A recent study found that women who feel insecure in their close relationships or have trouble establishing close relationships tend to have weakened immune systems. Lab results specifically showed that the immune system cells of these women were less capable of fighting disease or infection that those of other study participants.
The study, as published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, looked at a trait known as “attachment insecurity. “ This trait is characterized by difficulty trusting and depending on others. Women who exhibit this trait report feeling uncomfortable with emotional intimacy or express fears of abandonment by loved ones. These insecurities create emotional stress which, in turn, appears to affect the body’s natural immune response. The study cautions that it is not known whether this weakening actually translates into an increased susceptibility to disease.
However, other research has shown an association between attachment insecurity and certain skin diseases that are related to immune dysfunction. These include psoriasis, and alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss.
The key to how much of an effect stress has on the body seems to be dependent on how an individual perceives and responds to stress. It appears that the more insecure a woman feels about her relationship issues or problems, the more likely it will translate into physiological stress on her immune system.
SOURCE: Psychosomatic Medicine, January 2007.
Just one terrible event or ongoing emotional stress can change not only a relationship but it can change your health. Cancer and other auto-immune diseases such as arthritis, are real and miserable conditions, and think of it, may be caused by an insecurity that just will not leave. In December of 2007, Benzinger On Health will cover many of these types of conditions more extensively. Because women deal with auto-immune based diseases 2 to 3 times more often than males, I thought it appropriate to alert you to this condition. Knowing how much it can hurt you may finally move you on and that is my goal.
God Bless,
Dr. Benzinger
