Immune System and Cancer

Emotions Play A significant Role in Your Immune System – Search Images

Emotions play a significant role in the immune system1 2 3 4 5. Stress and mood disorders can impact the immune system, and research highlights the link between inflammation and depression 3 4.

There are many different types of emotions that have an influence on how we live and interact with others. At times, it may seem like we are ruled by these emotions. The choices we make, the actions we take, and the perceptions we have are all influenced by the feelings we are experiencing at any given moment.

Psychologists have also tried to identify the different types of emotions that people experience. A few different theories have emerged to categorize and explain the emotions that people feel.

Basic Emotions

During the 1970s, psychologist Paul Eckman identified six basic emotions that he suggested were universally experienced in all human cultures. The emotions he identified were happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise, and anger. He later expanded his list of basic emotions to include such things as pride, shame, embarrassment, and excitement.

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Combining Emotions

Psychologist Robert Plutchik proposed a “wheel of emotions” that worked something like the color wheel. Emotions can be combined to form different feelings, much like colors can be mixed to create other shades.

According to this theory, the more basic emotions act something like building blocks. More complex, sometimes mixed emotions, are blendings of these more basic ones.

For example, basic emotions such as joy and trust can be combined to create love.

A 2017 study suggests that there are far more basic emotions than previously believed.¹

In the study published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, researchers identified 27 different categories of emotion. Rather than being entirely distinct, however, the researchers found that people experience these emotions along a gradient.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the basic types of emotions and explore their impact on human behavior.

Happiness

Of all the different types of emotions, happiness tends to be the one that people strive for the most. Happiness is often defined as a pleasant emotional state that is characterized by feelings of contentment, joy, gratification, satisfaction, and well-being.

Research on happiness has increased significantly since the 1960s within a number of disciplines, including the branch of psychology known as positive psychology.

This type of emotion is sometimes expressed through:

Facial expressions: such as smiling
Body language: such as a relaxed stance
Tone of voice: such as an upbeat, pleasant way of speaking

While happiness is considered one of the basic human emotions, the things we think will create happiness tend to be heavily influenced by culture. For example, pop culture influences tend to emphasize that attaining certain things, such as buying a home or having a high-paying job, will result in happiness.

The realities of what actually contributes to happiness are often much more complex and more highly individualized.² People have long believed that happiness and health are connected, and research has supported the idea that happiness can play a role in both physical and mental health.

Happiness has been linked to a variety of outcomes including increased longevity and greater marital satisfaction.³ Conversely, unhappiness has been linked to a variety of poor health outcomes and challenges in relationships.

Stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness, for example, have been linked to things such as lowered immunity, increased inflammation, and decreased life expectancy.⁴

Sadness

Sadness is another type of emotion often defined as a transient emotional state characterized by feelings of disappointment, grief, hopelessness, disinterest, and dampened mood.

Like other emotions, sadness is something that all people experience from time to time. In some cases, people can experience prolonged and severe periods of sadness that can turn into depression. Sadness can be expressed in a number of ways, including:

Crying
Dampened mood
Lethargy
Quietness
Withdrawal from others

The type and severity of sadness can vary depending upon the root cause, and how people cope with such feelings can also differ.

Sadness can often lead people to engage in coping mechanisms such as avoiding other people, self-medicating, and ruminating on negative thoughts. Such behaviors can actually exacerbate feelings of sadness and prolong the duration of the emotion.

The Fear of Having Cancer Suppresses Your Immune System – Search

Therefore Loving Life Which is Opposite of Fear Enhances your Immune System – Search

Fear

Fear is a powerful emotion that can also play an important role in survival. When you face some sort of danger and experience fear, you go through what is known as the fight or flight response.

Your muscles become tense, your heart rate and respiration increase, and your mind becomes more alert, priming your body to either run from the danger or stand and fight.⁵

This response helps ensure that you are prepared to deal with threats in your environment effectively. Expressions of this type of emotion can include:

Facial expressions: such as widening the eyes and pulling back the chin
Body language: attempts to hide or flee from the threat
Physiological reactions: such as rapid breathing and heartbeat

Of course, not everyone experiences fear in the same way. Some people may be more sensitive to fear, and certain situations or objects may be more likely to trigger this emotion.

Fear is the emotional response to an immediate threat. We can also develop a similar reaction to anticipated threats or even our thoughts about potential dangers, and this is what we generally think of as anxiety. Social anxiety, for example, involves an anticipated fear of social situations.

Some people, on the other hand, actually seek out fear-provoking situations. Extreme sports and other thrills can be fear-inducing, but some people seem to thrive and even enjoy such feelings.

