Well-being and immune response: a multi-system perspective

• Published in: Current opinion in pharmacology Vol. 29; pp. 34 - 41
• Main Authors: Lasselin, Julie, Alvarez-Salas, Elena, Grigoleit, Jan-Sebastian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2016
• Subjects: Animals; Depression - immunology; Endotoxemia - immunology; Health Status; Humans; Immune System - metabolism; Immunity, Innate - physiology; Internal Medicine; Life Style; Medical Education; Stress, Physiological - immunology; Stress, Psychological - immunology
• ISSN: 1471-4892; 1471-4973; 1471-4973
• DOI: 10.1016/j.coph.2016.05.003

•The effect of well-being in modulating immune response is reviewed.•Emotional but also physiological well-being impact the response to immune challenge.•Several systems interactions underlie the effect of well-being on immune response.•This has important clinical applications in chronic disease prevention or therapies. Whereas it is well-established that inflammation and other immune responses can change how we feel, most people are still surprised to hear that, conversely, well-being and its violations also affect our immune system. Here we show that those effects are highly adaptive and bear potential for both research and therapeutic applications. The studies discussed in this review demonstrate that immunity is tuned by ones emotions, personality, and social status as well as by other life style variables like sleep, nutrition, obesity, or exercise. We further provide a short excursion on the effects of stress and depression on immunity and discuss acute experimental endotoxemia as a model to study the effects of well-being on the innate immune response in humans.