Can stress cause inflammation and chronic illness? The short answer? Yes. But knowing that it does isn’t sufficient. What we need to understand is how does this happen.
The chronic inflammation cycle
The inflammatory process is quite complex, as the immune system is one of the most complicated systems in the human body. So this breakdown is a simplification of the process. Nevertheless, let’s review the inflammation cycle:
The Threat Cycle
When you experience an activated threat response, the cells responsible for the protective acute inflammatory response release adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The perpetuation of the inflammatory response results in the breakdown of healthy tissue. This happens in the acute threat state, but continues as the threat cycles remain incomplete in the case of chronic or traumatic stress. The body retains a cellular memory of the danger that precipitated the threat response. If that threat cycle was never completed, this inflammatory cycle begins again.
The threat response (which can begin with something external like birth trauma, surgery, car accident, etc.) often evolves to include internal sensations.
Meaning, eventually the very body that we are living in can trigger ourselves to stay in a threat response. This perpetuates the very symptoms that we’re trying to address (e.g. joint stiffness, autoimmune disorders, chronic pain, etc.) with all the tools in our toolbox (like diet, exercise, supplements, and sleep hygiene.)
Shocked? Lots of people are because we don’t talk about our body becoming what keeps us in our threat response. Not in this physiologically accurate way.
Yet, it’s too important to me to show you that relief is possible, even if it means saying things that are hard to hear.
The Nervous System and Inflammation
Research shows us that chronic and traumatic stress involve shifts in the central and peripheral nervous systems as well as the immune system. The dysregulation from these shifts increases the risk of many chronic illnesses that are rooted in inflammation such as chronic fatigue syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel disease, cardiovascular disease, etc.
This shows that the connection between stress, inflammation, and chronic illness often converge in the central and peripheral nervous systems.
This is important because it highlights that siloing aspects of our bodies and health will always be incomplete. Meaning, only addressing inflammation from a gut health/diet perspective or only addressing traumatic stress from a mental health perspective will always leave gaps in your care and create a ceiling for how much better you can feel.
The truth is: When one system of our body is dysregulated or functioning in our threat response, all systems of our body are operating in survival.
The Takeaway
The central and peripheral nervous systems must be part of addressing inflammation that is at the root of many health conditions we see today. Also, because we’ve called out the peripheral nervous system a couple of times now, it’s important to note that we need to go beyond “deep breathing” and focus on our movements, our posture, our motor neurons, in addition to our sensory system.
This is far more nuanced than most “stress management” advice people get when we’re trying everything we can to manage our inflammation and it’s not idyllically responsive to whatever we’re already trying.
There is hope and this is why Ruvelle exists. We teach the foundational and advanced somatic techniques designed to improve health and inflammation after medical trauma and chronic stress related to complicated family-building journeys. Join us in our private members’ club to being your somatic journey to recovery.
