Are You Running Off Stress Hormones or Nourishment?
PLUS 5 WAYS TO REDUCE STRESS HORMONES
& RESTORE YOUR NOURISHMENT.
Before we get into the nitty gritty answers to the title question, we need to step back and ask ourselves what stress actually means.
Typically, we think of stress as mental or emotional life stressors, like when we endure family hardships, school or job struggles, interpersonal conflicts, and other external stressors.
In reality, stress is the body's response to life changes causing new demands.
These new demands absolutely affect us mentally and emotionally, but we rarely reflect on the physical stressors we unintentionally place on our bodies every single day.
Here are a few examples of hidden stressors:
Mental/Emotional: external stress from everyday life situations
Undernourishment: not eating enough calories which includes not enough minerals and bioavailable nutrients
Unbalanced blood sugar: skipping meals or not eating enough carbs and protein at each meal
Environmental toxins: skin, hair and cleaning products, seed oils, formaldehyde, pesticides, food additives, and many more man-made chemicals that slowly kill
Poor light exposure: not enough natural sunlight and way too much blue light from our many electronic devices
Emf exposure: bluetooth, Wifi, 5G, smart meters, cell towers, constantly pulsating through our souls
Birth Control: which deplete minerals quickly and greatly increase the need for mineral-rich, bioavailable nutrients in our daily foods we eat
Poor sleep quality: trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, snoring, or primarily mouth breathing when sleeping.
Exercise, pregnancy, breastfeeding: remain all good stressors, but stress occurs whether self-inflicted or not.
This constant state of stress from these continuous life events often leads to a lifetime of unwanted symptoms, like PMS, heavy, painful, irregular periods, chronic acne, hair loss, infertility, fatigue and so many more.
If you find that you have any or all of these stressors in your life, you are not alone. You live like most.
Our cultures normalize high stress, hustle culture, busy obedient bees 24/7, skipping breakfast, eating less, being thin, incessantly-connected to social media, succumbing to toxic products, and so many other unconscious habitual behaviors greatly contributing to high stress.
We must be careful not to normalize this anxiety-prone, fight-or-flight way of living.
All of us are in some way chronically stressed, either self-imposed or culturally imposed, but we never realize it because we habitually live in this state, which seems normal, but it’s not.
Our culture is living, breathing, and surviving off stress hormones. This fight-flight stress response requires our survival, but detrimentally leads to long-term health problems.
Why we must address the thyroid and adrenals.
When discussing stress hormones, the thyroid and adrenal glands take front and center.
Why its so important for every person to have adequate active thyroid levels
The thyroid and the adrenals battle each other as antagonists.
The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland that lies behind your throat. The adrenals glands are two glands that sit on top of your kidneys.
Your thyroid secretes hormones that give your body energy to function. This hormonally-driven, energy runs every aspect of your metabolism to detoxify, grow and repair, immune function, sex hormone production, and many more metabolic processes happening all at once.
When you're under stress, especially from undernourishment and unbalanced blood sugar, your thyroid hormone production becomes sluggish. As your thyroid function slows your adrenals take over.
When you're undernourished and overstressed, your active thyroid hormone (T3) is low and your adrenals glands are constantly pumping out cortisol and adrenaline to provide energy for your vital organs.
As this happens, all of your metabolic processes slow down. Your detoxification is poor, your immune function is low, it takes longer to heal, your hormones become unbalanced, and your entire metabolism slows.
This biological process is essential for short term survival but detrimental to our long-term health.
Nonetheless, culturally, socially, and personally, many of us are sadly locked into a stressed fight-or-flight state, causing low thyroid function and overactive adrenals.
The adrenals are supposed to be a backup source of energy, excreting only in times of emergency. But in our hustle culture of constant stress and undernourishment, our adrenals become the MAIN source of our energy and that's a huge problem.
Living day-in-and-day-out suppressing our thyroid function and running off stress hormones, we start feeling the repercussions. Chronic elevated stress hormones lead to PMS symptoms, heavy painful periods, no sex drive, chronic acne, hair loss, poor sleep, infertility, gut issues, fatigue and any other unwanted symptoms.
But it doesn't have to be this way! There are simple, effective steps we can take to support our thyroid function, increase our nourishment, and reduce our dependence on stress hormones.
Curious about the state of your stress and nourishment?
Here’s a simple way to assess your metabolic state.
Take The How Nourished Are You? Quiz HERE!
By this point, you likely have identified some hidden stressors in your life, and you might be curious what are the signs and symptoms of an undernourished stressed body?
Here are some common negative effects:
If you identify with any or most of these symptoms, no need to fret. I was exactly in your shoes a few years ago. I was unintentionally undernourished leading to many years of heavy painful periods, chronic acne, always constipated, anxious, zero appetite, always cold, with the worst PMS symptoms. But over the past few years I’ve done a deep dive into research about the thyroid, metabolism, adrenals, hormones, stress, and learn how to fully restore and nourish a woman’s physiology in our current stressed culture.
