When inflammation strikes (figure 1), your body allows short term inflammation to help heal itself - whether from injury, allergy, infection or stress. This initial inflammation is good and beneficial to your body, allowing the immune system to go to work fast.
Once the immune system has done its job, then, your adrenal glands produce a cortisone 'pulse,' (figure 2) a spike in blood level cortisone production which reduces the inflammation, and returns things to normal (figure 3).