How the Stress Hormone Cortisol Affects Immunity Your Elevated Cortisol Levels is Causing You More Than Weight Gain It is well known how cortisol, the stress hormone affects abdominal weight gain, but did you know elevated cortisol affects immune function? Recent research is showing how elevated cortisol affects a number of health factors. Severe, chronic stress affects every part of your body. Physicians know that patients with severe stress have more chronic conditions such as asthma, allergies, IBS( 腸躁症 ), Crohn's( 孔羅氏症會感染整個腸道;而潰瘍性結腸炎通常只有腸道內膜受到影響。 ) , and heart problems. All of these health problems are in part a factor of autoimmunity. Autoimmunity means your immune system is on overdrive and is attacking your own tissues. Stress has a great impact on your immune system shrinking the thymus gland which is one of the important immune tissues in the body. Stress also inhibits white blood cell production as well. How does cortisol affect im...