foreign we are going to learn about the connection between emotion and health were there any times you notice yourself feeling sick and found out that it was due to stress if yes the discussion most likely may interest you just think for a moment where do unexpressed emotions go for example a young girl is angry at her mother for not giving her her favorite cookie she may stomp her feet throw a temper tantrum or if the child is not allowed to express this anger might become passive or numb psychologists suggest that expression of emotion in a safe space is healthy If the child is not allowed to express the anger it may store that emotion in its body and similar expression suppression over time will lead to some health issues we are all aware of the Mind Body Connection that these two affect each other simultaneously research suggests that inadequate emotional expression especially of negative feelings can have an adverse effect on the progression of certain types of illness such as cancer type d personality is a personality type that that is characterized by a general tendency to cope with stress by keeping negative emotions to oneself people who exhibit this Behavior pattern are more likely to experience suppressed immune systems and health related problems people who tend to experience negative emotions and who also inhibit self-expression in their social interactions are exhibiting a pattern of behavior recently termed the type D for distressed personality types individuals who cope with stress by keeping their negative emotions to themselves are likely to experience suppressed immune system greater recurrence of cancer and higher mortality rates in contrast patients who demonstrate positive affect especially Joy well-being and happiness increase the likelihood of recovery an intriguing finding is the relation between expression of distress and treatment outcome open expression of negative affect and a willingness to fight illness are sometimes associated with greater Union function decreased recurrence rates and increased survival time even among patients at Advanced stages of cancer for example combative individuals those who Express anger about getting cancer and hostility towards their doctor and family members often live longer than patients who passively accept their fate and quietly undergo treatment emotion can also play a role in the progression of hypertension or high blood pressure a condition in which the pressure within the blood vessels is abnormally High prolonged hypertension when untreated can result in extensive damage to the entire circulatory system indeed about 30 percent of cardiovascular diseases death each year are attributable to hypertension some evidence suggests that emotional stressors can affect the regulation of blood pressure through neuro-hormonal mechanisms for example anxiety and hostility can increase General arousal and facilitate the release of catecholamines a class of neurotransmitters that play an important role in the sympathetic nervous system the release of catecholamine epinephrine has the effect of boosting a person's overall Readiness to act a rise in blood pressure is part of this overall readiness although the effects of emotional stressors are usually brief extreme reactivity anxiety hostility and anger May indicate a predisposition to develop hypertension not surprisingly the strongest relations between emotions and blood pressure have been found for unexpressed anger and hostility stress and immune function short-term suppression of the immune system is not dangerous however chronic separation leaves the body vulnerable to infection and disease there's a research done by key Colt Glasser and her colleagues the study conducted to investigate whether stress of important examinations has an effect on the functioning of the immune system this was a natural experiment the researchers took blood samples of 75 first-year medical students 49 males and 2016 males all of whom were volunteers blood samples were taken one month before their final examinations where there was relatively low stress and during the examinations where there was high stress immune functioning was assessed by measuring T cells activity in the blood samples the students were also given questionnaires to assess psychological variables such as life events and loneliness and the findings indicated the blood sample taken from the first group which was before the exams contained more T cells compared to blood samples taken during the exams the volunteers were also assessed using behavioral Majors on both occasions they were given questionnaires to assess psychiatric symptoms loneliness and life events this was because there are theories which suggest that all the three variables are associated with increased level of stress hence key called lesser and colleagues found that immune responses were especially weak in those students who reported feeling most lonely as well as those who were experiencing the stressful life events and psychiatric symptoms such as depression or anxiety fortunately research has shown that people can learn to reduce such tendencies in one study gidran and Davidson identified a group of participants who scored high on majors of cynical hostility the harmful component of the type a behavior half of these persons were assigned to an eight-week intervention specifically designed to modify cynical hostility participants assigned to the intervention condition attended weekly meetings monitored their hostility daily and received instructions in the use of specific coping skills for example they learned to use relaxation exercises and practiced ways to vent their angry feelings the participants in the intervention group showed significant Improvement on majors of cynical hostility whereas participants assigned to the control group did not we also know some other positive psychology interventions that lead to increased immune system functioning such as practicing gratitude mindfulness and yoga researchers suggest doing contemplative practices such as these lead to better mood and better health and well-being with this we come to the end of this class thank you for participating