Can Stress Actually Make You Sick? Here’s What 4 Different MDs Have To Say

Inflammation plays a role, too. Researchers from a study that was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that stress can negatively affect the way your body handles inflammation. When you’re stressed, your body releases a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol helps regulate inflammation and, in normal amounts, is actually considered anti-inflammatory. But when you’re stressed all the time, your cortisol levels stay elevated and this can eventually decrease your body’s sensitivity to the hormone, according to Sheldon Cohen, lead researcher for the study. As a result, your body, and your immune system, don’t respond to cortisol as they should. 

Instead, inflammation gets turned on and then stays on, an issue that can make you more susceptible to getting sick—or at least experiencing symptoms. Cohen explains that when you get symptoms of a sickness, like the common cold, they aren’t necessarily caused by the virus itself, but rather a “side effect” of the way your body handles the inflammation associated with exposure to pathogens. And the greater the inflammatory response, the sicker you feel. 

To test this theory, Cohen exposed 276 healthy adults to a virus that causes the common cold. After five days, he found that the participants who were under the most stress, and thus had an impaired ability to properly regulate inflammation, were the most likely to develop symptoms.

In a follow up study, Cohen exposed 79 participants to the cold virus once again, but this time he measured the amount of inflammation that occurred after exposure. The participants who were under the most stress had greater levels of inflammation following exposure to the virus, which meant more severe symptoms.

The takeaway was that your immune system’s ability—or inability—to regulate inflammation plays a major role in whether you will get sick, and how severe the symptoms may be.

When you’re stressed, you’re also more likely to lean toward unhealthy coping mechanisms, like overindulging in “comfort foods” that are high in sugar or refined carbs (you can learn more about the impact of those foods here), smoking, and drinking in excess—all behaviors that increase the chances of getting sick.