“Most people accept the idea that stress and depression chip away at the body’s natural ability to fight off disease. But many medical scientists have remained skeptical that the mind can exert such a direct influence over the immune system.

In recent years, however, evidence has accumulated that psychology can indeed affect biology. Studies have found, for example, that people who suffer from depression are at higher risk for heart disease and other illnesses. Other research has shown that wounds take longer to heal in women who care for patients with Alzheimer’s disease than in other women who are not similarly stressed. And people under stress have been found to be more susceptible to colds and flu, and to have more severe symptoms after they fall ill.

Now a new study adds another piece to the puzzle. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin are reporting today that the activation of brain regions associated with negative emotions appears to weaken people’s immune response to a flu vaccine.” NY Times

And avoiding negative emotion enhances physical wellbeing? On the surface of it, this may appear pretty self-evident, but negative emotions are a part of psychological health too; it is more a question of what one does with them, of course. Expressed in the right way, certain negative emotions — ummm, rage at the current regime in Washington comes to mind, for one — are quite healthy…