Your hormones are at the fulcrum of your body's balancing act. Regardless of age, whether you're a pre-teen going through puberty or a 35-year-old man questioning his fatigue. Perhaps you're a postmenopausal woman facing acne issues. As we can see, your hormones are at the fulcrum of your body's balancing act. And oh how easy it is to become imbalanced.
Since April is “Stress Awareness” month, I thought I’d share something with you that you already know. Stress absolutely affects your hormones. Period.
When I first started practicing nutrition, I was sending client after client to see Ron Novelli, PA at Prestige Regenerative Medicine to have their hormones checked and balanced. It felt like the low hanging fruit to the problems my clients were struggling with.
The complaints about low energy, weight gain, and GI issues were more than common. They were routine. Further into conversation I would almost always hear about poor sleep, anxiety, depression and mood swings. And when the guards finally came down, the concern that hit hardest for almost everyone was low libido.
I could hear their hormone levels calling for help. These are textbook side effects of imbalance.
The day I became Ron’s patient, my life changed for the better. A couple blood tests later and balancing my hormones put the pep back in my step. I was moving toward my goals faster and more steadily.
Testosterone turned the clock back on the aging process for me and was not at all what I thought it was going to be. I had a lot of bad and outdated information about hormone replacement therapy and Ron walked me through to what was current and true. I no longer had to accept my gynecologist’s underachieving resignation of “welcome to aging.”
I have to say, stress is the least exciting topic in my exam rooms and no one wants to spend much time on it. There’s nothing sexy about reducing your stress. We live in a society that applauds high achievers and their seventy-plus hour work weeks.
We all have that person in our life that wears exhaustion like a badge of honor. But then we also see the social media posts talking about how we need to be more present, are missing out on what's important in life and what really matters when you’re on your deathbed.
Bottom line.. Navigating the appropriate levels of stress is messy and it's hard to win. But it's important work.
So let me leave a few takeaways for you.
Our bodies do well with a little stress but start to over react when we have too much. With excess stress, our adrenal glands start kicking out cortisol which can not only lower your testosterone levels but can promote high blood pressure, low libido and weight gain as well. It will definitely make you moody and throw off your menstrual cycle. These are some legit medical conditions that we often attribute to something else.
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And if we find ourselves in chronic stress, we get a deeper set of health conditions and hormone issues like thyroid problems, appetite increase (ghrelin and leptin) and insulin resistance. Jessica Stull, MD outlines the details of the stress effect beautifully in her article “Hormonal Imbalance: The Stress Effect.”
So for the next 28 days I challenge you to balance your hormones and stress less.
Say “no” more often and slow your roll.
Enjoy the change in weather.
Increase your immune system. Lose weight.
Make time for that fun workout and skip the intense one. Physical activity is your best friend.
Put more whole foods into your day and skip the convenience options.
Download my 28 Day Hormone Reset and reach out for more support.