Keep reading to better understand what these signs and symptoms of a stressed metabolism mean about your health, and how you can improve your nourishment to get back your life!
What are my symptoms trying to tell me?
Experience PMS, heavy, painful, and/or irregular periods?
When running off stress hormones, the liver becomes overburdened with detoxifying excess hormones, like estrogen, often leading to an array of PMS symptoms and period problems.
2. Have little or no appetite, especially in the morning?
If you wake without an appetite, you probably begin your day already burning stress hormones. When your body is in a survival state there's no time to be hungry, your biological systems suppress your hunger so you can fight or run. You must be in a rest-and-digest state to feel hunger.
3. Experience constipation, bloating, and/or stomach pain?
When in a constant state of fight-or-flight, your body struggles to digest food. The body needs energy-nutrient foods and minerals to function optimally, but stress hormones take that precious energy away from digestion. When your digestion has no energy to break down and absorb your food, your digestive system gets backed up leading to gut discomfort.
4. Have cold hands, feet, and nose frequently or feel cold easily?
When running off stress hormones, your energy is conserved for your vital organs. So less blood flow is delivered to your extremities, like your hands, feet, and nose making them feel cold. Cold hands and feet are a clear sign you're under stress.
5. Have trouble falling or staying asleep?
Many women avoid sugar and carbs, but the truth is sugar calms the body, and the liver needs glucose in order to function properly so you can fall asleep and stay asleep. If you wake up in the middle of the night, it's likely because your liver ran out of energy (glucose), so your adrenals kick in some stress hormones, and you’re wide awake and can't fall back asleep.
6. Struggle with infertility and/or low-libido?
If you're stressed and undernourished, your low libido and/or infertility may be protecting you against pregnancy. If you are rarely in the mood and/or struggle to conceive, your body may be protecting itself from creating another life, depleting you further of nutrients and essential minerals.
7. Feel anxious, sad, or low energy often?
When our bodies run off stress hormones like cortisol for an extended period of time it can absolutely affect our mood, energy, and anxiety levels. How we nourish our body has a huge impact on how we feel energetically.
8. Suffer from chronic hormonal acne, eczema, or other skin issues?
Stress hormones, like cortisol and prolactin, may cause overproduction of sebum, the fatty, oily substance naturally secreted by the sebaceous glands to support the hair follicle. Too much sebum may lead to acne, ecmea or other skin rashes.
9. Wake with a body temperature below 97.6 F?
Monitoring your temperature every morning gives you essential insight into how your metabolism functions daily. A body temperature below 97.6 degrees may mark signs of low thyroid function.
10. Have heart rate below 70 beats per minute?
Contrary to popular belief, low blood pressure is not necessarily healthy. Low blood pressure often indicates conservation of energy not production; therefore, there's less oxygen-rich blood pumping throughout the body, slowing down every metabolic process.
If you share any of these symptoms above, no need to fret. Your body WANTS to heal.
Your beautiful body likely needs proper nourishment so your cells have the correct tools and fuels to function well and maintain a state of physical, mental, and emotional health.
When we properly and consistently fuel our body with nourishment, we’re no longer forced to rely on stress hormones to function daily.
When you provide your body proper nourishment, your thyroid function is strong, your stress hormones are low, and you no longer suffer from an exhaustive list of unwanted symptoms.
You have choice. You have volition. You can have the ability to eat nutrient-dense food, balance your blood sugar, get adequate sunshine, eliminate toxic products, get off birth control, get off your phone, get a good night sleep, and truly restore your nourishment.
Here’s what your life could look like with a well-nourished metabolism:
You no longer suffer from PMS, spotting, irregular nor painful periods.
You wake up hungry because your metabolism is properly communicating with you.
You experience daily bowel movements with no bloating or discomfort.
You normally feel warm and content.
You enjoy daily restful, uninterrupted sleep.
Your libido is strong and your able to naturally conceive.
You're typically in a good mood with stable energy throughout the day.
Your skin is clear and acne-free, and your hair and nails are strong and healthy.
Your average waking temperature is 97.6 or above.
Your resting pulse is normally above 70 beats per minute.
Now you may ask yourself, how can I properly nourish my body and metabolism?
If you think you may have an undernourished metabolism and want to get back the vibrant energy you once had, then look no further.
This FREE GUIDE is written to help you get started on the right path to reduce your stress hormones, restore your metabolism, and enhance your daily nourishment.
5 Steps to Reduce Stress and Restore Your Nourishment
My hope is this article and free guide help you get started on your healing journey.
I love to chat with you all, so tell me in the comments below what you loved most about this topic and how I can help you more!