What it does to the body, how we reduce stress

Hormones mediate the stress response, explains Jörg Bojunga, who heads the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Nutritional Medicine at the University Hospital in Frankfurt. The main stress hormones are cortisol and adrenaline. They flood the body. What nature has come up with is actually ingenious. “The problem is that our evolutionary stress response doesn’t match the situations in which we are stressed today. You are supposed to react when you see a lion in the steppe. Then you should run or fight,” says Bojunga. “But neither of these fit when you’re sitting at your desk.” Constant stress can cause the hormone system to go haywire, which can result in illness.