Try these tips to ward off ongoing stress and its many health risks, such as chronic inflammation and chronic disease. Do you handle stress as well as you used to? For most folks, it gets harder as the years go by–and that’s a potential problem for health. Stress increases the risks for chronic disease, to which the body is already more vulnerable after a lifetime of wear and tear (and perhaps unhealthy habits, such as a poor diet or not exercising). Why Is Stress Bad for Us? We need the body’s stress (“fight or flight”) response to get us through tough times. When you sense a threat or danger, your body rises to the challenge by releasing stress hormones, tightening your muscles, making your blood pressure rise and your heart and lungs work harder, and releasing a surge of fat and sugar to give you energy. When danger subsides, your …