Lesson 2: Emotions and Criminal Behaviour

6 - Emotions and Illness

Stress can hinder the healthy functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and the autonomic nervous system. Loss of appetite, migraine headaches, allergies, ulcers, high blood pressure, muscle tensions, and heart disease are a few of the many body responses to stress. Stress may precipitate psychosomatic illness. These illnesses arise from the mind or emotions, but the body symptoms that occur are quite real.

The vulnerability hypothesis may have some truth. As an organism becomes more biologically vulnerable, stress gains control. Studies have noted connections between stress and the overall health of the individual with ordinary infectious diseases such as cold, strep throat, and the flu. How much stress the person has and whether or not the individual has a mild or severe case of these illnesses seems to correlate.

Scientists are accumulating evidence that strongly suggests a biochemical link between one’s emotional state, the immune function, and the progression of one of our most serious illnesses— cancer. Scientists know that the central nervous system has hook-ups to the endocrine or hormonal system and the immune system. They also know biological pathways link the central nervous system to the tumours.