How Stress Impacts Our Health
April is Stress Awareness Month, and I am incredibly passionate about this subject. Stress touches all of our lives, especially in the past 2 years and I want to bring awareness to the important role it plays in our health issues. Did you know that hating your job could be tied to your chronic gut issues? Or that the constant pace of busyness in your day could be causing or worsening your autoimmunity? It’s estimated that 75–90% of doctor’s visits are for stress related ailments. The best diet and supplements in the world won’t work well without addressing stress. Brain fog, insomnia, anxiety, fatigue, muscle aches and joint pains, GI issues, and many more symptoms can be manifestations of stress in the body. For a lot of people, these symptoms are familiar and seemingly untreatable. That’s where the importance of taking a look at our stress comes in.
Stress is a very natural, familiar and shared experience for human beings. Stress is adaptive, and can help us cope with getting through difficult tasks. As adults, we are constantly managing our lives, our finances, our families, our work and everything in between. A little bit of stress can be helpful, and puts us into action.
Stress is meant to be a short lived state that gets us through a tough moment until we can relax again. But in our day and age, most of our stressors are “perceived”, meaning they are the thoughts and worries running around our mind and they don’t ever actually stop for us to relax again. Although helpful in short term situations (swerving out of the way when that car comes into your lane), chronic stress wreaks havoc on our bodies and mental health. Today, I will outline just a few of the reasons why stress is such an important aspect of our health and wellbeing.
Stress creates and maintains a leaky gut…..
A condition that is often mentioned in functional medicine is “leaky gut.” This is another word for gut barrier permeability, which is when the lining of the gut has been damaged and allows particles like bacteria or undigested food to move into the bloodstream. This creates considerable inflammation and activates our immune system to create food sensitivities and possibly autoimmunity among other things. Our microbiome is the rainforest of bacteria, viruses and fungi in our gut that keep us functioning normally. Stress can throw off our microbiome and can lead to a whole host of problems both in the GI tract as well as throughout the body. It’s well known that many of our “feel good” neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, are made in the gut. If our gut health is impaired then this can lead to depression, anxiety, brain fog and so much more. Managing our stress can help heal our gut!
Stress puts us in a catabolic (breakdown) state…
Our body has the ability to break down nutrients for fuel if needed. Catabolic (breaking down) and anabolic (building up) states are supposed to fluctuate throughout the day. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone, so long term stress continuously puts us in a catabolic (or break down state). This means that we aren’t burning fat - but rather breaking down our body’s own muscle tissues, gut lining and even our bones for fuel. As you can imagine, the body isn’t meant to stay in a catabolic state because we are missing out on repair and growth of new tissues. This can lead to injuries, leaky gut and even osteoporosis! Again, another reason to manage our stress.
Stress throws off our hormones …
Hormones are responsible for regulating your body’s processes, and are fundamental to all of the systems in your body. We are hardwired to have a stress response to protect us from dangerous situations. Adrenaline and cortisol are some of the well-known hormones that are released when our body enters a fight or flight response. Your heart rate spikes, your energy is boosted, and your blood pressure rises. After the stressful situation has passed, your body will return to normal. However, if the perceived threat is the stress of daily life, the stress response will continue. The long term effects of these stress hormones can be detrimental to your entire body. Cortisol being elevated for too long will negatively impact your thyroid hormones as well as your male and female hormones. This is one of the most common issues I see in my practice. By addressing the stress response, we can help correct infertility, irregular or heavy menstrual cycles, PMS, and thyroid problems without ever directly addressing those areas. There is a trickle down effect that can be so helpful here.
These are just a few of the ways stress can impact our health, and hold us back from being our best selves. Can you see why stress is so important to manage each day? It can feel overwhelming to address something that permeates each of our lives. If you aren’t ready to commit to joining my practice yet, consider taking a look at my Stress Less, Be Your Best course. This all in one, 6-week course has workbooks, meal plans, weekly assignments, and more to help you get back on track. With lifetime access, you can return to this course as needed and rewatch each module. If you want to know more about the course or our practice, feel free to reach out to our office on Our Website.