When stress makes us sick

"Stress has a bad reputation," says Nida Ali, postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Vienna, "but it is really an adaptive response that helps us survive." In most of our evolutionary history, being able to adequately react to a presenting threat ‒ be it to fight or to flee ‒ was a matter of life and death. 

When stressed, the body produces hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. This ramps up blood pressure, sugar and oxygen uptake while slowing down non-essential processes. No need to digest your food when facing a leopard that is planning to digest you.

Stress helps us mobilise energy to deal with a challenging situation. When it is over, the stress response subsides and goes back to the baseline. 

"While the stress response is essential, it also puts strain on the body," says the psychologist. "Remaining in a constant state of alertness can lead to disease. For example, the stress and immune systems are closely linked. Chronic stress factors weaken immune defences, thereby increasing vulnerability." Examples include family issues, not finding a new job or the struggles of the publish-or-perish culture in academia. 

Biology, however, is only one side of the coin, Ali emphasises. "It is the psychology where our system 'decides' whether to appraise a situation as stressful." Stress is, in fact, relative: "I would be confident giving an impromptu public talk about my research. But if it were about rocket science, I would be lost. A rocket scientist, however, would be less stressed about that."

More persistent stress also affects people differently. While some fall sick, others don't. Ali aims to untangle how the body and the mind are 'talking' to each other – and what exactly goes wrong in this interaction when stress becomes pathological.

In lab experiments, Ali and her colleagues analyse biological and psychological parameters such as stress biomarkers found in the saliva of study participants as well as questionnaires. But they also look at stress and resilience in daily life using participant's self-reports as well as saliva samples. This allows them to address many different questions, such as: How does stress influence the reproductive system and vice versa? How does chronic stress in your childhood influence your resilience as an adult?

Her research, says Ali, is "like piecing together a puzzle. It's really fascinating to study stress and its far-reaching consequences from so many different angles." Building on her findings, she aims to develop novel interventions and coping strategies. "Everyone gets stressed sometimes. But by identifying the factors associated with pathological stress, we hope to develop targeted support to help those at greater risk because of the way their biology or psychology is working."