Outer Emotions Reflect Inner Stress Response

According to research published in February in Brain, Behavior, and Inmmunity, your emotional response to challenging situations could predict how your body responds to stress.

The research was conducted at the University of Pittsburgh by Dr. Judith Carroll and Dr Anna Marsland, an Associate Professor of Psychology and Nursing at the University of Pittsburgh.

A greater outward stress response was linked to increases in a marker of inflammation—more so than for those who remained relatively calm. This research helps to explain why individuals with high levels of stress experience chronic health problems. Dr. Carroll explained most people show increases in heart rate and blood pressure when they complete a stressful task but some also show increases in a circulating marker of inflammation known as interleukin-6.

The results of the study link the possibility that individuals who become angry or anxious when confronting relatively minor challenges in their lives are prone to increases in inflammation and over time, this may render these emotionally-reactive individuals more vulnerable to inflammatory diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, the authors suggested.

The research, funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research, is part of a burgeoning field, known as Psychoneuroimmunology, which investigates the interactions between psychological processes and health.