The Fabric 0f Mind

 

Anatomy of an Illness:
IN A Study group of 121 ethnically diverse and healthy adults that were recruited. These were comprised of 86 females and 35 males with an average age of          24 (range 18-59) and an average body mass index of 23. The participants completed a personality test which measures five major dimensions of personality — extraversion, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness — (NEO-FFI McCrae and Costa, 2004). Blood samples were collected from each volunteer for gene expression analysis and their typical smoking, drinking and exercise behaviours were also recorded for control purposes. Gene expression analysis was carried out at the Social Genomics Core Laboratory at UCLA.

Extraversion boosts immune system

Leading the research, Professor Kavita Vedhara, from The University of Nottingham’s School of Medicine, said: “Results indicated  ‘extraversion’ was significantly associated with an increased expression of pro-inflammatory genes and ‘conscientiousness’ was linked to a reduced expression of pro-inflammatory genes.
In other words, individuals whom we would expect to be exposed to more infections as a result of their socially orientated nature (i.e., extraverts) appear to have immune systems that we would expect can deal effectively with infection. While individuals who may be less exposed to infections because of their cautious/conscientious dispositions have immune systems that may respond less well. We can’t, however, say which came first. Is this our biology determining our psychology or our psychology determining our biology?”
These two clear associations were independent of the recorded health behaviours of the participants and subsets of white blood cells which are the cells of the body’s immune system. The study also found that expression of antiviral/antibody-related genes was not significantly associated with any personality dimension.
In the remaining three categories of personality, ‘openness’ also trended towards a reduced expression of pro-inflammatory genes and ‘neuroticism’ and ‘agreeableness’ remained unassociated with gene expression.
The research concludes that although the biological mechanisms of these associations need to be explored in future research, these new data may shed new light on the long-observed epidemiological associations between personality, physical health, and human longevity.
‘Personality and gene expression: Do individual differences exist in the leukocyte transcriptome?’ by Kavita Vedhara, Sana Gill, Lameese Eldesouky, Bruce Campbell, Jesusa Arevalo, Jeffrey Ma and Steven Cole, is now available online in Psychoneuroendocrinology, an Elsevier journal.

— Ends —

 

In the 1980s, my father, Richard Bergland, collaborated with Norman Cousins.                  In his book The Fabric of Mind (the link is external) my father wrote,

Therefore it is astonishing to note that they herald a new champion: Norman Cousins, a writer who preaches that ‘hormones of happiness‘ may be released by pleasure,  joy,  humour,  and satisfaction. The rejuvenating power of belly laughter, which Cousins found, when  he  first described  in America’s top medical journal, The New England Journal of Medicine, and later in his book The Anatomy of an Illness.

As a child, Norman Cousins suffered from poor health and was misdiagnosed with tuberculosis and placed in a sanatorium. Being surrounded by illness, trapped indoors, and detached from the vitality of the outside world shaped Cousins’ lifelong approach to sickness and health.

Cousins said that as a youngster he “set out to discover exuberance.” As a teenager, he dedicated himself to athletics and used baseball as a way to fortify his resilience.

As an adult—when Cousins was diagnosed with a terminal illness—he decided  a hospital environment wasn’t the best place for his body to get well. Against his doctors advice he developed a personalized recovery program based on a positive attitude, love, faith, hope, and laughter.

Cousins said, “I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep.” He reported, “When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval.”

Recently, other researchers have found evidence that explains how some aspects of our personality may affect our health and well-being. These new findings support long-observed associations between personality traits, physical health, and longevity.

In December 2014, a team of health psychologists at The University of Nottingham and the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) released a study which examined the relationship between certain personality traits and the expression of genes that can affect someone’s health by impacting his or her immune system.

Their study (link is external) used highly sensitive microarray technology to examine relationships between the five major human personality traits and two groups of genes active in human white blood cells (leukocytes): one involving inflammation, and another involving antiviral responses and antibodies.

The participants completed a personality test which measures the classic five major dimensions of personality—extraversion, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

Blood samples were collected from each volunteer for gene expression analysis and their typical smoking, drinking and exercise behaviors were also recorded for control purposes.    The analysis of gene expressions was performed at the Social Genomics Core Laboratory at UCLA.

The findings indicated that ‘extraversion’ was significantly associated with an increased expression of pro-inflammatory genes. This implies that extroverts—who would tend to be exposed to more infections as a result of their socially orientated disposition—appeared to have immune system responses that paralleled the increased risk of exposure to germs and allowed them to deal more effectively with infection.

So Human an Animal

In the early 1960s, before I was born, my mother worked with René Dubos at the Rockefeller Institute. René Dubos was a microbiologist and humanitarian credited with discoveries which led to the first antibiotics that were ever manufactured commercially. Prophetically, after his discovery Dubos warned of potential microbial resistance to antibiotics (superbugs) and the importance of humans being exposed to some germs.

My mom took this advice seriously, and encouraged me to be outgoing and curious when I was growing up in Manhattan. She also considered a part of my childhood development the“enriched  environment” of  culture, diversity,  and  ideas  that New York City  had  to  offer—but viewed the international germs that my sisters and I were exposed to everyday as an imp

In 1969, René Dubos won The Pulitzer Prize for So Human, An Animal: How We Are Shaped by Surroundings and Events (link is external) which is one of my all-time favorite books and  has influenced me and my family tremendously. René Dubos was such a mentor to my parents … that they promised to name their first born child after him, hence my older sister’s name, Renée Bergland.

