Stress, depression, and anxiety have been shown to increase susceptibility to viral syndromes. Now we can add loneliness and isolation to that list.

This study surveyed the participants who had not been diagnosed with COVID at an initial time and at one year. Of those people who reported having contracted COVID within that year, the researchers found that individuals who had reported increased stress, isolation, loneliness, anxiety, or depression had a greater likelihood of having COVID symptoms after the infection lasting at least one month.

We have long known that specific exercise regimens can shift our physiology in particular ways – tai chi helps balance, high intensity training reduces weight and improves cardiovascular health, strength training increases testosterone and the strength of the muscles worked. This fascinating study demonstrates the correlation between different types of exercise and specific moods and memory skills.

Depression and anxiety exists on a continuum from worry, fear, dread, shame, unworthiness to stress to super-stress to depressiveness with or without anxiousness to diagnoseable mood disorders. And we fluctuate at any given time along this trajectory.