Last update: 11 September, 2015
“Only happiness guarantees health and longevity” Ramón y Cajal, Santiago
Joy strengthens our arteries and when we fall in love, our neurons are strengthened. The Romans said "mens sana in corpore sano", that is emotions are connected to our body.
The power of emotions
Emotions have incredible power. Both positive and negative emotions directly affect our health and the well-being of our body. Below, we talk about the 12 emotions directly connected with our body.
12 emotions that act on the body
- Joy strengthens the arteries. Some cardiologists, including Dr. Michael Miller, conducted a study with a group of volunteers. In the part of the group that underwent listening to cheerful music, the arteries dilated up to 26%, similar to those who listened to aerobic music. Sad music, on the other hand, reduced the diameter of the arteries by 6%.
- When we fall in love, our neurons get stronger. Some Italian researchers have discovered that, when we fall in love, we produce a greater quantity of a protein that acts on the growth and survival of certain neurons. The level of this protein drops after a while, so the best thing is to fall in love… once in a while!
- Meditation protects the brain. A study carried out at the University of Montreal has shown that practicing meditation habitually leads to the enlargement of certain regions of the cerebral cortex (the gray matter). This enlargement results in a decrease in pain and cardiovascular problems. It is a habit that should be incorporated into one's daily life.
- Anger slows healing. Ohio researchers have shown that anger, fights and annoyances increase cytokines, the proteins responsible for inflammation, which help slow the healing process.
- Fear increases the risk of suffering from cardiovascular problems. Canadian researchers have shown that with a high level of stress, both blood pressure and the cortisol index increase.
- Loving lowers cholesterol. A very interesting study required a group of volunteers to write a letter about the love they feel for an important person. Another group, on the other hand, was asked to write something on a topic of their choice. Cholesterol levels were calculated before and after the time of writing and, in this way, it was possible to show that the group who wrote about love had lowered cholesterol scores.
- Anxiety lowers your defenses. It is proven that students under stress experience a lowering of the levels of T lymphocytes, the defense cells responsible for eliminating diseased cells and viruses.
- Distress can cause allergies. Warning: anxiety is not responsible for an allergy, but it is one of the factors that contribute to triggering a crisis and increasing its virulence.
- Crying is good. In the 80s, researcher William Frey revealed that tears eliminate large doses of norepinephrine (a neurotransmitter that releases cortisol). Nowadays, tears are known to be loaded with lysozyme, the enzyme responsible for destroying 95% of bacteria in suns. In addition, they also eliminate stress hormones. However, not all tears are created equal: one study showed that people who had cried in front of a moving film were loaded with stress-related substances, which did not happen in people who had cried because of an onion.
- Stress, in women who are entering menopause, makes you fat. Some Swedish scholars have found that stress hormones increase during menopause, which causes fat to accumulate in the belly and hips.
- A good mood is refreshing. The good mood releases endorphin, the so-called "happiness hormone", also growth hormone, in charge of restoring the body.
- The pain increases when you are warned that you will be in pain. The typical phrase "this will hurt you" has been shown to increase pain. A study from the University of Radboud gathered more than 100 volunteers and administered the same substance to all of them. Once they had taken the substance, some of them were warned that they were going to feel a severe itch; these were the only subjects who scratched incessantly.
