Stay away from the news. I know that in the 21st century, it sounds like an incredible idea to suggest that you stay away from the news. But the news that you read in the newspapers or that you hear on the evening news will make you sick. Guaranteed!
You see, scientists and biochemists are finding that when we’re happy, our brain secretes endorphins that support and strengthen our immune system. And when we’re unhappy, our brain secretes endorphins that send negative messages all through the immune system and make it weaker. And rather than fighting infection, bacteria, or even cancer, when your brain sends a negative message to your immune system via the endorphins, then the immune system loses the defence battle against the invaders. Now, I don’t know about you, but the evening news or the newspaper news are rarely exciting, stimulating or joy provoking.
The way your body works is that your thoughts and emotions trigger a chemical reaction in the brain, which then sends a message to all parts of your body via the bloodstream. That message is carried through transmitters that are neuropeptides, chains of amino acids. The blood reaches every single nook and cranny of your body and if there is a part that is already weakened by past injuries, constant stress of chronic fragility, the chemicals are more likely to deliver their negative message to that area, and reinforce that past trauma.
And the evening news tend to depress your immune system. Studies conducted at Stanford University on students taking final exams showed that their T-cells, the cells that normally fight colds, disease and cancer, were severely reduced during the time of exam stress. The students were more likely to get sick during exam season.
The same occurs in your body when you are exposed to depressing news or events. Think about it for a moment. What would really happen if you missed the latest evening news report?
Through the years, I have stayed away voluntarily from the news of any kind and I have noticed that if the news is important enough, it will reach me anyway. Either people around me will discuss it and inform me, or there will be headlines on the news stand. I find that I have missed really little of importance through the decades I have ‘missed’ the news. You might try maybe a day at a time, then two. Then an entire week without news. You could even occupy the extra time you gain for some stress reducing techniques.
Think of the brain as a machine for not merely filtering and storing this sensory input, but for associating it with other events or stimuli occurring simultaneously at any synapse or receptor along the way—this is learning. Let’s look at how this occurs in the process of vision, which is very advanced and complex in humans. After a visual signal hits the retina, the light-sensitive part of the eye, it must make its way across five more synapses as it moves from the back of the brain to the frontal cortex.
