The relationship between stress and physical illness is extremely complex. Caution is needed before generalizing from animal research to humans, and inferring causation from corelational studies needs to be avoided. However, research has suggested that stress can cause colds, gastric, ulcers, and cardiovascular disorders. Stress may cause illness directly by affecting the working of the immune system (the activity of lymphocytes, natural killer sells, endorphins). The field that investigates this is called psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), but the approach has been criticized for being oversimplified. Stress may cause illnesses indirectly by affecting people’s life style in that they might drink or smoke more, or take less care of themselves.
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