Which hormone helps reduce inflammation and is linked to stress?

Which hormone helps reduce inflammation and is linked to stress?

• A. Estrogen
• B. Cortisol
• C. Glucagon
• D. Thyroxine

Answer: (B)

Anti-inflammatory action tied to a stress response. When the body encounters stress, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis releases cortisol from the adrenal cortex. Cortisol helps dampen inflammation by influencing immune signaling and enzyme activity: it inhibits pathways that promote inflammatory mediators, such as reducing cytokine production and immune cell recruitment, and it suppresses enzymes that generate inflammatory prostaglandins and leukotrienes. This makes cortisol a key mediator in controlling excessive inflammation during stress. Other hormones listed don’t fit this role as their primary functions: estrogen is a sex hormone with complex effects on immune responses but is not the main stress-related anti-inflammatory mediator; glucagon raises blood glucose to meet energy demands rather than modulating inflammation; thyroxine primarily controls metabolic rate, not inflammation.

Anti-inflammatory action tied to a stress response. When the body encounters stress, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis releases cortisol from the adrenal cortex. Cortisol helps dampen inflammation by influencing immune signaling and enzyme activity: it inhibits pathways that promote inflammatory mediators, such as reducing cytokine production and immune cell recruitment, and it suppresses enzymes that generate inflammatory prostaglandins and leukotrienes. This makes cortisol a key mediator in controlling excessive inflammation during stress.

Other hormones listed don’t fit this role as their primary functions: estrogen is a sex hormone with complex effects on immune responses but is not the main stress-related anti-inflammatory mediator; glucagon raises blood glucose to meet energy demands rather than modulating inflammation; thyroxine primarily controls metabolic rate, not inflammation.