How are stress and inflammation linked?
You’ve probably told your patients that stress isn’t great for health. But what’s actually happening inside the body when we're under pressure? The connection between stress and inflammation runs deep, involving complex systems like the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), and our immune response (Chen et al., 2017).
In the short term, stress is the body’s way of protecting us. When we face a threat, our system responds with a burst of inflammatory activity to help heal or fight off illness (Rohleder, 2019). But when stress lingers—whether it’s work deadlines, relationship strain, or ongoing life challenges—that response doesn’t shut off.
The constant release of stress hormones like cortisol begins to disrupt your body's natural checks and balances.
This leads to what’s known as stress-induced inflammation, a chronic state that can quietly contribute to long-term health problems like cardiovascular disease and inflammatory bowel disease.
Here’s where it gets even more complex: under psychosocial stress, the overactivation of the SNS prompts the body to release pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemicals that essentially tell our immune system to stay on high alert (Alotiby, 2024). Meanwhile, the immune cells get less efficient at keeping inflammation under control, allowing it to simmer in the background and feed into conditions like autoimmune disorders and metabolic syndromes.
Understanding how all of this works opens the door to better strategies for reducing inflammation and improving overall well-being, especially if clients are dealing with long-term stress.
