Physical Health & Grief

One of the strange side effects of deep grief is that it greatly weakens your immune system.  Tomorrow marks 12 weeks to the day of when Max died.  And I have been sick (so sick) this past week. 

Here is how it works, according to an article written by Tom Gray - "The “alarm reaction” occurs immediately on contact with the stressor (grief at the death of our child). At the death the brain “translates” the stress of grief into a chemical reaction in the body. The pituitary gland located at the base of the brain is stimulated to produce a hormone called adrenocorticotrophin hormone (ACTH). This reaction is a “protective” one and in essence makes the body ready to do battle. The ACTH (from the pituitary gland) then travels to the adrenal gland, a gland at the top of the kidneys, which causes a chemical reaction which ultimately produces cortisone. As the cortisone level increases it causes the production of ACTH to level off.

What happens in the case of grief where the stress continues for many months? The cycle does not operate as it should. Because the stress is continuing, the production of ACTH is continuing thus causing the adrenal gland to produce more and more cortisone. The result is an abnormally high level of cortisone circulating in the blood sometimes exceeding ten to twenty times the normal levels.

A high level of cortisone is one of the things that causes our immune system (the system that normally tights off disease carrying bacteria fungi and viruses) to falter. The high level of cortisone affects yet another gland the thalamus which manufactures the white cells of our blood. With the thalamus not functioning properly It cannot produce white cells that are effective. Those white cells normally locate and phagocytize (eat up) the invading germs. viral particles or even pre-cancerous cells. Thus with the white cells unable to function properly the individual is 100% more susceptible to the most common germs."  http://psychcentral.com/lib/2006/your-health-and-grief/

As if grief wasn't debilitating enough, but your body reacts completely physically as well to knock you down.  I have been drinking lots of water and taking vitamin C, and hoping this passes very quickly.  I thought I had just been getting back into a normal routine!