Stress is immunoguizer

1991/10/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna

The hypothesis of immune stress appeared about twenty years ago. It is now observed that when a woman dies from breast cancer, her partner's lymphocytes have a lower response to carcinogenic substances.

In animals, a study conducted a few months ago has shown that stress reduces the lethal activity of lymphocytes towards carcinogenic substances.

Evidently, the procedure of this change is being sought. It was thought that the adreno-hipofisiary axis was followed, which joins the hipofisia with the adrenal glands. Apparently, the influence of the brain is much more direct. Peptides secreted by the hypothalamus can affect lymphocytes by the sympathetic system. On the contrary, catastrophic hemorrhagic colitis has been considered a psychosomatic disease, but it has been removed from the list of diseases that could be a consequence of stress.

All this indicates that psychotherapy should not be considered as something of luxury or soul. It would be more appropriate to consider it as organic therapy, renouncing the ancestral soul/body dichotomy.