Although they are more typical for Halloween, some haunted house attractions They are available all year round. There are people who really like them. They even experience a certain sense of pleasure and well-being due to the fear they cause. But what if they were too good for health?
This may seem strange, especially since some haunted house attractions require visitors to sign agreement in which they claim that they do not have heart disease. However, for healthy people it may be beneficial.
That’s the conclusion of a recent study that analyzed how visiting haunted houses affects immune system. First of all, the authors of this study come from Aarhus Universityin Denmark focused on markers of inflammation. But let’s see what it all means.
Two faces of inflammation
When our immune system attacks any threat, it not only synthesizes antibodies and they move cells who are heading to the scene of the attack. There are also some substances which are harmful not only to the agent causing the defense reaction. Also, They harm our own body. These all cause symptoms such as pain, swelling and redness if the reaction is localized to a specific area. All this is what is known as inflammation and it continues to be necessary collateral damage. If we think of the immune system as an army that attacks our aggressors, inflammation is a field trampled by horses.
The problem is that sometimes, even without any infection or harmful agent, inflammation remains. The horses continue to trample the ground. This may be caused by certain diseases or bad habitssuch as smoking, drinking alcohol, or eating a diet high in fat and sugar. In the long term, diseases such as cancer may occur.
Therefore it is important control inflammation. And this is where, oddly enough, haunted houses come into play.
How can haunted houses help us?
It is well known that controlled fear may induce a feeling of well-being. Controlled fear is defined as the fear we experience in a situation that we know is not real. This applies to haunted houses, horror movies, or any other similar stimuli. It makes sense that this fear is not the same as what we feel if we are alone at home and hear someone walking down the hallway in the middle of the night.
Regardless of whether you are experiencing one type of fear or another, our brain activates fight or flight. This is the one that stands behind anxiety symptoms and consists of a series of physiological changes that prepare our body to flee from or confront a threat. Is evolutionarily advantageousbut it can be worn when it occurs unnecessarily, as happens with anxiety.
In the case of fear, when we know that the stimulus causing these sensations is unreal and that we are safe, a curious feeling of well-being may arise, especially after permission. Precisely because adrenaline and endorphins are produced, causing a feeling of pleasure and high.
So far, so good. But what health benefits could this have? The study authors asked this question after learning of another study in mice that found the fight-or-flight response caused changes in the immune system. Will the same be true for people who visit haunted houses?
Halloween was approaching and it was the perfect time to find out. They just needed to contact a company that runs haunted house attractions in abandoned factory. Volunteers were sought among those who bought a ticket and those who were transmission of infectionas this would justify the inflammation. Pregnant women and people taking the drug were also excluded. anti-inflammatory drugsbecause the results may be masked.
Once this was done, blood samples were taken immediately before entering the haunted house and three days after. 50 minutes. Analyzing the results, they discovered something interesting.
Fear of inflammation
In this 80% of participantsMarkers of inflammation decreased markedly after visiting a haunted house. There were two groups of volunteers. One had signs of moderate inflammation, while the other had virtually no inflammation. In both cases, the markers dropped, but in the group with some inflammation, there were still immune system cells that continued to support any small aggression that might trigger inflammation. inflammatory process.
In short, it seems that controlled fear, whether it’s haunted houses or something else, reduces inflammation when it’s not needed. Let’s remember that sometimes horses need to trample the ground a little, but you need to know when to stop them, and that’s what haunted houses do.
It is true that this study has restrictions. One group of volunteers had 22 people, the other 91. These are heterogeneous and small groups. It would be interesting to repeat this with a better design and more participants. But it looks like horror and haunted house lovers now have another reason to take a stroll through them.
Source: Hiper Textual
