Stress much?
April already! I don’t know about you, but it feels like 2023 is set at a sprint pace and it’s hard to keep up. April is Stress Awareness month—one of many awareness campaigns this month, but it’s the one we’re going to discuss in this month’s Newsletter. Stress is inevitable and not always bad, HOWEVER, don’t discount how it affects your health—ALL aspects of it. This month’s newsletter focuses on stress, how it can affect us in ways we hadn’t thought of and some of my favorite resources on how to address and manage it. Pour yourself a cup of tea, take a few deep breaths and dive in.
Your body handles stress primarily through your adrenal glands. These are two small glands that look like little hats that sit on top of your kidneys. These glands are stimulated by your hypothalamus (mission control and command) in your brain. Your hypothalamus is mission control, the command center and it sends out messages to your nervous system and recruits and controls hormone levels. Adrenal glands are tapped and their hormones are recruited to deal with all the stressors that we encounter. There are different types of stress related hormones. You are likely most familiar with adrenaline (this is your fight or flight hormone), and you may have heard of cortisol. This is what is released in response to every day stressors including, the food that we put into our bodies, emotions (good and bad), physical stress and illnesses, toxins, etc. Cortisol is essential to proper functioning. When our adrenals are working properly, cortisol is released in small bursts to help you recover from every day stressors. If we didn’t have cortisol, we wouldn’t be able to handle even the smallest stressors. We not only wouldn’t be able to respond to stressors, but we wouldn’t be able to recover. We would be physically and mentally exhausted all of the time. Think—fainting goats (and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, google it and have a good giggle)
I’m willing to bet that some of you just perked up and said “wait a minute, that’s me!, I feel mentally and physically exhausted all of the time!” Well friends, this very likely involves your adrenals and cortisol levels. There is a lot of research about cortisol and adrenal fatigue, dysregulation of the axis that regulates it and differing opinions in the medical community about whether or not “adrenal fatigue” is even a treatable diagnosis. What’s NOT disputable, is that your hormones are hierarchical and they all affect one another. When cortisol topples, everything else down the line will fall into play.
CORTISOL AND YOUR BODY
In response to stress, Cortisol’s job is to increase availability of glucose in your blood to increase your energy, increase anti-inflammatory effects in the immune system and slow down non-essential functions such as digestion. A-hem…read that again, out loud. It increases your blood sugar, activates the anti-inflammation cascade and slows down digestion. Psst…this is why corticosteroids such as prednisone give you the symptoms that they do and why we don’t like for you to be on them for an extended period of time. If your cortisol levels are off, your thyroid, ability to regulate your blood sugar and even your sex hormones can be affected.
EAT BETTER:
What you eat, how often you eat and your perceptions around food directly affect your cortisol levels. If your cortisol is persistently being tapped by prolonged, ongoing stress, it will be even MORE accessed if you are not eating a healthy diet, with enough calories, and if you are skipping meals or constantly stressing and obsessing about food. This will increase your cortisol demand. This is why intermittent fasting is not successful for all of us. THIS is why, when you’re cutting calories and exercising constantly, you aren’t losing weight. And THIS is likely in play when you feel that your sleep, sex drive, focus and overall energy levels are disrupted. Bonus—this also affects your thyroid function and ability to regulate blood sugar. Inversely, if your thyroid isn’t supported, your estrogen and progesterone are out of balance, and/or your blood sugar is out of control, your adrenals will be tapped and then we start back at the beginning—it’s ALL related.
MOVE BETTER
Stress accumulates not only in your mind but also in your body. Prolonged mismanaged stress can manifest all over the body; it contributes to neck and back pain and stiffness, headaches, jaw pain, and even abdominal pain, irritable bowel symptoms, anxiety and depression. Valley Functional Wellness offers massage therapy, as do multiple other offices in the Roanoke Valley. Book a massage, book float time, time in the salt cave, sit in a sauna or sign up for yoga, Tai Chi or Pilates. Even getting out for a 20 minute walk or stretching for 20 minutes will do your body and your mind good. If you’re currently practicing high intensity endurance workouts and not seeing any benefit, you should consider dialing it back and including more stretching and restorative exercise.
FEEL BETTER
There must be balance and sanctuary in your life. This is a non-negotiable. You need a healthy outlet, something to look forward to and positivity in your life. If your job is stressful, your home life needs to be supportive and restorative. If you are in an unhealthy relationship with a partner, friend, or your job, examine how and why you got there and consider ways to improve your situation. Talk therapy can be life changing and EVERYONE, really, I mean E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E can benefit from it. Living under stress habitually and persistently affects your health. Period. Prioritizing your health not only encompasses being mindful of your nutrition and your medical needs, but it also involves your mental and emotional well-being.
Adaptogens and herbal teas are gaining traction in this department. My quick side bar here is that you need to talk about incorporating these with someone who KNOWS about them and can prescribe the proper combination. If you are taking any prescription medications at all, please consult with one of us who is familiar with how those may interact with your meds and your symptoms.
BOTTOM LINE: Stress affects us entirely. Check in on your friends, check in on yourself and check into ways to manage your stress. For the millionth time, treat your body like it belongs to someone that you love.
There are some simple stress relievers that you can incorporate into your routine. Don’t overlook things like a foot soak, a bath soak or if you don’t have time, aromatherapy in the shower could be an easy restorative option. Valley functional wellness has several options available from a manufacturer who makes CLEAN skin care products, free of the toxins and garbage. Some of my favorites are pictured above. Taxes are included in the sale price, you can have them shipped or swing by and pick them up from the office.
