Last week I talked about what happens when our brain perceives stress. Our adrenal glands are designed to respond to acute stressors, keep you safe, and then restore you to baseline. However, the way that we live now requires constant adrenal response, causing your body to break itself down to protect you 😱.
Remember💥all stress translates to the same process in your body-it does not matter whether your stress is coming from lack of sleep, over exercising, or just being a parent.
Here are some of the more common effects of stress that I see in practice:
⚡️↓digestive & liver function from a ↓production of stomach acid & digestive enzymes, and suppression of gut motility. Cortisol also ↑the permeability of the gut lining, leading to new food sensitivities and immune reactions.
⚡️↑bacterial, fungal, or parasitic overgrowth. Due to↓HCL, enzyme production, & gut motility, an ↑in proinflammatory bacteria, and ↓blood & oxygen flow to the gut, the bugs & bacteria that we want moving along end up hanging out and multiplying in our intestines.
⚡️Blood Sugar Imbalances due to ↑glucose every time cortisol is released, and ↓sensitivity to insulin from that constant influx of glucose independent of food.
⚡️Impaired Sleep from a disrupted daily cortisol rhythm, ↓liver function & ↑blood sugar irregularities.
⚡️Impaired Thyroid function & Metabolism. ↑cortisol interferes with the conversion of inactive thyroid hormone (T4) into active thyroid hormone (T3), slowing down metabolism. ↑cortisol also ↑muscle breakdown.
⚡️Hormone imbalances in part from ↓pituitary function, ↓thyroid function, and ↓progesterone …leading to estrogen dominance, low libido.
⚡️↓Immune function. ↑cortisol and ↓digestion leads to a ↓lymphocytes and an ↑in inflammatory cytokines.
⚡️Disrupted Mineral Balance. Stress will ↓magnesium, vitamin C, B vitamins, and zinc, and cause imbalances with sodium, potassium, calcium, copper, iron, Vitamin D, & others. These imbalances then lead to sex and thyroid hormone dysfunction, anemia, & more.