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Friday, November 18, 2011

Emotional Stress Linked To Common Cold & Flu

Higher levels of mental and emotional stress increases the risk of both infection by cold viruses AND the appearance of cold symptoms.

Researchers administered questionnaires on psychological stress to 420 healthy adults. Participants reported the number of major stressful events experienced "in the past year", etcetera. The investigators used these data to divide volunteers into groups. Next, 394 volunteers received nasal drops containing a low dose of one of five respiratory viruses....

Among the virus-exposed volunteers, 325 became infected and 148 developed colds. Cold virus infections also showed up in five saline recipients from exposure to infected housemates.

The rates of respiratory infection and colds increased in accordance with stress levels reported on the questionnaires. Compared with the lowest-stress group, volunteers who reported the most psychological stress ran twice the risk of getting a cold and more than five time the risk of becoming infected with a cold virus. The pattern held despite statistical controls for varied influences on immune function, including age, sex, education, allergies, weight, viral status prior to the study, cigarette and alcohol use, exercise, diet, quality of sleep, number of housemates, and housemate infection rates. The ink between stress and colds also proved independent of the personality characteristics assessed on questionnaires.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_n9_v140/ai_11315142/?tag=content;col1
http://tinyurl.com/74wcmkv

Google: "Stress Management Tips"