(Forward and backward navigation buttons only work on 4.0 browsers) Copyright © 1997, Jay Ligda. All rights reserved. Published by Humans in the Universe and Jay Ligda. Feelings and the Immune SystemFeelings are the experience of chemical messengers sent from the brain throughout the body to trigger some kind of action in muscle tissue to return the soma to a state of homeostasis. If we hold back and don't act on our feelings, what becomes of the chemical messengers? We never return to a state of homeostasis, the chemical messengers never complete their task, and the feelings become chronic. Researchers have discovered that these chemical messengers also bind to various parts of the immune system. What does this mean? Our immune system "feels" the same feelings we do and is most likely affected by them. If we are chronically angry, sad, afraid, depressed, or shamed, our immune system is going to experience that feeling in some manner and have a reaction to it. Another way that "stuffing feelings" affects our health is by increasing free radical activity. Stress leads to free radicals, and chronic stress leads to chronic free radicals.
(This work is a all or part of an original work first published/written for East Bay Nation of Men newsletter., Feb1997.) (Forward and backward navigation buttons only work on 4.0 browsers)
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