Can Your Thoughts Make You Sick?

Can your thoughts make you sick? For some this may seem like pseudoscience but it has actually been heavily researched and isn’t as abstract as one may think. We know for a fact how harmful stress is on the body and we also know that our thoughts alone can trigger a stress response. Stress can suppress the immune system and even affect our genetic expression, resulting in disease. So it really isn’t far-fetched or hard to see how our thoughts can indeed make us sick. Now let’s analyze how this actually works and what we can do about it.

The Science Behind Stress and Thoughts

Stress is a normal response to a situation that requires action. When your brain doesn’t have enough data to make a decision for a given situation, it will sometimes fill in the blanks. The most common is fear. Fear or stress is a natural response to situations that can harm your body (such as falling from a building or getting attacked by a wild animal). Fear triggers a stress response in the body, which is a rush of adrenaline to your muscles and brain. With this rush of adrenaline your brain activates a fight or flight response. This response is designed to protect your body in dangerous situations. The downside is that your body can develop a stress response to everyday situations, even ones that don’t require a fight or flight. This can result in a condition called chronic stress. 

Due to human beings’ large frontal lobe and capacity to contemplate the past, future, or imaginary scenarios, we can experience a stress response on our bodies all the time. An animal may be chased by a predator but as soon as that predator is gone, their body and brain go back into rest mode controlled by the parasympathetic nervous system. For us as humans, we almost get in a car accident and the rest of the day we are still thinking about it and what could have happened if we were hit. We may have an interview for an important position coming up, and we are living in that future moment for the full week leading up to it instead of simply being stressed during the interview itself. The stress response is only meant to be useful to us in bursts or in the moments that we need extra alertness, but when prolonged, it can lead to high blood pressure, obesity, depression, and early death. And unfortunately, due to our technology, we can be even more detached from the present moment and always living elsewhere in our minds.

How Stress Affects Your Immune System

Our immune system is so closely linked to our emotions and thoughts as well. Our thoughts can trigger a stress response which can suppress our immune system. Fighting off disease becomes secondary to our body when it thinks it’s in immediate danger. So it diverts more attention to fight or flight. A study on the effects of stress on the immune system found that chronic stress affects the immune system through the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines reducing the body’s ability to fight inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and coronary heart disease. We also know that chronic stress hinders the body’s ability to create antibodies following vaccinations (source). 

Stress could even affect behavior leading to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as drinking, smoking, or binge-eating. Cortisol, one of our body’s main stress hormones, has been shown to increase cravings for sugary foods as well which can further increase the risk of diabetes, obesity, and other conditions.

Overall, if we are wanting to keep our immune systems strong, we should try to avoid chronic stress as much as possible.

How Stress Affects Your Genetics

Though it is newer research more and more studies are releasing showing how stress can even leave marks on your genetic makeup. And we already knew this in part with mental health conditions. For many serious conditions such as major depression or schizophrenia, someone may be genetically susceptible but need a major stressor in their lives to trigger the expression of that gene causing them to fall prey to the illness.

This study saw that chronic social stress leads to an increased expression of inflammatory genes which can increase the risk of other diseases. Another found that chronic stress could lead to increased anxiety for similar scenarios in the future because the genes are prepping for a more effective fight or flight next time.

Now you may think that these studies are referring to chronic stress, not necessarily thoughts. However, chronic stress only really exists if we are constantly dwelling on the stressful scenarios in our own minds. It is rare that you would actually be exposed to stress all day every day. And even if you were, coping mechanisms help those even in the worst conditions to live happy lives.

How to Combat Unhealthy Thoughts

Now that we know how our thoughts could literally make us sick, how can we combat those unhealthy thoughts? First we would recommend checking out this article here that’s solely focused on thinking positively when depressed because many of these concepts will be the same.

Now, the way to combat unhealthy thoughts is to discipline the mind. You have to be in control and not let your mind run loose on stressful thoughts about the past and future. One of the best cures to chronic stress is learning to LIVE IN THE PRESENT. And that takes discipline. One way to learn this is through frequent mindfulness meditation. With mindfulness, you learn how to ground down in the present moment. Check out this article to learn how to meditate!

Another way is to fill your mind with positive things so that there isn’t as much space for negative thoughts. And when you think negatively, the positive ones will combat them nearly immediately. You can do this through practicing gratitude and positivity. Try to write down some things each day you are grateful for or express it however you would like. Also, listen and watch positive things. You can also practice positive affirmations to teach your mind to let go and realize that everything is ok despite what is going on.

Whatever you can do to not live in a constant negative mindset, do that!

Now, the thing you don’t want to do after reading this is get stressed out about your negative thoughts making you sick, resulting in even more stress. Take it as it is and make steps to improve. Negative thoughts are not something that affect you from one day to the next. The same goes for positive ones. So start making changes today that will help you in the long term.