How stress affects the immune system?

Occasional periods of stress are inevitable and are a normal part of life. But long-lasting and extreme stress poses a serious risk to your health, because it can erode the immune function of your body in numerous ways. It reduces the number of immune cells such as natural killer cells and lymphocytes. It causes higher-than-normal production of the stress hormone, cortisol, which hampers the body’s natural anti-inflammatory response. And it can eventually lead to chronic inflammation and repeated infections. Chronic inflammation contributes to the build-up of plaque in arteries, which is one of the main factors in developing chronic cardiovascular conditions. The impaired anti-inflammatory function of the immune system due to stress also leads to chronic inflammatory autoimmune conditions and cancer.

How do you recover from stress-related impaired immunity? The problem is that, when our bodies have elevated stress levels over an extended period of time, the autonomic nervous system begins to accept this heightened stress level as normal. It continues to produce high levels of cortisol well after the stressful event has passed, further compromising the immune system. Herbs are a gentle solution to relaxing the over-stimulated cortisol production, but they also act as a firm support for the immune system to recover and start doing its job again, thus protecting us from acute as well as chronic diseases.