How Emotions Can Make You Sick or Healthy

My full article for the WARKITCHEN (Issue 32)

To be physically healthy, we must be emotionally healthy. While traditionally viewed as separate entities, both scientific research and personal experiences alike have proven that our emotional health significantly impacts our physical health. Studies by researchers like Dr. Ronald Glaser and Dr. Janice Kiecolt-Glaser at Ohio State University have proven that stress and negative emotions lead to slower wound healing, increased susceptibility to infections, and immune suppression. A 2005 study by Kiecolt-Glaser found that people experiencing chronic stress had significantly lower levels of immune response, making them more susceptible to different illnesses. Stress is one of the clearest and most common examples of how emotional health affects our physical health. To explain it briefly and easily, when we experience stress, our bodies release hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. While these hormones are useful in short bursts, prolonged stress can cause hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and weakened immune responses. And, if we talk about women, stress affects us even more. Stress affects our hormones, and it alters a woman’s physical appearance.