Stress increases cytokines in the blood and if it is chronic it determines an inflammatory state of the whole body which is a risk factor for cancer, cardiovascular disease and metabolic diseases. The Harvard cardiologist Herbert Benson discovered that there is a response opposite to the stress response, namely the relaxation response which is activated by controlling breathing (slow and deep) and emptying the mind. In this way a synchrony between sympathetic and parasympathetic is triggered which is therapeutic.