This chapter zeros in on six pathways to early death: genes and epigenetics, adverse childhood experiences, high-risk health behaviors, autonomic imbalance, hormonal turmoil, and low-grade inflammation. And each one of these pathways may weave through the others, eventually creating a Gordian knot of dysregulations that may be experienced by you as fibromyalgia, depression after a heart attack, or a perplexing and debilitating tremor in your hands and legs. This chapter closes with a summary of what we know about the stress and illness relationship and the key questions we need to study.