Stress Influences Healing

Stress permits germs the ability to infect wounds on the skin with no difficulty, as shown in a recently conducted research study. Researchers carried out the study by wounding laboratory mice and then exposing them to living environments rife with stress.

The investigators then submitted the bacteria called Streptococci on to the cuts of the said sample of mice. They then weighted the rates of healing for mice exposed to stressful environments against the rates of healing for mice not exposed to taxing living conditions.

Research found a delay of 30% in healing for mice exposed to stressful conditions of around three to five days in comparison to the mice that experienced no such stress. Furthermore, the mice that experienced stress contracted opportunistic bacteria in said injuries after five days at a 100,000 times greater rate. After seven days from the introduction of the Streptococci bacteria on mice wounds, 85% of cuts in the mice experiencing stressed were infected as compared to 27% on those not exposed to stress. The stressed mice also showed signs of adrenal exhaustion.

The research showed a stressful living environment augmented the wound infection rate three times more than in a similar non-stress situation. Stress interrupts the equilibrium of the body, resulting in a significant impairment of the ability of the immune system to contain and eliminate infection of bacteria during the phase of healing from injuries.

Stress collapses the employment or operation of immune cells that prove essential for fighting infection. A study of humans showed that psychological stress can negatively affect the immune system by decreasing the intensity of cytokines, proteins that combat infection. Another study also showed that skin wounds on the arms of female subjects with higher degrees of cortisol, a stress hormone, had lower quantities of important compounds released by the body to effect healing as a direct result of adrenal exhaustion.

According Dr. Mercola,  bionergetic normalization techniques have proven effective in addressing stress. He stated he has practiced Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) in treating his patients since the summer and thus had the ability to assist four people in removing all cold and flu symptoms in a span of a few minutes. As such, the results have him convinced of the influence of stress on health. To conduct this EFT modality, he commonly assigns his patients to journal their trauma for 10 to 15 minutes a day and then burn the paper, signifying the letting go of emotional hang ups. This resulted in a powerful, effective and inexpensive choice of therapy for the patients which also helped remediate some of the signs and symptoms of adrenal exhaustion.