The Stress-Inflammation Connection

The year before the onset of rheumatoid arthritis was a very stressful one for me, beginning with the sudden passing of my mother and continuing with a cascade of emotional stressors. I remember noticing swelling beginning in my knuckles and asking someone if they ever heard that stress could cause swelling in joints. They hadn’t and neither had I. 

I wasn’t aware then that the connection between stress and inflammation is well documented. Stress can be emotional or physical, acute or chronic, current or in the past.  Most of my clients and many people I have connected with who have joint pain have experienced some kind of elevated stress.  Autoimmune disease in particular is often triggered by an emotionally stressful period. Osteoarthritis is often connected with a physical type of stress, like an old injury, for example. Even low-grade stress like alarms, phone notifications and our busy-busy lifestyle can keep stress elevated.  

What is it about stress that causes inflammation? The body and especially the gut, are highly sensitive to the effects of stress from both early in life and current stressful situations. In effect, every part of the person is affected by stress including the emotional and physical body. 

Cortisol is the master stress hormone regulated by signals between the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland and the adrenals (the HPA axis).   When a person person isn’t continually stressed, cortisol levels fluctuate throughout the day.  Under stress, the central nervous system switches to fight-or-flight mode, and cortisol is released as if the person was in a life-or-death situation. Under chronic stress though, cortisol levels stay high or are not regulated properly.  

Stress resulting in unregulated or elevated cortisol can cause a range of problems, including immune system dysfunction. In fact, next to food, stress has the biggest impact on gut health which in turn affects overall health.

How do you know if stress is disregulating cortisol in your body?  The best way is to go by how you feel. Look at the list below: 

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Feeling overwhelmed

• Sugar cravings

• Need coffee or energy shots to get through the day

• Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep

• Difficulty getting out of bed in the morning

• Mood swings

• Brain fog

• Frequent headaches

• Unresolved inflammation

• Frequent colds/flu

• Tightness in the belly

• Tendency to put weight on around the belly

If you are experiencing several of these, you should consider focusing on transforming your stress.  If you have an autoimmune disease, managing stress is critical.

Here are some strategies you can use to help reduce stress:

Decrease stress associated with your To Do list:

• Give yourself a break - release perfection, accept that you can’t do it all

• Ask for help

Reduce stress at work:

• Deep breathing

• Good posture

• Get up and move

• Don’t take work home

Transform stress by increasing resilience:

• Have fun, laugh

• Connect with nature

• Use your brain for fun

• Give your brain a break: meditation

• Have daily gratitude practice

• Write down your feelings in a journal

How to put this in to practice?  Look at the list above.  Pick one or more of these practices to do for this week.  Schedule a time to do it and set a daily reminder on your phone (use a nice gentle reminder 😉). 

Notice how much better you feel at the end of the week.  

A great way to help improve your health is choosing to create peace and calm while you are eating.  HOW you eat can be as important as WHAT you eat.  I have a great resource for you to implement TODAY to help you become empowered in your health.  Click on the image below to receive it.