A new study conducted by researchers at Pennsylvania State University has found that frequent negative mood like sadness and anger are associated with higher levels of inflammation, thus signaling the poor health status of the person.
During the study, researchers figured out that negative mood measured multiple times a day is directly associated with higher levels of inflammatory biomarkers. It should be noted that inflammation is a part of the body's immune response system when infections, wounds and tissue damage happens. Chronic infections may make the victim vulnerable to various diseases like cardiovascular issues, diabetes and some types of cancers.
In the study published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, participants were asked to recall their feelings over a period of time and were also asked to report how they feel in daily life. After participants did their self-assessment, researchers tested their blood to measure inflammation markers.
Researchers found that inflammation markers were on the higher side among people who assessed themselves inflicted with negative mood.
"We hope that this research will prompt investigators to include momentary measures of stress and affect in research examining inflammation, to replicate the current findings and help characterize the mechanisms underlying associations between affect and inflammation," said Jennifer Graham-Engeland, an associate professor at the Pennsylvania State University.
A few months back, a team of researchers at Japan has found that elderly people who experience knee pain are more likely to develop depression. Researchers revealed that being the victim of severe knee pain will drastically affect the person's quality of life, and this is the main reason behind the trigger of depression.
All these two studies indicate that the human body and mind are interconnected in one way or the other, and even a small ailment in the human body will directly reflect on the affected person's mind.
