Fear Suppresses Our Immune System! What better time to read this blog during this Corona Virus Crisis?!
You can feel the fear in the air and rightfully so, people are concerned for their health and safety. The best thing we can do is take necessary precautions and help boost our immune system. With that being said, Fear and Stress is a huge culprit to suppressing our immune system. Constant exposure to stress, fear and anxiety, weakens the immune system causing high levels of systemic inflammation.
Fear, stress and anxiety changes the chemistry in our blood, creating inflammatory agents. Once our brain perceives fear, our brain releases stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenalin, norepinephrine and inflammatory agents that affect the immune system. Stress hormones is so powerful of shutting down our immune system that even Doctors use this method by giving their patients stress hormones when they're doing a organ transplant because the Doctor doesn't want the immune system attacking the new organ. So just imagine how it affects us when we’re exposed to fear and anxiety long term!
Our immune system is responsible for fighting most diseases, including cancer, heart attack and stroke. Not to mention, when we live in a state of chronic stress and fear, it activates our sympathetic (fight or flight) response which changes our biochemistry causing an elevation in our blood pressure, and it redirects our blood supply to our extremities making it harder to digest our foods properly causing digestive issues such as irritable bowl syndrome, leaky gut syndrome, ETC...
When we constantly live in state of fear and stress it uses a lot of energy that’s needed to fight the potential threat happening in our environment not giving enough time to restore it's own energy meaning it starts to deplete the body's natural resources for growth and repair creating a ripple affect. Not only it starts to shut down our immune system, it affects our sleep cycle, our creativity, our intelligence, our love and compassion because in that moment, we're in survival mode therefore all of our focus is based on fight, flight or freeze.
It's important to raise your consciousness around this topic, only because with awareness, you can work towards lowering your state of fear and chronic stress with these best practices;
Raising our consciousness so we can change the way we think and the way we feel.(breaking our bad thought habits) So every time fear starts to creep in, it's important to pay attention to that thought and turn it around with love and gratitude.
Turn your fears into fascinations. We often fear the unknown and things we don't understand. Take me for example. I have a fear of flying. Only because I don't understand how it works, so the best way for me to reduce my fears is to educate myself on the way it works
Activate your love hormones through EDSO (Endorphins, Dopamine, Serotonin, Oxytocin)
You get endorphins when you exercise.
You get Dopamine when you achieve your goals
You get Serotonin when you feel proud
You get Oxytocin through love and connection and through acts of service
Practice the art of meditation or breath work. Meditation is a powerful exercise to help reduce stress and anxiety as it activates the parasympathetic (rest and digest) response through the phrenic nerve of your diaphragm. When you extend your exhalation. In other words, it helps you relax even more.
So now more than ever we need to have a calm collective consciousness and help one another. It's so easy to go into panic mode but it certainly doesn't serve ourselves individually and collectively!
Let's be there for one another so we can overcome this fear base mentality!
I hope this blog serves you well! Please feel free to leave a comment and share this blog so we can help raise our consciousness.
Till next time, keep progressing on your own journey towards health and wellness!
Cheers
Nancy Pitre, Certified Holistic Health Coach