Of all the things that we can do to boost our immune system, stress can seem to be the most difficult one to control. All kinds of things come up everyday, whether they involve work, friends, or family life that cause us some level of stress. Low levels of stress are actually good for us and can help us to excel (as in the case of participating in sports).

But when stress levels increase to the point where it causes us to react negatively, or to constantly be in the “fight or flight” mode it starts to have a negative effect on our overall health. Besides the negative impact on our social situation (nobody likes to be around terse grump) the body will be able to protect itself less effectively from infection.

The “fight or flight” response does some interesting things to our physiology. Since the body is reacting like there is an immediate physical threat to deal with, all of the body’s systems put a priority on an immediate physical response, causing us to be more jumpy and irritable. All of the systems that would normally be working on healing and protecting the body are given a low priority (as they don’t help with short term survival) which then leads to more long term problems.

People with higher stress levels tend to have a harder time losing weight, because the body’s metabolism is out of whack. People with high stress levels also get sick more often since immunity is one of systems that becomes a low priority and gets less of the body’s resources.

Employers should take note!

Create a comfortable workplace and place reasonable workloads on workers. Overloading workers will cause stress, reducing the strength of the immune system and making them more susceptible to illness. This of course leads to lost worker productivity. So the ironic twist is that a company trying to get more out of it’s workforce can actually decrease output by placing greater demands on workers.

The one tip to take away from all of this is that if you find yourself being more susceptible to illness than most people, check your stress level. Take some steps to help decrease the level of stress in your life. Outside forces can’t always be controlled, but try to take the time to do things you enjoy, get some exercise, and face challenges with a positive attitude.