Viruses Sickened Only 27-47% of This Test Population Depending on Their Stress Levels

Jam

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In a previous blog, I shared research linking our emotions and judgments to our physical sensations. But did you know that physical and psychological stress load in our body is associated with an increased risk of acute infectious respiratory illness by cold and coronaviruses?

According to research published in 1991 by Sheldon Cohen, when people were given nasal drops containing one of five respiratory cold or influenza viruses (such as Coronavirus type 229E) not everyone developed a symptomatic cold. Incidence of clinical colds among those infected ranged from 27% to 47%, the risk found to be associated with the level of chronic physical and psychological (perceived) stress.

In more recent publications, Cohen has found factors associated with greater risk of respiratory illnesses after virus exposure including smoking, ingesting an inadequate level of vitamin C, and chronic psychological stress. Those associated with decreased risk included social integration, social support, physical activity, adequate and efficient sleep, and moderate alcohol intake. Cohen cautiously suggests that his findings could have implications for identifying who becomes ill when exposed to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Our immune, neurologic, and psychological systems are closely intertwined. Scientists such as Cohen now argue that prolonged (perceived) stress alters the effectiveness of cortisol (stress hormone) to regulate our body’s inflammatory response because it decreases tissue sensitivity to the hormone. The scientific term for this is glucocorticoid receptor resistance. People who are regularly less able to regulate their inflammatory response, produce more of inflammation-inducing cytokines (chemical messengers) and suffer from more severe symptoms when exposed to viruses and pathogens. In fact, research has confirmed that Chronic excessive glucocorticoid exposure affects both innate and adaptive immune responses to infective states.

Other research by Cohen has shown that chronic stress, lasting a month or more, affected the risk of catching a cold and that two causes of stress – being unemployed or underemployed, or having interpersonal difficulties with relatives or friends – had the greatest influence on risk. Cohen has also reported that people with the most ties to relatives, friends and community were the least likely to catch a cold. The relationship between having many social connections and being relatively immune to colds held even though cold viruses spread easily among people. Although this finding would seem counterintuitive, Dr. Cohen said that other researchers also have found that “having many different kinds of social relationships helps to protect against disease.”
 

RealNeat

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Wait so your are telling me living in fear 24/7, being full of angst against unvaccinated, wearing a mask to strain lungs, binge watching TV while being afraid to go outside and socialize is a disease causing comorbidity?!
 
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Jam

Jam

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Wait so your are telling me living in fear 24/7, being full of angst against unvaccinated, wearing a mask to strain lungs, binge watching TV while being afraid to go outside and socialize is a disease causing comorbidity?!
Imagine that...
 
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Jam

Jam

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What I find most interesting, however, is that they apparently managed to "infect" people with viral respiratory infections via nasal drops.

PROCEDURES​

During their first two days at the CCU, the subjects underwent a thorough medical examination, completed a series of questionnaires related to behavior, psychological stress, personality, and health practices and had blood drawn for immune assessments and measurement of cotinine (a biochemical indicator of smoking) in serum. Subsequently, the subjects were given nasal drops containing a low infectious dose of one of five respiratory viruses — rhinovirus type 2 (n = 86), type 9 (n = 122), or type 14 (n = 92), respiratory syncytial virus (n = 40), or coronavirus type 229E (n = 54) — or saline drops (n = 26). The viral doses were intended to resemble those common in person-to-person transmission and to result in illness rates between 20 and 60 percent. For two days before and seven days after the viral challenge, the subjects were quarantined in large apartments (alone or with one or two others). Starting two days before the viral challenge and continuing through six days after the challenge, each subject was examined daily by a clinician who used a standard checklist of respiratory signs and symptoms.17 Examples of items on the checklist are sneezing, watering of the eyes, nasal stuffiness, nasal obstruction, postnasal discharge, sinus pain, sore throat, hoarseness, cough, and sputum. The number of facial tissues used daily by each subject was also counted. Approximately 28 days after the challenge, a second serum sample was collected by the subjects' own physicians and shipped to the CCU for serologic testing. All the investigators were blinded to the subjects' psychological status and to whether they had received virus or saline drops.

There is a commonly-held view lately that this has never been possible, and experiments during the Spanish flu pandemic are often cited. Sure, it can be argued that there is no proof that the nasal drops actually contained live viruses, since apparently viruses don't exist, but contained endotoxin or some toxic chemicals or whatever.
 

haidut

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Wait so your are telling me living in fear 24/7, being full of angst against unvaccinated, wearing a mask to strain lungs, binge watching TV while being afraid to go outside and socialize is a disease causing comorbidity?!

You forgot "while also being laid off, and likely having children going savagely berserk during distance "learning" in the same room due to school closures" :):
 

RealNeat

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You forgot "while also being laid off, and likely having children going savagely berserk during distance "learning" in the same room due to school closures" :):
It's almost like they know what they are doing...
 

blob69

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There is a commonly-held view lately that this has never been possible, and experiments during the Spanish flu pandemic are often cited. Sure, it can be argued that there is no proof that the nasal drops actually contained live viruses, since apparently viruses don't exist, but contained endotoxin or some toxic chemicals or whatever.
Was there a big difference between "virus" and "saline" (placebo) groups?
 

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