Not all stress is bad for your health.
Stressful situations you can actively cope
with may not weaken your immune system.
Scientists have known for some time
now that stress can be the cause of health problems because stress seems to
depress the ability of a person’s immune system to combat illness. However, we all face different types of
stressful situations in our lives.
Sometimes we are faced with situations involving stress we can actively
cope with by doing things that address the source of the stress. For example, if a person is annoyed with a
coworker’s behavior, she can actively cope with her stress by confronting the
coworker and discussing the issue to sort things out. Other times we are faced with situations
involving stress we can only passively cope with by trying not to focus on the
stress. For example, if a loved one dies
all you can do is try to deal with your negative feelings because you are
powerless to change the person’s death (the source of the stress). One question that scientists from the University
of Amsterdam
What was the research about?
The experiment exposed 34
undergraduate students to three different types of conditions. To simulate a stressful situation involving
active coping, participants were given a time-paced memory test. To simulate a stressful situation involving
passive coping, participants watched a video showing various surgical operations. There was also a control condition in which
participants watched a boring documentary.
As a way to examine how the stressful situations influenced the
participant’s immune system, the researchers took samples of saliva from the
participant’s mouth before, during and after each stressful situation. In the saliva, the researchers measured how
much of secretory immunglobulin
A (S-IgA) was present. S-IgA is used by
the body to protect against the invasion of microorganisms and toxins. The less S-IgA
present, the higher the risk of health problems such as upper respiratory
infection. To measure stress levels,
participants completed a questionnaire after each saliva sample was collected.
Results showed there were no
differences in how stressed participants felt during the memory test and while
watching the surgery video. Even though
participants felt equally stressed in both conditions, their levels of S-IgA increased in
the active stress condition (the memory test) but decreased in the passive stress condition (the surgery video). This indicates that participants in the
passive stress condition were less defended against microorganism and toxin
invasions. On the other hand,
participants in the active stress condition were actually better defended than
normal because their S-IgA levels had increased in
response to the stressful situation.
Why should it matter to me?
Based on evidence from this experiment it seems all
stressful situations are not created equal.
Passive stress situations seem to have a debilitating effect on at least
one aspect of the body’s immune system functioning. Active stress situations, however, seem to
actually boost one of the body’s protective actions. If this effect extends to other aspects of
the body’s immune system, then people may want to be more careful what types of
stressful situations they expose themselves to. Also, when deciding how to cope with stress,
people may want to try and choose more active-coping strategies. By actively coping with your stress, instead
of just passively trying to ignore it, you may better protect your health in
the process.
Source: Bosch, J. A., Kelder,
A., Veerman, E. C. I., Hoogstraten,
J., Nieuw Amerongen, A. V.,
De Geus, E. J. C. (2001). Differential
effects of active versus passive coping on secretory
immunity. Psychophpysiology, 38, 836-846.
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