Find Out How Having an Imbalance Immune System could be the Reason Behind Generalized Anxiety Disorder

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Generalized Anxiety Disorder or GAD affected nearly seven million adults in the United States. The good news is that the recent study found evidence that there is a link between GAD and imbalanced immune system involving the inflammatory and anti-inflammatory responses.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder is not a rare disorder; it is defined as an uncontrollable, excessive and often irrational worry about events or activities. However, how it was linked to an imbalanced immune system the researchers found it out by looking at the cytokine profiles of the patients suffering from GAD. Cytokines were found at the immune system, which is involved in promoting inflammatory and anti-inflammatory responses. Researchers examined the levels of interferon (IFN)-γ, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-10.

The idea of how having an imbalanced immune system was linked to General Anxiety Disorder was diagnosed after looking to IFN-γ, needed by our immune system in order to fight against pathogens and tumors,  TNF-α, needed in order to fight acute illness and sickness, wherein both of these stimulate the creation of  inflammatory mediators that are behind chronic, delayed inflammation. While (IL)-10 is the one responsible for fighting inflammation and increasing the production of antibodies in the system.

People suffering from General Anxiety Disorder found high ratios of IFN-γ and TNF-α while having low IL-10. In other words, the reason why people are suffering from GAD is that they have an imbalance immune system wherein their body cannot fight an illness.

A lead investigator on the breakthrough research, Dr. Ruihua Hou, explained how cytokines in Generalized Anxiety Disorder would help to explain the "unique inflammatory signature" that will eventually help in the creation of new drugs in treating GAD. However, further research is still needed to be accomplished in this case.

To know more about how using cocaine and investing financial market have the same effect to your brain, read this.