Repeated exposure to a feared object or situation can lead to familiarity and acclimation, which can reduce feelings of fear and anxiety.⁶

This is the idea behind exposure therapy, in which people are gradually exposed to the things that frighten them in a controlled and safe manner. Eventually, feelings of fear begin to decrease.

Disgust

Disgust is another of the original six basic emotions described by Eckman. Disgust can be displayed in a number of ways including:

Body language: turning away from the object of disgust
Physical reactions: such as vomiting or retching
Facial expressions: such as wrinkling the nose and curling the upper lip

This sense of revulsion can originate from a number of things, including an unpleasant taste, sight, or smell. Researchers believe that this emotion evolved as a reaction to foods that might be harmful or fatal.⁷ When people smell or taste foods that have gone bad, for example, disgust is a typical reaction.

Poor hygiene, infection, blood, rot, and death can also trigger a disgust response. This may be the body’s way of avoiding things that may carry transmittable diseases.⁷

People can also experience moral disgust when they observe others engaging in behaviors that they find distasteful, immoral, or evil.

Anger

Anger can be a particularly powerful emotion characterized by hostility, agitation, frustration, and antagonism toward others. Like fear, anger can affect the body’s fight-or-flight response.

When a threat generates feelings of anger, you may be inclined to fend off the danger and protect yourself. Anger is often displayed through:

Facial expressions: such as frowning or glaring
Body language: such as taking a strong stance or turning away
Tone of voice: such as speaking gruffly or yelling
Physiological responses: such as sweating or turning red
Aggressive behaviors: such as hitting, kicking, or throwing objects

While anger is often thought of as a negative emotion, it can sometimes be a good thing. It can be constructive in helping clarify your needs in a relationship, and it can also motivate you to take action and find solutions to things that are bothering you.

However, anger can become a problem when it is excessive or expressed in unhealthy, dangerous, or harmful ways. Uncontrolled anger can quickly turn to aggression, abuse, or violence.

Anger Issues: Take the Test

This type of emotion can have both mental and physical consequences. Unchecked anger can make it difficult to make rational decisions and can even have an impact on your physical health.⁸

Anger has been linked to coronary heart diseases and diabetes. It has also been linked to behaviors that pose health risks such as aggressive driving, alcohol consumption, and smoking.

Surprise

Surprise is another of Eckman’s six basic types of human emotions. It is usually quite brief and characterized by a physiological startle response following something unexpected.

This type of emotion can be positive, negative, or neutral. An unpleasant surprise, for example, might involve someone jumping out from behind a tree and scaring you as you walk to your car at night.

An example of a pleasant surprise would be arriving home to find that your closest friends have gathered to celebrate your birthday. Surprise is often characterized by:

Facial expressions: such as raising the brows, widening the eyes, and opening the mouth
Physical responses: such as jumping back
Verbal reactions: such as yelling, screaming, or gasping

Surprise is another type of emotion that can trigger the fight or flight response. When startled, people may experience a burst of adrenaline that helps prepare the body to either fight or flee.⁹

Surprise can have important effects on human behavior. For example, research has shown that people tend to disproportionately notice surprising events.

This is why surprising and unusual events in the news tend to stand out in memory more than others. Research has also found that people tend to be more swayed by surprising arguments and learn more from surprising information.

Other Types of Emotions

The six basic emotions described by Eckman are just a portion of the many different types of emotions that people are capable of experiencing. Eckman’s theory suggests that these core emotions are universal throughout cultures all over the world.

However, other theories and new research continue to explore the many different types of emotions and how they are classified. Eckman later added a number of other emotions to his list but suggested that, unlike his original six emotions, not all of these would necessarily be encoded through facial expressions. Some of the emotions he later identified included:

Amusement
Contempt
Contentment
Embarrassment
Excitement
Guilt
Pride in achievement
Relief
Satisfaction
Shame

Other Theories of Emotion

As with many concepts in psychology, not all theorists agree on how to classify emotions or what the basic emotions actually are. While Eckman’s theory is one of the best-known, other theorists have proposed their own ideas about what emotions make up the core of the human experience.¹⁰

For example, some researchers have suggested that there are only two or three basic emotions. Others have suggested that emotions exist in a hierarchy. Primary emotions such as love, joy, surprise, anger, and sadness can then be further broken down into secondary emotions. Love, for example, consists of secondary emotions, such as affection and longing.

These secondary emotions might then be broken down still further into what are known as tertiary emotions. The secondary emotion of affection includes tertiary emotions, such as liking, caring, compassion, and tenderness.

