RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MIND AND HEALTH
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MIND AND HEALTH We have often heard stress can cause weight gain, stress can cause acne, stress affects a female’s menstrual cycle and so on. It is established that the mental state and physical health of a person are affected by one another. But in this article we shall dive deeper to understand how that works. What is health? The World Health Organization or WHO defines health as “ a state of complete physical, mental, social well being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.” WHO (World Health Organisation) states that, not having a disease or illness is not the only criterion to classify one as healthy or unhealthy, one must also be in a state of being physically, mentally and socially fit. It further defines health as a dynamic state that is it keeps changing and is not always constant for anyone. Dimensions of health Health is multidimensional which means it has many components to it. In order to be healthy one must be fit in all dimensions of health. Following are some dimensions of health: Physical health – It includes absence of any external injuries, chronic diseases as well as a fit body. Physical health is taken care of by doing regular exercise, taking proper diet and having proper sleep. Mental health – It includes having normal functioning cognition, ability to regulate thoughts and absence of mental disorders, excessive negative and distorted thoughts, etc. Emotional health – It includes having the ability to understand one’s emotions and feelings and being able to control them rather than being controlled by them. It also means absence of psychological disorders and excessive or prolonged stress, etc. Social health – It includes having the ability to make and maintain social relationships and having basic social skills required to function in society, like communication skills, social behaviour, conflict resolution etc. Spiritual health – It includes having a sense of meaning and purpose in life and hence motivation to live. It also includes having an identity of own. People lacking identity face existential crisis. Vocational health – It includes having a healthy attitude towards work that is having ambitions, motivation to work, career choice and satisfaction and good performance. Interdependence of dimensions of health All the dimensions of health are interconnected. This is a very crucial fact. As if one suffers in a particular dimension of health the other dimensions will also be affected. For example a socially unfit person may also suffer emotionally due to lack of meaningful relationships. This will in turn affect their spiritual, physical and mental health which may further affect vocational health as well. Therefore mental health and physical health are connected, making sense why stress causes so many physical health related issues. Psychoneuroimmunology Psychoneuroimmunology is a study dealing with the role of psychological processes and neurological processes in immunity. Immunity refers to an organism’s capacity to fight against foreign agents (antigens), or germs when they enter the organism’s body and help heal wounds and infections. Immune system of an organism consists of cells, proteins produced by these cells, and organs. Hence for a healthy, strong body good immunity is essential. According to psychoneuroimmunology, a person’s mind (emotions, thoughts etc) can influence their immunity. Understanding nervous system : CNS or Central Nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord. It controls everything in our body. It is responsible for maintaining homeostasis (internal balance) in the body by regulating temperature, blood pressure, heart rate etc. To do so the endocrine system and CNS need to communicate. Endocrine system consists of ductless glands that produce hormones (chemicals) and directly release it into the bloodstream. The body and brain communicate with each other through electrical and chemical signals or messages. The brain sends electrical and chemical signals through neurons. The electrical signals move forward in a neuron and from one neuron to another due to electrical and chemical gradients present between the intracellular region and extracellular region of the neuron. This depolarizes (changes the intracellular region of the neuron’s charge from negative to positive) the region in the neuron (axon). When the electrical signal reaches the end of a neuron, neurotransmitters are released by synaptic knobs of the neuron. These are chemical messengers. They are the ones that carry signals to muscles, glands or other neurons and make communication possible. Understanding immune system : The immune system attacks any foreign agent that it doesn’t identify as its own and starts to kill it to avoid any harm to the body. But the immune system sometimes also attacks unharmful agents as well like in case of allergies and also with transplants and sometimes it could be overactive causing autoimmune diseases which are dangerous. So whenever a foreign agent enters the body and comes in contact with an immune cell, it attaches with its receptors which induce changes in the cell. When the foreign agent attaches to immune cells that are cytokine producing cells, cytokines will be produced. Cytokines are proteins responsible for starting and stopping inflammation and bind with receptors of other cells and help in cell proliferation, direct immune cells to the site of infection, direct immune cells to produce antibodies to kill the pathogen and they also store this memory about the pathogen and how to kill it, so that if it enters the body again shortly, the body can kill it and this time it is quicker to respond. Understanding connection between immune system, endocrine system and nervous system: The interaction between the Endocrine, immune, and nervous system is called the immune neuroendocrine network. The brain can control the immune system through the neuroendocrine network or by the autonomic nervous system which produces chemicals which bind to immune cells, similarly the immune system can communicate with the brain by using its chemical messengers (Ader, 2001). The chemical messengers used by the immune system to communicate with the brain are cytokines – when cytokines reach the brain, they are able to signal the brain that