In the 1960s, antibiotics were generally being over-prescribed. Because of the knowledge my parents gained from Dubos, they only allowed me and my siblings to take an antibiotic if it was clearly a non-viral infection that our own immune system couldn’t overcome without drugs. I believe that this has kept my immune system stronger throughout my lifespan.

My mom also strongly encouraged me and my siblings to be adventurous and open to new experience knowing  this exposure would strengthen our immune systems by exposing us to a wide range of microbes.

Thankfully, being sequestered in a sterilized plastic bubble was never        an option when  I was growing up. In my imagination, I have childhood memories of my mom almost encouraging me to lick the subway poles to boost my immune response when I was a toddler, although I’m sure she never took it that far.

Neuroplasticity and Free-Will Make Some Personality Traits Malleable

The recent University of Nottingham study begs the age old nature-nurture question of  whether  biology determines a psychological disposition  o r if  psychology determines our biology. Our personality traits  and  genetic resilience are probably always going to be a mix of both nature and nuture.

I am of a strong belief that mindset and personality are never static or fixed. Yes, each of us is born with unique dispositions but neuroplasticity and our free-will gives every person the ability to fine-tune his or her explanatory style and attitude towards life to some degree. Many of your Big-5 personality traits that you might want to amplify or diminish are in the locus of your control.

I also believe strongly that there is a time and place for all five personality traits to take center stage.  Just like the spokes on  the wheel of a bicycle,  each trait has an important role in our individual and collective survival.  For example,  introversion and introspection throughout the day may be just as important as extraversion, or even more important on certain days. That said,  I believe there is very little room  for chronic neuroticism in any of our lives. ortant part of building our resilience.

In The Athlete’s Way I have a section based on the Five-Factor Personality Model that discusses the role that balancing these five traits played in our evolutionary progress and homeostasis from a neurobiological perspective.

I describe the role of each trait saying, “We developed a sensitivity to   stress (Neuroticism), the need for company, protection and mating (Extroversion), the ability to problem solve (Openness to experience),        the aptitude to cooperate and work collectively (Agreeableness)  and           an obligation to meet social and moral needs of your community (Conscitentoiusness).”

Clearly, my father’s work with Norman Cousins and dinner conversations about the  ‘hormones of  happiness’  influenced     the lens through  which  I look  at  the Big-5  personality traits    and led me to expand on my dad’s neurobiological connections.

On page 274 (link is external) of The Athlete’s Way: Sweat and the Biology of Bliss I describe the hormones and neurochemicals linked to personality traits and the detriments of neuroticism saying:

Neuroticism should never be a part of your game or a part of your life. Strive to eliminate it, because it is the key trait associated with rejection sensitivity and a fear of failure. It raises cortisol and lowers serotonin, which is the most lethal combination to have pumping through your system. Strengthening the other four cardinal traits will boost serotonin (confidence), dopamine (achievement), anandamide (the bliss molecule), and vasopressin/oxytocin (connectedness), while lowering MAOs (serotonin eating Pac-Men) and lowering cortisol (the stress hormone).

Neuroticism Is the Antithesis of Extraversion

My bias against neuroticism was probably subconsciously influenced by Woody Allen’s charactertures of a neurotic, hypochondriac New Yorker in 1970s movies like Annie Hall and Manhattan.

I didn’t want to be a typical high-strung New Yorker, so I consciously practiced being more laid-back  and  easygoing  every day  despite the  potential  pressure-cooker  aspects  of  living  in New York City.  This attitude helped  me  have grace under pressure as an athlete, and kept        my mind and body healthy. Research shows that the same is true for people        of all ages and walks of life.

A 2012 study (link is external) from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, “Positive Attitude Towards Life and Emotional Expression as Personality Phenotypes for Centenarians,” found that ‘personality genes’ may help account for some people living past one hundred years of age.

The researchers assessed the personalities of 243 centenarians and found that there was a common thread of having a positive attitude towards life across the board. Most were also outgoing, optimistic  and  easygoing.  They  also  considered laughter  an important part of life and had a large social network.

Centerarians tended to express their emotions freely rather  than keeping them bottled up. Interestingly, the centenarians also had much lower scores  for displaying neuroticism  and much higher scores for being conscientious compared with a representative sample of the U.S. population.

Conclusion: A Positive Attitude Is Not a Panacea for Many Illnesses, Viruses, and Diseases

As with any plague or pandemic like Ebola or HIV/AIDS we need the most advanced pharmaceuticals and healthcare protocols  to  save  lives  and  to  help people live longer. One important caveat about the ‘power of positive thinking’ and staying healthy is the unintended subtext that imples that if    you get and stay sick  that it’s somehow your fault.  This is wrong.

At the end of the day, staying healthy and fighting illness is always going  to be about taking the best medicine available when necessary, pragmatic optimism, and maintaining a fierce fighting spirit. The mindset of optimal health is often a tightrope walk between 2 extremes of being a delusionally positive Pollyanna or a cynical and neurotic hypochondriac.

Luckily,  with  some  practice  each  of  us  can  identify  our individual personality predispositions  and  practice making appropriate adjustments to  find a sweet spot that marries all    of your personality traits into a blend that keeps you alive and kicking for a long, long time.

If you’d like to read more on this topic, check out my Psychology Today blog posts:

Follow me on Twitter @ckbergland (link is external) for updates on The Athlete’s Way blog posts.

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