Patients can often feel an illness coming on before medical tests identify it, according to a study in Psychoneuroendocrinology.
Researchers from Rice University in Houston found evidence that patients' self-reported health is as good as, or even better than, a medical test at describing a physiological conditions.
"The way people generally report how they feel is more often linked to a future disease or mortality than what the doctor accesses," said Christopher Fagundes, PhD, a Rice professor of psychology.
For the study, the Rice team surveyed nearly 1,500 people on their health and took blood samples. The samples were analyzed for levels of active herpesviruses and biomarkers for inflammation, as herpesviruses are a good marker for cellular immunity.
People who reported feeling well had low virus and inflammation levels, while those who felt in poor health had high virus and inflammation levels.
"We found that poor self-rated health was associated with more reactivation of these latent herpesviruses, which was associated with higher inflammation, and we know those two things are associated with morbidity and mortality, as well as some cancers, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease," said Kyle Murdock, a postdoctoral researcher at Rice.
According to the researchers, these findings mean physicians should pay close attention to patients' self-reported health. "When a patient says, 'I don't feel like my health is very good right now,' it's a meaningful thing with a biological basis, even if they don't show symptoms," Dr. Fagundes said.