You know it’s bad when you stress about getting to a stress management workshop on time. I was caught up in an assignment and was late to the workshop. Talk about irony.

With all the midterms, exams and essays recently, I’m sure I’m not the only one who is worried about school work. It’s also that time of the year when everyone seems to catch a cold. Though anxiety and colds may not seem related, they are. Don’t stress, but it’s true − your immune system is closely linked to the stress hormones your brain puts out when under pressure.

An October 2000 National Institute of Health article “Stress and Disease: New Perspectives” explains the biological factors behind stress-related illnesses. According to the article, immune cells, which normally fight off disease, receive instructions from the brain to essentially shut down during periods of chronic stress.

However, diseases only really take root over the course of a long-term period. A Medical News Today article on mental and physical diseases states stress hormones slowly grow weaker, so a small amount of stress won’t lead to something more serious like heart disease, depression or multiple sclerosis.

We worriers are not in the clear for everything, though.

Carnegie Mellon University’s Dr. Sheldon Cohen found in a study that participants who scored higher on a stress test were more likely to catch a cold when they were exposed to a strain of the virus.

Now there’s a test most of us could pass without even studying.

Perhaps the most telling statistics for stress among college students come from a 2008 survey of undergraduates conducted by The Associated Press. The results state four in ten college students experience stress often while one in five is stressed constantly.

Constant stress is the beginnings of disease, and while stress may not be considered contagious, the flu and colds are.

If that is the case, then campus has been hit with “Stress Flu.” The vaccination: managing your stress to keep your immune system in shape and not allowing yourself to play host to a virus.

It seems simple enough, but stress management is a skill we each need to learn for ourselves, not an over the counter prescription.

I know for myself that trying to keep a positive outlook and getting work done early have been beneficial in warding off stress.

If we can keep ourselves healthy and happy, we might be able to check “catching a cold” off our list of things to worry about. Don’t stress and take care.