Going to a party could help you get rid of the flu faster
4 April 2005
by Richard
Conan-Davies
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If mice are anything to go by they seem to recover faster from the flu if they have been 'stressed' by being forced to socialise. So perhaps going to a few short intense parties might actually be good for our immune system. Researchers from Ohio State Univeristy have suggested that their results would be helpful for the elderly who are receiving flu vaccines to have a better response in fighting new flu strains. Jacqueline Wiesehan who co-authored the study explained that "Stressed mice had a stronger immune response and were able to fight off the infection faster," The researchers compared groups of mice in which one group of three had an aggressive mouse dropped into their cage for 2 hours for 6 days in a row. The mice were then infected with the flu. They then went back and tested the mice 3 months later and exposed the virus to the mice by infecting their paw with ( a a kind of skin test really) and noticed that the those who had been socially stressed by the aggressive mouse had a more swollen paw than the other mice. This suggests that the stressed mice actually produced a tougher response to the flu. The researchers also reinfected the mice with the same virus and then measured the amount of T-Cells (immune memory cells) which tended to be greater in the stressed mice. The thinking here is that a similar effect may be helpful in protecting elderly people when they get the flu vaccine, a social stress might help to make their immune system remember the flu better and may help to fight a similar flu that they could catch later. |
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