The Link Between the Immune System and the Brain

The Link Between the Immune System and the Brain

Endorphins are the link between the immune systemand the brain. They are neurotransmitters such asserotonin, acetylcholine, and norepinephrine, compoundsthat act like messengers shuttling electrical impulses between the nerve cells in the brain, triggering a highlycomplex response that begins in the hypothalamus andends in the cells of the immune system. Recent discov eries have found that these neurotransmitters also play arole in controlling the autonomic nervous system, the part that operates automatically to regulate all the involuntaryactivity of the body. This connection between the autonomic nervous system and the immune system has causedthe scientific community to completely rethink its position on how the body protects itself. The new researchalso shows that these messages can be communicated inboth directions. Some of the neurotransmitters, such asthe "feel good" opiate betaendorphin, originate in theimmune system itself. In fact, these mood-altering trans mitters have recently been found in all parts of the body, not just the brain! The idea of a feedback loop, that thecentral nervous system can influence the immune system, which can then influence the central nervous system, iscreating much interest and excitement among researchers, and it further illustrates the biochemical link ages between body and mind.

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Since the pioneering work of Dr. Hans Selye in the 1950s, hundreds of studies have been conducted that confirm his original research on the effects of emotionalstress on the immune system, that neurotransmitters pro duced in the brain travel through the blood to alter theactivity of the immune system on the cellular level. Not allstress is damaging. In fact, mild forms of stress can actu ally enhance the immune system, but unhealthy levels,particularly acute stress, can weaken it. Fear and rage, orinappropriate triggering of the fight-or-flight syndrome (which provided our ancestors with the adrenaline neededto escape from wild beasts but is of little help whenconfronting an angry spouse or boss), are the kinds ofstress that do people harm. Unhealthy stress decreasesthe body's protein and fat synthesis and glucose use,diminishing the amount of insulin it produces. It also creates a biochemical domino effect that begins in thebrain with an increase in the production of the hormonecorticosterone, which in turn decreases the number of

T-cells, B-cells, and natural killer cells, which patrol theimmune system, destroying newly formed cancer cellsand other invaders.

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A major study conducted at New York's Mt. Sinai Hospital documented the impairment of the immune system in men whose wives had recently died. Their bereavement impaired the ability of their lymphocytes to destroyintruders. A study done there in 1984 on people hospitalized for depression documented a decline in thenumber of lymphocytes in their bloodstream.

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