Merely seeing disease symptoms may promote aggressive immune response

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2010/04/27/merely_seeing_disease_symptoms_may_promote_aggressive_immune_response.html

Just seeing someone who looks sick is enough to make your immune system work harder, according to a new study in which volunteers looked at pictures of sick people. This may help fight off pathogens, says Mark Schaller from the University of British Columbia who conducted the research. "It seems like it's probably good for the immune system to be responding especially aggressively at times when it looks like you are likely to be coming into contact with something that might make you sick."

i like this article because it shows how well the brain works with the rest of the body in preventing harm to itself. the mere sight of sick people can raise the white blood cell count as a prophylactic effect. it was amusing the test they did, comparing a picture of a sick person exposed to someone to a picture of someone having a gun pointed at them. maybe it's possible that the picture of a sick person didn't actually raise the immune system at all, it could be possible the sight of someone pointing a gun at you just hinders the immune system because your body is preparing for death. either way, it shows that treatment for illness doesn't have to be dependent on medication, perhaps alternative self preventatives can be just as good.