Elsevier

Biochemical Pharmacology

Volume 91, Issue 3, 1 October 2014, Pages 287-292
Biochemical Pharmacology

Commentary
Smile—It's in your blood!

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bcp.2014.07.016Get rights and content

Abstract

Emotions and feelings are the bricks of our social life and yet we often forget that they have a significant impact on our physical wellbeing. Indeed, a growing number of studies have shown that both an imbalanced or improved emotional state can significantly influence the way our immune system responds. In this commentary, we have summarized the most recent studies on the effects of different types of emotional states on the immune system and we have also explored the effects of mood modulator approaches on the immune response. We hope this commentary will prompt scientists and clinicians to think about the therapeutic value and potential of emotions and feelings in immune-related diseases. At the same time, we think that this commentary will shed some light on the scientific truth behind the very famous expression “It's in my blood” when we talk about feelings and personality.

Introduction

The progress we have made since the birth of our ancestor “homo sapiens” has given the word “wellbeing” a completely new meaning [1], [2]. Looking back to the time of the dinosaurs, our main preoccupation was to fight with other species and survive at their expense. Nowadays, physical survival is not an impending issue anymore (unfortunately, not the case in all the countries) while emotional and psychological “integrity” has taken the center stage. What is even more important, the effects of emotional distress seem to have spilled over from the realm of our social interaction to the physicality of our living.

How do emotions influence our physical wellbeing? Stressors and dangers of mental health often populate the front pages of the daily news and include a wide range of settings and situations including working long hours, social pressure, relationship problems or constant reminders of what one should be eating or doing to “be well”. Interestingly, stressors and dangers are also buzzwords in the immunology field and now more than ever on the front pages of scientific news [3], [4], [5], [6]. What seems to be just a mere coincidence might instead hide an interesting link. Indeed, we have now come to realize that often stressors for the immune system are also stressors of our emotional wellbeing and vice versa [7], [8], [9]. Thus, infections and inflammatory diseases influence our mood and behavior in the same way that psychological problems and mental disorders seem to pose a threat to the proper functioning of the immune system.

This commentary will explore the most recent findings in the field of body and mind crosstalk with specific focus on how emotions influence the immune and inflammatory response. In doing so, we will first summarize the most recent discoveries on the events that trigger the release of inflammatory mediators and other immunomodulators that are known to modulate mood and emotions. For the reverse, e.g. how inflammation influences emotions, we redirect the readers to a number of excellent reviews on the topic [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15]. In the second part, we will discuss whether drug-free therapies modulating the emotional response should be considered as a new avenue for therapeutic strategies targeting inflammatory and immune-mediated diseases.

Section snippets

Performance-management by the immune system

Remembering the last time we had a fever or an infection, we immediately recall the time spent in bed or stranded in the house, the nauseating feelings and the overall sense of hopelessness (“man flu” for the males!) that came with it. What seems to be an unnecessary “extra” that adds to the already difficult-to-manage signs of inflammation (redness, swelling, heat, loss of function) is a “blessing” rather than a nuisance. Indeed, the low mood that comes with inflammation, also known as

The bright side of the immune response

Whether one is young or old, “happiness” and good mood seem to always exert a consistent “positive” effect on the immune system. As an example of this, children exposed to tale tellers, puppeteers and handicraft artists showed changes in lymphocyte counts and IFN-γ levels in blood samples compared to control unexposed children [37]. Similarly, aging women with higher levels of eudaimonic (e.g. sense of meaning and self-realization) wellbeing had lower levels of daily salivary cortisol and

Feelings and emotions as therapeutic targets for immune disorders?

Having summarized some of the latest findings on how different emotional settings and environmental (mainly social) factors influence the immune system, we will now explore whether the results of this research has any therapeutic value for the treatment of immune and inflammatory diseases. Not surprisingly, the literature in this area of research is populated by studies investigating the effect of so-called “mind-body” or psychological therapies on immune and inflammatory conditions. If one

Conclusions and perspectives

The studies we have summarized so far clearly support the idea that our emotional state changes the way our immune system functions. Most importantly, we have provided evidence that therapies targeting mood and emotions can have a measurable (and hence translational) impact on the immune response. Thus, in our opinion, the most obvious next step should be to bring the “best of both” and test the effect of classical drug-based therapies in conjunction with “alternative” ones to achieve better

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr Dianne Cooper for her suggestions and guidance.

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