People Who Are Stressed Out More Likely to Contract Disease

I've always thought that this was a pretty well-known thing, Phoenix, although, of course, the "knowledge" was largely anecdotal or due to a gut feeling among medicos. I'm glad that research is now giving credibility to what was previously just folk wisdom. Stress will also impede recovery, I think. That's one reason the strongest pain-killers are laced with tranquilizing agents as well.

I think that this is definitely the case also, it seems intuitive doesn't it? It is a fairly new discipline of study though - psychoneuroimmunology. While it is true that stress can reduce the body's immune response, unfortunately it is not the case that we can improve our chances of fighting diseases such as cancer with the power of positive thinking, i.e. make our immune responses extra good.