The emotion-body connection

Your emotions affect every cell in your body. Mind and body, mental and physical, are intertwined."

—Dr. Thomas Tutko, Father of Sports Psychology

When it comes to maintaining health or trying to regain health, people pay close attention to what they eat but what research has shown in the last two decades is that the emotions we have may have as an important influence on our immune system as the foods we eat.

Dr. Deepak Chopra said: "At the very instant that you think, “I am happy,” a chemical messenger translates your emotion, which has no solid existence whatever in the material world, into a bit of matter so perfectly attuned to your desire that literally every cell in your body learns of your happiness and joins in."

"Heart-focused, sincere, positive feeling states boost the immune system, while negative emotions may suppress the immune response for up to six hours following the emotional experience." —The Physiological and Psychological Effects of Compassion and Anger, 1995, Rein, Atkinson and McCraty

 It is clear that paying attention to our emotional well being is as important as paying attention to our diet.

If the immune system is suppressed because of an emotion that makes us feel 'down', we are more susceptible to  a virus or any illness.

This understanding is not new, it is now backed up by scientific data so now it is officially 'true'.

In Proverbs 17:22 it says: "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength."

(New Living translation, 2007)  Proverbs were written many centuries B.C. People knew that a friend or a family member who was sad, hurt, depressed, grieving...was prone to illness and that one that was cheerful and happy seemed to have a shield of protection around him.

People in those days did not know about neuropeptides, called  'the messenger molecules' but they were able to see the cause-consequence connection using their common sense.

Every time we have a thought or a feeling, an emotion, a desire, or a impulse, each of these affects our nervous system by means of the neuropeptides.      

Those messenger molecules  travel all throughout the body. They are floating in our bloodstream and going to all the various organs.  First, scientists, in the 80s thought they were confined to the brain but they found out when they looked at the cells of the immune system that protect us from cancer and infections (like T cells), that those cells have receptors to neuropeptides.

 Dr. Deepak Chopra said:"The immune system is constantly eavesdropping on our internal dialog."

Scientists have found that when we are very happy,  high levels of interleukin and interferon are found in the blood. They are powerful anticancer drugs.
I heard Dr. Chopra say in a TV interview: "Your brain is your #1 pharmacy." 

On the other hand, when we panic, we produce cortisol adrenaline which suppresses the immune system.

Can we only start to imagine how many millions/billions of dollars could be saved if we paid closer attention to the well being of our emotions?

It is now clear that positive emotions are a great health  protection/rejuvenation plan.  If negative emotions are interfering, that is not a problem. Now we have a way to release them. 

© Doris Crompton