Posted on January 29th, 2010 by Craig Maltby, Editor
Stress levels may be improving. So how’s your immune health?
Anyone who’s made an effort to stay awake lately can tell you happy days are hardly here again. The unemployment picture 
seems to be as frozen as the street-plow-built ice wall at the bottom of my driveway. Health care policy continues to be an intractable battle. Foreclosures are still happening at a high rate. Budgets everywhere are stretched to the breaking point.
Yet, a couple of national consumer polls taken recently shows there may be an uptick in people’s outlook on their lives and well being. The Gallup organization recently posted the results of its ongoing American Well-Being Index. The index, started in 2008, charts people’s attitudes in several basic categories of home and work life. Overall, the Well Being index for 2009 stayed flat, at a basis score of 65.9, no change from 2008. Within the overall score was a big 5-point rise in Life Evaluation, a measurement of people who say they are either thriving, suffering or locked somewhere in between. Other sub-segments of the survey showed small, fractional drops in physical health, emotional health, and healthy behaviors, and a significant 2.2% drop in work environment.
Another poll, the Consumer Reports Index, also showed some improvement in several sections of the study. The CR Stress Index in January 2010 came in at 59, down from 63 in December 2009. While anything above 50 is considered more stressful than a year ago (and under 50 less stress than the previous year), that downward motion is good. Maybe it’s simply the hope of a new year vs. the culmination of a crappy 2009 coupled with December holiday stress. Like the Stress Index, the CR Sentiment Index also improved, rising to 44.1 from 41.8 the prior month, the first significant uptick since June 2009. When the index is greater than 50, more consumers are feeling positive about their situation. When it is below 50, more consumers are feeling worse.
While these poll numbers remain in difficult territory, maybe we’re turning a corner. And, with stress levels impacting immune system health, maybe people are feeling a bit better physically as well. Of course that’s no reason to stop fortifying your immune system with immune balancing habits and nutrition. While balanced immune health may help offset physical illness in times of stress, it may also help when people are feeling good. You know, overdoing the eating and drinking, exercising too hard, partying and not sleeping. You need your immune system in sync no matter what your frame of mind.
