what is the deal with stress?

It seems that all chronic illnesses have some connection with stress. Maybe stress isn't the main cause of an illness, but it is a huge factor that contributes to it. The last disease I just read about in When the Body Says No was Crohn's disease, which is often located in the colon and ileum. Martha is one of Dr. Mate's patients who has Crohn's disease and I am shocked she didn't die of stress. She was intimidated by her own husband (who also cheats on her), had to have her two older kids to take care of the youngest one and was living in a town she hated. How does anyone survive living like that?

This is a very good website about Crohn's disease: http://www.ccfc.ca/. I researched this website and it made me realize how much I have learnt in Biology 12 and Health Science 12. It seems like an obvious fact that the small intestine does the most absorption and digestion, but generally, everyone thinks that the stomach does everything. Well, that's what I thought until I took Biology 12. Anyways, the website tries to answer the question, "Does stress cause IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease)?" The answer they give is no. However, stress can aggravate and initiate a flare up in the infection. "Cause" is a very confusing word in this book because Dr. Mate flips around about whether a disease is affected or caused or impacted by stress - what's the difference??!! Well finally, Dr. Mate defines "cause" in relation to disease in a very clear way:

"If A causes B, then every time A is present, B should follow. If B does not follow A consistently, then A cannot, by itself, be the cause of B - even if, in most cases, it might be a major and perhaps necessary contributing factor. If smoking caused lung cancer, every smoker would develop the disease."

So in my own words, smoking does not CAUSE lung cancer, but it increases your risk. Just like stress does not CAUSE all of these diseases, but it increases your risk.