My "Bi-annual Stress Flu"

So over my many years of university I've discovered that at the end of every semester, as a sort of release of anxiety, i guess - I get sick with the flu. I know it probably sound really strange, but every 6 months i get sick, and always after I have finished university for that semester. Usually it can take anywhere from a week to a month after I have finished for this sickness to appear. But this semester, being my last, I had only finished university for two days and I woke up sick. As it turns out there is a scientifically researched and documented reason for this (phew!).

In and article on scienceline.org, Andrea Anderson explains that 'Good health depends on a properly functioning immune system, the complicated network protecting the body from potentially threatening bacteria, viruses, and other foreign invaders, like cancer cells or transplanted tissue'. The basics of what this article is trying the explain is that stress can significantly alter the immune system responsiveness, but it is still unclear why this is occurring.

As is states in the article 'Peter Uchakin and colleagues at the Mercer University School of Medicine, Wyle Laboratories, the University of Texas Houston Medical School, and NASA also observed immune system effects in first year medical students in the 24- and 48-hour periods after a first semester exam. In addition to other effects, they detected decreased secretion of certain immune signaling molecules and changes in the balance between the humoral and cell-mediated branches of the immune system'. They are considering concept such as psycho-emotional stress and that psychologic stressor are having a suppressing effect on human immunity.

More interestingly, they found that students 'who scored highest on a perceived stress test also had increased levels of cortisol, a hormone suspected of dialing down the immune response'. So what can be derived from this is that a student's personality and ability to deal with stressful situations appears to affect their physiology. But there are also other factors that relating to a student's suseptability to sickness ( other than the mental stress and strain of studying, or in my case research) this may include changes in sleep patterns, poor diet and maybe even genuinely catching it off someone else.

So with me finishing university, lets hope that I am also finished with my "bi-annual stress flu".

http://www.scienceline.org/2007/01/ask-anderson-finalscough/