Dealer's Choice #1

Psychoneuroimmunology

Scientists seem to prefer a super-word to represent what they are studying, which in a way somehow encourages my self-importance because I can easily pretend to have known something profound (or not, nerd).

Don’t feel scared for a second; I won’t make you read another textbook. Actually, the etymology of such title is usually very simple. For this one, it’s psycho-neuro-immun-ology.

This subfield of psychology examines the way human thoughts influence immunity. Its major discovery, in a nutshell, is that what we think does have an impact on our actual health.

For a straightforward example, if you give someone who is allergic to roses a fake rose, that person may get an allergic reaction to that fake rose. For another example, drinking milk and throwing up for one time leads to the feeling of nausea on seeing milk again.

It is the other side of Placebo effect, which found that taking fake pills can actually cure patients.

Fake medication treats people, and fake poison hurts people. In both situations, actual substance doesn’t affect our health, but illusion does. Imagination can have real effects on bodily condition. One long-term study found that intensive midterms decrease students’ lymphocyte production, the subtypes of white blood cells in our immune system.

In short, our immunity responds to stress. Stress makes you physically sick.

One extreme scenario of this theory is that a person could be scared to death. In 2009, a man in North Carolina was charged with first-degree murder of an old lady whom the police report said he scared to death. What really happened was that the man broke into a house during the middle of the night trying to steal, but the lady happened to get up. At first the man attempted to hide in the kitchen where he got in, but as the lady walked to the room he realized that he was doomed to be found, so he suddenly jumped out to shock the lady in order to buy time to flee. But that shock was fatal.

How does that happen? Simply speaking, in life-threatening situations, the body automatically produces more adrenaline (same substance people produce before and during sex). Some more adrenaline is good for fight-or-flight responses, but a large amount of it is harmful to people especially if their hearts are weak. Damage to the heart is almost the only reason to sudden death. Adrenaline rush crushes the heart.

So yes, good-natured chaff can hurt people physically. Don't think you can get out of responsibility as long as you don't touch a person. Many people don't take psychological violence seriously, when they should.