A more recent study suggests that there are at least 27 distinct emotions, all of which are highly interconnected.¹¹ After analyzing the responses of more than 800 men to more than 2,000 video clips, researchers created an interactive map to demonstrate how these emotions are related to one another.

“We found that 27 distinct dimensions, not six, were necessary to account for the way hundreds of people reliably reported feeling in response to each video,” explained the senior researcher Dacher Keltner, faculty co-director of the Greater Good Science Center.

In other words, emotions are not states that occur in isolation. Instead, the study suggests that there are gradients of emotion and that these different feelings are deeply inter-related.

Alan Cowen, the study’s lead author and former doctoral student in neuroscience at UC Berkeley, suggests that better clarifying the nature of our emotions can help scientists, psychologists, and physicians learn more about how emotions underlie brain activity, behavior, and mood. By building a better understanding of these states, he hopes that researchers can develop improved treatments for psychiatric conditions.

Final Thoughts

Emotions play a critical role in how we live our lives, from influencing how we engage with others in our day to day lives to affecting the decisions we make. By understanding some of the different types of emotions, you can gain a deeper understanding of how these emotions are expressed and the impact they have on your behavior.

It is important to remember, however, that no emotion is an island. Instead, the many emotions you experience are nuanced and complex, working together to create the rich and varied fabric of your emotional life.

A new study highlights the link between inflammation and depression, challenging traditional neurotransmitter-focused theories. An examination of decades of research suggests that immune system imbalances may trigger and sustain depressive symptoms, particularly in high-risk groups. This research paves the way for personalized treatments targeting inflammation, offering new hope for those unresponsive to conventional therapies.

Depression, recognized as the leading cause of disability worldwide, affects nearly one in six people over their lifetimes. Despite decades of research, much remains unknown about the biological mechanisms underlying this debilitating condition. Professor Raz Yirmiya, a pioneering researcher in the field of inflammation and depression from the Department of Psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has recently published a comprehensive review in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, offering new insights that challenge long-held beliefs and open pathways toward personalized treatment.

Traditional theories of depression have focused on neurotransmitters like serotonin and norepinephrine, suggesting that a deficiency in these brain chemicals may lead to depressive symptoms. While widely accepted, these theories have failed to explain why a significant portion of patients do not respond to conventional antidepressants. Over the last 30 years, Professor Yirmiya’s research, along with others’, has pointed to a different culprit: chronic inflammation, both in the body and the brain.

“In many individuals, depression results from inflammatory processes,” explains Professor Yirmiya, who was one of the first researchers to draw connections between immune system dysfunction and depression in the 1990s. In his latest review, he carefully analyzed the 100 most-cited papers in the field, creating what he calls a “panoramic view” of the complex interactions between inflammation and depressive symptoms.

Research dating back to the 1980s has highlighted that depressed individuals often exhibit compromised immune functions. Surprisingly, certain immune-boosting treatments for cancer and hepatitis, which induce an inflammatory response, have been found to cause severe depressive symptoms in patients, offering a glimpse into the immune system’s role in mental health. Yirmiya’s own experiments further established a mechanistic link between inflammation and mood, showing that healthy individuals injected with low doses of immune-stimulating agents exhibit a temporary depressive state, which can be prevented by either anti-inflammatory or conventional antidepressant treatments.

Professor Yirmiya and colleagues have also shown that stress—often a major trigger for depression—can prompt inflammatory processes, impacting the brain’s microglia cells, which are the representatives of the immune system in the brain. Their recent findings reveal that stress-related inflammatory responses may initially activate microglia, but prolonged stress eventually exhausts and damages them, thereby sustaining or worsening depression. “This dynamic cycle of activation and degeneration of microglia mirrors the progression of depression itself,” says Yirmiya.

The review also highlights studies that suggest specific groups, such as elderly individuals, those with physical illnesses, individuals who suffered from early childhood adversity, and patients with treatment-resistant depression, are particularly susceptible to inflammation-linked depression. The findings reveal the necessity of anti-inflammatory treatments for certain patients and for microglia-boosting treatments to other patients, indicating that a personalized approach to treatment may prove more effective than traditional one-size-fits-all antidepressant therapy.

Professor Yirmiya concludes, “The research findings from the past three decades underscore the critical role of the immune system in depression. Moving forward, a personalized medicine approach—tailoring treatment based on the patient’s specific inflammatory profile—offers hope to millions of sufferers who find little relief in standard therapies. By embracing these advancements, we’re not just treating symptoms; we’re addressing the underlying causes.”

This study not only sheds light on the origins of depression but also sets the stage for future therapeutic approaches, particularly those that target the immune system. Through further investigation, Professor Yirmiya aims to inspire a new wave of treatments designed to replace despair with hope for those suffering from depression.

