123 Stress and Illness
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Explain the nature of psychophysiological disorders
- Describe the immune system and how stress impacts its functioning
- Describe how stress and emotional factors can lead to the development and exacerbation of cardiovascular disorders, asthma, and tension headaches
In this section, we will discuss stress and illness. As stress researcher Robert Sapolsky (1998) describes,
“…stress-related disease emerges, predominantly, out of the fact that we so often activate a physiological system that has evolved for responding to acute physical emergencies, but we turn it on for months on end, worrying about mortgages, relationships, and promotions.” (p. 6)
The stress response, as noted earlier, consists of a coordinated but complex system of physiological reactions that are called upon as needed. These reactions are beneficial at times because they prepare us to deal with potentially dangerous or threatening situations (for example, recall our old friend, the fearsome bear on the trail). However, health is affected when physiological reactions are sustained, as can happen in response to ongoing stress.
Psychophysiological Disorders
If the reactions that compose the stress response are chronic or if they frequently exceed normal ranges, they can lead to cumulative wear and tear on the body, in much the same way that running your air conditioner on full blast all summer will eventually cause wear and tear on it. For example, the high blood pressure that a person under considerable job strain experiences might eventually take a toll on his heart and set the stage for a heart attack or heart failure. Also, someone exposed to high levels of the stress hormone cortisol might become vulnerable to infection or disease because of weakened immune system functioning (McEwen, 1998).
Link to Learning
Physical disorders or diseases whose symptoms are brought about or worsened by stress and emotional factors are called psychophysiological disorders. The physical symptoms of psychophysiological disorders are real and they can be produced or exacerbated by psychological factors (hence the psycho and physiological in psychophysiological). A list of frequently encountered psychophysiological disorders is provided in Table SH.3.
| SH. 3Types of Psychophysiological Disorders (adapted from Everly & Lating, 2002) | |
|---|---|
| Type of Psychophysiological Disorder | Examples |
| Cardiovascular | hypertension, coronary heart disease |
| Gastrointestinal | irritable bowel syndrome |
| Respiratory | asthma, allergy |
| Musculoskeletal | low back pain, tension headaches |
| Skin | acne, eczema, psoriasis |
Below, we discuss two kinds of psychophysiological disorders about which a great deal is known: cardiovascular disorders and asthma. First, however, it is necessary to turn our attention to a discussion of the immune system—one of the major pathways through which stress and emotional fac