The stress hormone cortisol has many different functions in our body. It regulates blood sugar levels, immune responses and inflammation and can increase the risk of heart disease. It also increases the chances of surviving cancer. High levels of cortisol have been linked to mental conditions such as anxiety and depression. Laboratory director Sheldon Cohen said: "These data provide important insights into the way in which our intimate social relationships can get under the skin to influence our health." Researcher Brian Chin added: "It is exciting to discover a physiological pathway that may explain how relationships influence health and disease."
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Best Answer
"Under the skin" is an expression, but in this case, it is meant more literally. The article describes how stress affects internal physiological processes. It relates this to how your social relationships can influence your health. Your social relationships can increase or decrease stress, and that, in turn, affects internal processes through the action of cortisol. So "get under the skin" in this case means external relationships affecting things under your skin (inside your body).