El optimismo fortalece el sistema inmune, señala una investigación: http://www.tendencias21.net/El-optimismo-fortalece-el-sistema-inmune,-senala-una-i

http://www.tendencias21.net/El-optimismo-fortalece-el-sistema-inmune,-senala-una-investigacion_b1967349.html
El optimismo fortalece el sistema inmune, señala una investigación

Mirar el futuro con optimismo ayuda a sentirse mejor realmente, señala un estudio de las universidades de Kentucky y de Lousiville, en Estados Unidos.

En la investigación, realizada durante un periodo de seis meses con 124 estudiantes universitarios, se constató que las perspectivas de éstos sobre su futuro condicionaban el estado de su sistema inmunológico y que una actitud optimista tenía efectos positivos en su salud.

Los científicos midieron las respuestas del sistema inmunológico de los participantes cada cierto tiempo y también realizaron encuestas periódicas para comprobar el estado mental de éstos. Así, se demostró que en los momentos en que se sentían más optimistas, el sistema inmune de los estudiantes respondía mejor ante ciertas enfermedades.

Estudios anteriores ya habían demostrado que el optimismo acerca de la salud ayuda a que ésta se recupere tras padecer alguna enfermedad o sufrir algún intervenciones quirúrgicas serias, como un transplante.

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News Release

March 23, 2010
For Immediate Release

Contact: Catherine Allen-West
Association for Psychological Science
202.293.9300
cwest@psychologicalscience.org

Optimism Boosts the Immune System

Feeling better about the future might help you feel better for real. In a new study, psychological scientists Suzanne Segerstrom of the University of Kentucky and Sandra Sephton of the University of Louisville studied how law students' expectations about the future affected their immune response. Their conclusions: Optimism may be good for your health.

Other studies have found that people who are optimistic about their health tend to do better. For example, people who are optimistic about heart transplant surgery recover better from that grueling operation. But it's not clear how optimism affects your health — or whether pessimism makes you less healthy.

For this study, reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, the researchers recruited first-year law students by sending them a packet during the summer before classes started. The 124 students that participated in the research were studied at five times over six months. Each time, they answered questions about how optimistic they felt about law school. Then they were injected with material that should summon an immune response and two days later, they came back to have the injection site measured. A larger bump in the skin means a stronger immune response. Immune systems are many-faceted; this test only measures the strength of the part that is responsible for fighting viral infections and some bacterial infections.

The students' general outlook on life — whether they had an optimistic disposition — didn't account for the differences in immune responses between students. But as each student's expectations about law school waxed and waned, their immune response followed along. At more optimistic times, they'd have bigger immune responses; at a more pessimistic time, a more sluggish immune response. So, being optimistic about success in a specific, important domain may promote better immunity against some infections.

Of course, the law students often have good reason to be optimistic or pessimistic; by a few months into the first semester, they've gotten some grades back and started to figure out if they're good or bad at law school. "I don't think that I would advise people that they should revise their expectations to be unrealistic," says Segerstrom. "But if people have slightly more positive views of the future than is actually true, that's adaptive."

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For more information about this study, please contact Suzanne Segerstrom at scsege0@email.uky.edu.

Psychological Science is ranked among the top 10 general psychology journals for impact by the Institute for Scientific Information. For a copy of the article "Optimistic Expectancies and Cell-Mediated Immunity: The Role of Positive Affect " and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Catherine Allen-West at 202-293-9300 or cwest@psychologicalscience.org.