THE INFLUENCE OF JOY ON THE IMMUNE SYSTEM: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Abstract

Joy is a human emotion linked to life experiences, personal achievements, and social connections, and is also found in the appreciation of simple, everyday things in life. The immune system, responsible for protecting the body, must be considered in different dimensions that involve its functioning, analyzing how it acts and how it is affected by the emotional state, focusing on the influence of joy. In this aspect, it is observed that the emotional state can play a significant role in an individual's immune response to each existing emotion. It is necessary to consider the dimensions that permeate their role, evaluating the way in which it interferes and how it is influenced by the emotion of joy. Thus, the study aimed to analyze and understand the influence of the positive emotion joy on the immune system. This is a descriptive literature review with a qualitative approach, with data collection carried out through a bibliographic review in databases. By analyzing the articles found, it was found that joy as a concept is characterized by the term positive affect (PA), characterized by its broad protective influence on health and favorable impact on inflammatory processes, characterized as partially independent of negative affect. The existence of emotions contrary to joy, such as stress, affects the individual, favoring changes in the immune system, facilitating the emergence of diseases.