Stress And The Immune System
The immune system is a very important part of our bodily functions as
its main function is to protect the body against millions of antigens,
which attack our cells and try to reproduce viruses and diseases. In this paper, I plan to show that Psychologists have found that stress is related to physical illness and so can explain the relationship between stress and the immune system. The immune system can protect the body in three different ways, in which are:
1. It creates a barrier that prevents the antigens from initially
entering the body.
2. If the antigens do manage to enter the body, then your immune
system will try to detect the virus and abolish it before it
begins to spread.
3. If the virus does reproduce and begins to cause problems, your
immune system is then responsible for eliminating it.
The most important part of the immune system is the white blood cells,
which are also known as leukocytes. The most important type of white
blood cell is the lymphocyte. Lymphocytes are developed as either
T-cells or B-cells. A B-cell is specifically designated to a certain
virus and so when that virus does enter the body, the B-cell will
produce millions of antibodies to eliminate the virus. T-cells are
designed to detect the cells in the body that contain viruses and when
they detect the cell they collide with it and eliminate it.
The General Adaptation Syndrome model suggested that stress does
lead to illness as the body’s resources become insufficient due to severe
stress. In result this means that the necessary proteins for the
immune system are not produced and so the body is less able to fight
viruses. Although, many of the resources do not actually become
depleted under severe stress and so is unlikely to explain the view
that stress does have a direct link between stress and the immune
system.
Psychologists have found that the immune system is very easily...