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Dr Christophe de Jaeger (Longevity and geriatrics)
After significant trauma, some people develop post-traumatic stress. Beyond its impact on mental health, this disorder affects physical health. We are now discovering that it could promote the onset of autoimmune diseases.
Can chronic stress and autoimmune disease have a link? According to a recent study conducted in 2022, the answer would be physiological and to be sought on the side of stress-induced inflammation. A relationship highlighted in people suffering from post-traumatic stress.
What are the effects of post-traumatic stress?
After being exposed to a traumatic event in their life (war, violent spouse, extremely stressful situation at work, etc.), some people develop post-traumatic stress disorder. It is a psychiatric disorder affecting mood and cognition. This chronic and powerful stress also has profound physical effects and is often accompanied by inflammation. The condition frequently occurs at the same time as autoimmune diseases.
A 2018 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) examined 106,000 people in Sweden diagnosed with stress-related disorders. The researchers found that PTSD was indeed linked to the later development of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn’s disease and celiac disease. But at this stage the study was observational, and only presented an association and not a causal link.
Inflammation, the link between post-traumatic stress and autoimmune disease
More recently, a study revealed that the causal link between PTSD and inflammation not only existed, but could operate in both directions. Thus the immune system is particularly sensitive to stress. The body’s main stress hormone, cortisol, generally helps balance immune function. But when the stress is severe, it can lead to increased inflammation. The researchers found that some people with PTSD had higher concentrations of inflammatory markers than controls, including C-reactive protein, interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α.
Normally, cortisol acts as a natural inhibitor of inflammation. But when stress is pervasive or extreme, the body starts to become cortisol resistant or doesn’t produce as much cortisol. When this happens, inflammation can increase and lead to a range of diseases and disorders, including autoimmune diseases, the authors explain.
Not everyone who experiences stress develops an autoimmune disease.
If the link between chronic stress and autoimmune disease seems to be established to date, this does not mean that the two necessarily go hand in hand. “Stress probably doesn’t cause autoimmune disease per se”says Suzanne Segerstrom, PhD, professor of psychology at Healthline magazine on this subject. “However, for people already at risk, possibly due to genetic predisposition, stress could be one of the factors that causes the disease to develop.”
Thus, long-term stress alters immune function and health, but this link must be better studied, in addition to other factors, in particular hereditary.
Can stress damage be prevented?
No vaccine or pill can magically make chronic, long-lasting stress disappear. Nevertheless, researchers say that treating stress when it arises can protect or prevent the development of an autoimmune disease. As such, methods such as relaxation and meditation can combat the effects of stress.
The opinion of Dr De Jaeger, physiognomist
“The fact of updating this clear link between post-traumatic stress and autoimmune diseases makes sense. What we have known for a long time is that stress will have a very pejorative influence on the entire immune system. and can promote cancers, neurodegenerative diseases… Effects that are all the more important and impacting as we are dealing with a sensitive organism, or as this stress intensifies, or lasts over time. now that this will increase inflammation and the risk of an autoimmune disease appearing. The next step is now to identify the populations most sensitive to stress, whether physically or genetically, in order to be able to better manage this condition, with the tools in our possession”.