Hawkes Physiotherapy Blog

Everyone gets a little stressed from time to time but do you know what impact this has on your body? You may have heard about Cortisol in relation to stress. Well Cortisol is actually a Glucocorticoid and stress triggers the release of Glucocorticoid and Catecholamine. These hormones have been found to delay wound and injury healing (Gouina and Kiecolt-Glasera 2011). These hormones have also been shown to reduce local Cytokine production, which is extremely important in the inflammatory process and therefore healing (Broadbent et al 2003). It has also been found that stress reduces important healing related compounds such as Matrix metalloproteinase, which is important for early healing. On the other side of the coin, Oxytocin and Vasopressin have been found to increase healing rate by surpressing Cortisol and there may be a direct impact to healing itself. These Hypothalamic peptides are linked to social bonding (Gouin et al 2010). So this could mean that having s...