Body Effects of Emotions

Cardiovascular response

During a fit of rage, the blood clotting time is greatly reduced. In case of resentment, regret, or anger, the pulse, blood pressure, and heart rate are increased. Anxiety increases heart rate, oxygen consumption, and heart rate, but decreases peripheral resistance. In heart patients, anxiety and resentment cause the electrocardiogram to change.

Emotional effects on body functions are not unique to man. Myocardial infarction occurs in Kenyan baboons undergoing emotional stress when caught in the absence of cardiovascular disease. In this situation, a myocardial infarction occurs on a functional basis, probably caused by coronary artery spasm caused by anger.

Psychogenic fainting initiated by emotional factors such as fear is associated with an over-activation of the parasympathetic, which leads to vasodilation in the splanchnic region and a decrease in circulating blood volume and loss of consciousness.

Gastrointestinal response

In patients with gastrointestinal symptoms, they are caused more by dysfunction than by organic disease. Gastric secretion is influenced by anger, joy, and anxiety. They are also affected by the secretion of saliva, intestinal juices, and bile.

Direct observation of the human colon by performing fistulas and colostomies and gastric mucosa by gastrotomy showed that fear, anxiety, and pain increase peristalsis, redness, and swelling of the mucous membrane, while depression causes decreased motility and pallor of the mucous membrane.

Psycho-somatic symptoms may be the result of secretory disorders such as salivation, dry mouth, hyperchlorhydria, functional hyperinsulinism, and mucosal colitis or, alternatively, may be caused by disorders of motor function such as esophageal spasm, gastric hypermotility, spastic colon, constipation, and diarrhea.

It is unclear whether a functional disorder such as hyperchlorhydria resulting from psychosomatic disorders can cause peptic ulcers. A peptic ulcer can also occur after vagus and splanchnic nerve sectioning, so it is more likely that emotional stimuli are just predisposing factors and not the root cause.

The skin response

The skin plays an important role in regulating body temperature through perspiration, and its functions are controlled by the autonomic nervous system. Vasoconstriction, vasodilation, pilomotor activity, and sweating are four common physiological processes of the skin and they are largely controlled by the autonomic nervous system.

Thermal perspiration differs from emotional perspiration. Thermal perspiration is most evident on the forehead, neck, and face, and back of the torso and is controlled by the center of temperature in the hypothalamus.

Emotional perspiration is more evident on the palms and soles and armpits. Patients with cold emotional sweating do not show hand sweating when exposed to heat, although other body surfaces respond to heat through sweating.

Itching can be purely psychogenic, regardless of specific arousal. Itching can be triggered by an emotional experience and this can be demonstrated by measuring the intradermal level of histamine before and after emotional stress.

An increased tone of the sympathetic nervous system in patients is reflected in the vasoconstriction of the blood vessels in the skin. Sedation of anxious patients causes a decrease in excessive sympathetic nerve activity and restores dermal circulation.

Respiratory responses

The influence of emotions on respiratory function is expressed by expressions such as "my breath was cut off". The efferent innervation of the respiratory tract, which includes the nasal mucosa, consists of sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves.

The parasympathetic nerves have a constricting effect on the smooth muscles of the respiratory tract, and the sympathetic nerves have a relaxing effect. If the parasympathetic stimulation on the lungs is excessive, there is an over-secretion of the mucous cells and an over-dilation of the blood vessels.

This causes swelling of the bronchial mucosa and airway congestion. In addition, the smooth muscles of the bronchial walls contract.

The effects of emotional factors are mediated by the parasympathetic nervous system, and acetylcholine, like histamine, can cause all the symptoms and tissue changes as in the case of asthma. They can also affect the nasal mucosa.

Thus, parasympathetic overactivation of the nose leads to thickening of the mucous membrane and an aqueous secretion typical of vasomotor rhinitis. The most likely emotional factors that produce these parasympathetic effects are feelings of humiliation and resentment. Factors that lead to increased parasympathetic activity will stimulate vasomotor rhinitis or bronchial asthma.

Although hay fever is considered a prototype of allergic disorders, emotional factors play a stimulating role in many cases, and in most patients with perennial rhinitis, emotional factors play an important role.

It has been shown experimentally that when the nasal mucosa is congested due to emotional stress, exposure to pollen, which normally does not cause symptoms, will cause hay fever.

Thus allergic responses are potentiated by emotional stresses both clinically and experimentally. Respiratory infections can cause mucosal cells to over-secrete and blood vessels to dilate, and this will prolong or intensify allergic asthma attacks.

Asthma is usually a multi-causal disorder in which infection, allergies, and emotional factors play an important role. Infection is the leading cause of disease and is responsible for over 50% of illnesses.

Allergies are responsible for 25% of cases of illness, and emotional factors for the other 25%. It is important to realize that the main cause of asthma is not the dominant etiological factor during the disease. Thus, a child who develops asthma as a result of infection may later have asthma attacks due to emotional stress.

It is important to emphasize once again that in most psychosomatic disorders the etiological factors are few, and the contribution of the emotional component is of considerable relevance.