Can Stress Cause Common Cold?

Video – VLog #33

Can stress cause common cold / flu?

When you’re stressed can this be the cause of common cold and/or the flu?

How does stress impact your immune system?

Script – VLog #33

David Logan: Hi and welcome everybody to vlog 33. My name is David Logan, the IT Geek, the guy who takes jargon out of technology for the home office worker. Here we are on vlog 33, on this week’s video.  Presenting with me today is Willie Nicol. So, Willie, how are you?  And, where are you?

Willie Nicol: Thank you David, I’m very well thank you. I’m based in Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland.

David Logan: Fantastic. So, we’re both alive and kicking, although we can’t see each other’s feet. I think that’s just a phrase I tend to use. Question for you Willie. Is it true, I think this is a myth, but is it true that stress, when you’re stressed, this can cause the common cold and/or the flu?

Willie Nicol: Good question David. The short answer is “yes” but naturally I will expand on that. I’m going to differentiate between acute stress and chronic stress. I’ve said before that stress is a normal part of life .… keeps us on our toes, keeps us alert to danger and so on. So, perfectly acceptable.

Willie Nicol: Acute stress occurs when there is an elevated element of stress and there’s a danger and we react to it. I’ve talked about the fight or flight response and we react to it – acute being short term. Once the stressor has gone, we return to normal. Chronic stress on the other hand is long-term, prolonged, it doesnae go away. So, we are in a state of chronic stress when we have high levels of stress over a long, prolonged period.

Willie Nicol: Now you won’t be surprised to hear I did some research to make sure I was not talking nonsense and essentially what happens with chronic stress at higher levels is, we’ve talked about cortisol before, it produces this chemical which we now find can have a negative impact on our immune system. It can actually affect the production of what they call lymphocytes which are white blood cells which fight illnesses and disease. So, prolonged excessive stress has a bad effect on our immune system which affects its ability to fight illnesses, disease and various other things. So, it’s not, I think, a quantum leap to say that chronic stress over a long period of time, yes, can leave you susceptible to the cold or the flu.

David Logan: Good. So, that was you saying acute stress and chronic stress .… and the acute stress is short term.

Willie Nicol: Yep

David Logan: So, is that like when you say you can’t make payment for your next big purchase. Is that quite a good example?

Willie Nicol: Well, we all know what stress is. Acute stress is not necessarily a one-off thing but it’s a short-lived period of stress. “Oh, my goodness I’ve left the cooker on at home”, right, and you’re halfway up the motorway. Or, I’ve said this before, “I forgot to buy a birthday card for my mum”. We get a wee bit stressed and anxious. Or it might be, we’re trying to make a deadline or get stressed about it, because time’s running out. But once that stressful incident has passed, we go back to normal. So, we’ve gone through a period of acute stress for a short period of time.

Willie Nicol: Chronic stress is when we find ourselves at a high level of stress all the time. When we’re saying, “Aw, I’m so stressed out,’ right. And its work, it’s relationships, it’s business, it could be anything, right. And we can’t seem to reduce the stress levels and we’re living in a constant stressful demeanour, if you like. And that’s when the chronic stress and the suppression of your immune system can lead to susceptibility to illnesses and, if it’s particularly prolonged, you’re looking at sleeplessness, digestive problems, heart problems, all sorts of not very pleasant things. So, then it becomes crucial for us to manage our stress and to de-stress and reduce the levels of stress so that we’re not leaving ourselves open to all these unpleasant side effects.

David Logan: Digestive, you said digestive problems there?

Willie Nicol: Yep

David Logan: I know we’ve covered it in one of the previous vlogs, we were talking about comfort eating. Does that kind of link up there, does it?

Willie Nicol: A simple thing is, for example, you’re stressed all the time and you might develop an ulcer, right, because your stomach’s churning, there’s too much acid in it. You might be eating improperly but that is just a very basic example of digestive problems that can be caused by excessive stress. We possibly know people who are constantly worried and then, lo and behold, they develop an ulcer and you think, “well, what a surprise there”.

Willie Nicol: Right, cortisol, adrenalin, all the other chemicals, I’m going to use the word chemicals rather than neurotransmitters, are all sorts of things right, that are produced or stimulated by stress which are good in the short term –  keep us alert from danger – but bad in the long term because they have an actual negative effect on our bodies and by suppressing our immune system, our natural ability to fight off diseases, illnesses, etc., the stress no longer is beneficial, it’s actually bad for us and I think most people are aware of that, right. So, they can cope with stress in the short-term. Long-term it needs to be addressed.

David Logan: Great. So, if I can summarise, very briefly. My question was, can stress cause the common cold? You said yes but there’s two types of stresses. There’s acute stress, short-term and chronic stress.

Willie Nicol: That’s correct. If I just differentiate between three – “normal” stress, we all know about that. Acute stress is where the stress peaks for a short period. Chronic stress is when it peaks and stays peaked for a long period.

David Logan: Great, fantastic. So, there we go. Acute stress, chronic stress, they can cause the common cold. If you the viewer wants to know more about the two types of stress, fire answers to Willie. His door is open, his virtual door is open, sorry, not your physical door, is open Willie. Thank you for that Willie. Great lot of information. Anything else you want to add or is that you for this week?

Willie Nicol: Only thing I would add is that I do some research online and I copy and paste some links onto a little word document. If anybody would like that word document with the links which can take them further to gain more information, by all means get in touch.

David Logan: Brilliant. Fantastic. Thank you. We’ll finish there now Willie.

David Logan: So, to the viewer, thank you for listening, please go onto YouTube, subscribe to our channel, we need more likes there, more people subscribing, get the word out there. We’re on Facebook, we’re on Twitter, we’re on LinkedIn. Visit our website, we can even link up, put some links on that Willie can give to us to put the on website. So, from me it’s goodbye, stay safe and stay healthy, thank you.

Willie Nicol: Yes, goodbye from me, Willie, the Techno Dinosaur. I would just repeat what David says – keep safe, keep yourself well and try to have fun at the same time. Goodbye from me.

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