Healing Your Mind Body and Spirit – Search

Healing the body, mind, and spirit involves achieving proper balance in life1. Here are some key points:

Laughter is the best medicine in the Bible – Search Proverbs 17:22The saying “laughter is the best medicine” actually comes from the Bible. Proverbs 17:22 states that “a merry heart does good, like medicine”1 2 3 4. This ancient wisdom recognizes the spiritual, emotional, and physical benefits of joy and laughter.

Music is Quite Healing – SearchResearch has shown that music has a profound effect on your body and psyche. In fact, there’s a growing field of healthcare known as music therapy, which uses music to heal. People who practice music therapy are finding it can help cancer patients, children with ADD, and others.

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Cowen AS, Keltner D. Self-report captures 27 distinct categories of emotion bridged by continuous gradients. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2017;114(38):E7900-E7909. doi:10.1073/pnas.1702247114
Gruber J, Moskowitz JT, eds. Positive Emotion, Integrating the Light Sides and Dark Sides. Oxford University Press; 2014. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199926725.001.0001
Lawrence EM, Rogers RG, Wadsworth T. Happiness and longevity in the United States. Soc Sci Med. 2015;145:115-119. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.09.020
Wolkowitz OM, Epel ES, Reus VI, Mellon SH. Depression gets old fast: Do stress and depression accelerate cell aging? Depress Anxiety. 2010;27(4):327-338. doi:10.1002/da.20686
Kozlowska K, Walker P, Mclean L, Carrive P. Fear and the defense cascade: Clinical implications and management. Harv Rev Psychiatry. 2015;23(4):263-287. doi:10.1097/HRP.0000000000000065
Adolphs R. The biology of fear. Curr Biol. 2013;23(2):R79-93. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.11.055
Oaten M, Stevenson RJ, Case TI. Disgust as a disease-avoidance mechanism. Psychol Bull. 2009;135(2):303-321. doi:10.1037/a0014823
Staicu ML, Cuţov M. Anger and health risk behaviors. J Med Life. 2010;3(4):372-375.
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Anwar Y. Emoji fans take heart: Scientists pinpoint 27 states of emotion. Berkeley News; 2017.

Additional Reading

Mellers B, Fincher K, Drummond C, Bigony M. Surprise: A belief or an emotion? In: Progress in Brain Research. Vol 202. Elsevier; 2013:3-19. doi:10.1016/B978-0-444-62604-2.00001-0
Shirai, M & Suzuki, N. Is sadness only one emotion? Psychological and physiological responses to sadness induced by two different situations: “Loss of someone” and “failure to achieve a goal.” Frontiers in Psychology. 2017;8:288. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00288

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd
Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the “Everything Psychology Book.”

Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2406748121

How the immune system fails as cancer arises

Story by Science X staff

Cancer has been described as “a wound that does not heal,” implying that the immune system is unable to wipe out invading tumor cells. A new discovery confirms that a key molecule can reprogram immune cells that normally protect against infection and cancer, turning them into bad guys that promote cancer growth.

Studying the behavior of these “pro-tumor” immune cells is important because they could be targets for therapies that block their harmful activity, said Minsoo Kim, Ph.D., corresponding author of the study and a research leader at the Wilmot Cancer Institute.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the discovery.

Kim led a team of scientists investigating the dynamic interactions that occur between cells in the tumor environment, and the underlying factors that cause the harmful transformation of immune cells from good to bad.

They found that PAF (platelet-activating factor) is the key molecule that controls the destiny of the immune cells. PAF not only recruits cancer-promoting cells, but it also suppresses the immune system’s ability to fight back. In addition, they found that multiple cancers rely on the same PAF signals.

“This is what could be most significant,” said Kim, a Dean’s professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “Because if we find a treatment that could interfere with PAF, it could potentially apply to many types of cancer.”

Much of the team’s work focused on pancreatic cancer cells. It is one of the most deadly cancers, with a five-year survival rate of about 12%, and is notoriously hard to treat because pancreatic tumors are surrounded by a toxic stew of proteins and other tissues that protect the cancer from the immune system’s natural role to attack invaders.

They also studied breast, ovarian, colorectal, and lung cancer cells, using advanced 3D imaging technology to watch the behavior of immune cells as they swarmed to the cancerous region.

More information: Ankit Dahal et al, Platelet-activating factor (PAF) promotes immunosuppressive neutrophil differentiation within tumors, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2406748121

Provided by University of Rochester Medical CenterThis story was originally published on Medical Xpress. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest sci-tech news updates.

How the immune system fails as cancer arises