -Author Unknown

The hypothalamus is the emotional center of the brain. It transforms emotions into physical responses with the use of chemical messenger hormones called neuropeptides. Neuropeptides carry emotions back and forth between the mind and body. These chemical messengers influence every major section of the immune system. Because of them, the body and mind work together as one.

“Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief, than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.” -Marcus Antonius

Negative emotions like frustration, anger, and resentment promote cytokine production. People who are prone to anger or depression are also prone to Th2 dominance. Studies show that fear, anger, or worry can cause inflammation in the airway of a child prompting an asthma attack. Moreover, negative thoughts cause the destruction of white blood cells, weakening your ability to fight off infection. In this sense, harsh emotions promote Th1/Th2 imbalance.

“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.” -Abraham Lincoln

We know that the immune system can act as a physical manifestation of a guilty conscience because guilt causes Th2 dominance. Our immune systems also respond negatively to fear of how others judge our behavior.

-----Stress-----

“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” -William James

Stress has such a powerful effect on immunity that it is estimated that in the general population, two-thirds of all the illnesses seen by doctors are stress related. Your body responds to emotional stress the same way it responds to physical stress: with increased inflammation.

You don’t even have to be experiencing stress in that moment. According to research, just recalling or thinking about stressful times in your past will increase cytokine production. Recalling painful memories also lowers your resistance to infection. In contrast, remembering happy times raises immunity.

-------Love-------

“I have never met a person whose greatest need was anything other than real, unconditional love. You can find it in a simple act of kindness toward someone who needs help. There is no mistaking love. You feel it in your heart. It is the common fiber of life, the flame of that heats our soul, energizes our spirit and supplies passion to our lives. It is our connection to God and to each other.” -Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Positive emotions, a good attitude, laughter, and love also have an exceptionally powerful effect on immunity and a person’s ability to deal with disease. When we feel love, compassion, caring, or gratitude, the heart sends messages to the brain, which secretes hormones that positively affect our health. Love is healing both to the giver and the receiver. We are protected from infection by social ties with friends, family, and community that involve love. In a study, 276 healthy volunteers received nasal drops containing rhinovirus, which causes the common cold. Not everyone who was infected became ill. Those with the greatest ties and number of strong relationships were the least likely to get sick.

Love of self is also an important part of the equation. One doctor stated that if he told his patients to raise their own immune function, they would not know how. However, if he taught them how to love themselves and others fully, it would achieve the desired effect.

-----Laughter-----

"Over the years, I have encountered a surprising number of instances in which, to all appearances, patients have laughed themselves back to health, or at least have used their sense of humor as a very positive and adaptive response to their illness." -Raymond A. Moody, M.D.

Just behind love in its healing properties is laughter. Individuals with a better sense of humor have stronger immune systems than those who do not laugh easily. Studies show that watching as little as thirty to sixty minutes of a comedy video is enough to increase immunoglobulin A, a part of your immune system, which serves to protect you against upper respiratory problems. We know that from the same study that watching comedies increases levels of a substance called Complement 3, which helps antibodies pierce through and destroy defective or infected cells. Humor can also help stimulate Th1 cells.

---You Always Have a Choice---

“Cripple him, and you have a Sir Walter Scott. Lock him in a prison cell, and you have a John Bunyan. Bury him in the snows of Valley Forge, and you have a George Washington. Raise him in abject poverty and you have an Abraham Lincoln. Strike him down with infantile paralysis, and he becomes Franklin Roosevelt. Burn him so severely that the doctors say he'll never walk again, and you have a Glenn Cunningham -- who set the world's one-mile record in 1934. Deafen him and you have a Ludwig van Beethoven. Have him or her born black in a society filled with racial discrimination, and you have a Booker T. Washington, a Marian Anderson, a George Washington Carver. Call him a slow learner, "retarded," and write him off as uneducable, and you have an Albert Einstein. As one man summed it up: Life is about 20% in what happens to us and 80% in the way we respond to the events.” - Ted Engstrom

Anger, your reaction to stress, gratitude, compassion, and love are all a matter of choice. Because of deeply ingrained habits, it may be much easier to choose anger over calmness, but it is still a choice. Besides, habits can be broken with practice and maybe a little help from above. Gratitude is an attitude, which can easily be incorporated into daily life by starting with something as simple as listing all of your blessings in a journal at the end of each day. Then, there is the most wonderful choice of all: love.