How Happiness Boosts the Immune System

Modern medicine has come a long way to discover amazing technologies such as vaccines and antibiotics. What if something as simple as changing your mood and finding happiness even in the toughest of situations could actually improve your immune system?

The science is clear that there are marked improvements in our immune response when we can choose joy, and the positive psychology movement is really picking up steam as a result! Let’s start with our stress levels.

Stress Hormones

We know that stress absolutely impacts our immune system. When under stress, our body releases more of a chemical called cortisol that is in many ways our “stress hormone.” Excess cortisol can lead to mood changes, weight gain, and sleep disturbances. When someone can shift their focus to a practice of increasing the happiness in their life, doctors can measure a marked decrease in cortisol levels overall, and often in a few short weeks.

Stress and the Immune System         

When it comes to the immune system itself, when we are under stress, our body reacts to that stress almost as a virus or foreign invader. We see a marked increase in cytokines and white blood cells to fight off an infection that actually doesn’t exist! If the stress continues to be present in our lives, the immune system enters a state of churning in a loop, fighting an invader that is, in many ways, in our heads. What is fascinating is that the opposite is also true; when we shift to a happiness practice, doctors see those white blood cells slow in production and return to normal levels.

Psychoneuroimmunology

A growing field of scientists study the relationship between what we think and feel and how our immune system responds, called Psychoneuroimmunology or PNI. These scientists and doctors have understood how happiness can trigger the release of multiple chemical messengers that improve and impact how we feel. For example, the chemicals dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin are all produced when we are surrounded by friends and family and those we love. We know from research that surrounding yourself with people you care about, engaging in meaningful activities, and doing work that you find rewarding all improve your happiness levels. What you might not realize is you are also insulating yourself from additional viruses and invaders by choosing joy! When our body is busy fighting off invaders that are not actually there in the form of stress, additional bacteria, viruses, and foreign invaders can enter and wreak havoc on a compromised immune system.

So, if I am sick, I need to choose joy?

Happiness cannot make us better once we are already sick, but it can definitely improve our recovery time. Many experiments indicate that surgery scars, for example, heal faster when a person is happy and under minimal stress! And even happy people sometimes fall ill; it is not an all-or-nothing response but can positively impact overall!

Everything in our body is both mental and physical; our systems are connected and impact our daily functioning.