Posted on December 23rd, 2009 by Craig Maltby, Editor
Year end reflection: Your outlook and your immune health. Which way do you lean?
As the year and decade winds down, what is your outlook on the future of the world, the future of your daily life, your kids’ future, our economy, our quality of life? Do you see a business environment where job security is 
scarce and standards of living are declining? Where global warming is inevitable and cannot feasibly be controlled? Where the economy is out of the people’s hands and controlled by a handful of multinational derivatives peddlers? Where politics and governing grows ever more corrupt, making visionary legislation and public policy all but impossible? Where institutional and cultural leaders are, in large part, morally incompetent and easily exploitable (see Wall Street, AIG, top-tier professional athletes, clergy, Enron, Worldcom, et al). Where war and terrorism have no end in sight? No wonder Time Magazine called this The Decade from Hell.
Or, do you see a world where opportunities abound because traditional institutions are crumbling? Where an African-American can get elected to the presidency? Or a hockey mom from the tundra can get within 5 percentage points of becoming vice president? Where climate forecasts and oil dependency are spurring renewable and green energy innovation and investment such as the world has never seen? Where hundreds of millions of people in what were once termed third-world countries–China, India, Brazil– have moved out of poverty and into the middle class? Or a country (United States) where the vast collection of colleges and universities are the envy of the world? A world where global, high-speed, digital communication have made it possible for the individual to access news and entertainment, formal education, financial resources and medical services–or launch businesses in those industries–from a simple laptop device?
Some research shows that how you view the world and life impacts your immune system health. One study that is commonly cited is a research project tracking first-year law students at the University of Kentucky. “Healthy first year law students who endorsed optimistic beliefs prior to the beginning of the school year had higher levels and function of key immune cells in the middle of their first semester…While there were no immune differences between optimists and pessimists prior to beginning law school, those students who began the semester optimistic had more helper T cells and higher natural killer cell cytotoxicity mid-semester than students who had been pessimistic. Helper T cells are the ‘conductors’ of the immune system, directing and amplifying immune responses.”
Another study of women 18-45 found “association between acute stress and subsequent immune parameters (NK cell cytotoxicity, and CD4 and CD8 T cell subsets) was buffered by an optimistic perspective.” WebMD also talks about the linkage between mental stress, pessimism and the immune function with specific regard to rheumatoid arthritis.
I wonder if there’s any research about being a Pollyanna and immune health. I’d never for a second recommend trying to reorient your attitude to thinking we’re always in the best of all possible worlds. Me, I’m an immune balance guy, and I try to have a balanced outlook on life as well. There’s good stuff and bad stuff and terrible stuff in this world. I’m generally hopeful the good stuff will trump the bad over time, and that there’s always at least the potential to improve. Is that optimistic?
Have a happy, hopeful holiday and New Year.
