You can eat all the right things, move your body, drink water and still feel stuck if you’re not addressing stress.

Chronic stress is one of the biggest drivers of inflammation and inflammation amplifies stress right back. It’s a vicious loop that keeps midlife women burned out, inflamed, gaining weight and feeling like they’re constantly in survival mode—because they are.

Here’s what most women don’t realize. Stress isn’t just an emotional state. It’s a full-body, biochemical reaction. When you’re stressed, whether it’s from deadlines, conflict, poor sleep, under-eating, over-exercising or even gut issues, your body responds by raising cortisol, your main stress hormone. When cortisol stays elevated, inflammation rises too.

In short bursts, cortisol is helpful. It helps you focus, get through a workout, respond to danger but when it stays high over time, it starts breaking the body down. Muscle is lost, fat is stored, blood sugar spikes, sleep gets disrupted and your immune system becomes dysregulated. Add menopause to the mix, when your estrogen and progesterone are already declining—and you’ve got a recipe for hormonal chaos.

You start to see it in your skin, your sleep, your digestion and your mood.

You’re more reactive, your tolerance is lower and even small things feel like too much. The smallest stressor sends your system into overdrive because your........

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