Managing Stress
Many of us have found our stress load increase exponentially with COVID 19 lockdowns. This has created financial pressure, isolation, relationship issues, increased demands on frontline workers, businesses and parents.
What are the signs that your body is struggling with stress:
- Difficulty waking up in the morning
- Fatigue that is not relieved by sleep
- Craving salty foods
- Lack of energy to complete daily tasks/increased effort to do every day tasks
- Lack of libido
- Decreased ability to handle stress – yelling at kids, compulsive eating, constant anxiety etc
- Depressed immunity – increased time to recover from illness
- Light headed when standing up too quickly
- Mild depression
- Lack of content with life
- Hormonal dysfunction (this is discussed in more detail further down) – PMS etc
- Needing to eat sugar or drink caffeine to keep going
- Lack of focus – harder to make decisions even about small things Memory less accurate/absentmindedness Takes you until mid morning to wake up, you have a mid afternoon slump but after dinner you get a second wind
- Decreased productivity
If you strongly resonate with 3 or more of these then there is a good chance your body is depleted by stress.
What can you do:
- Focus on what you can do not what you can’t. Connect with others – skype, zoom, phone calls etc
- Get plenty of sleep
- Make good food choices
- Try not to rely on stimulants to get through the day – these stimulate the release of more stress hormones further depleting you in the long run.
- Relax your expectations on yourself at this time Find activities to do that can bring you joy or make you feel relaxed – start a project, take a bath. Go for a walk if you can – if you can’t what exercise do you enjoy can you find an online video I know there are plenty of amazing people offering free at home workouts at the moment.
Stress and Hormones
A high level of stress has been shown to increase PMS and hormone imbalance. In the short term (acute stress) we pump out adrenaline and this can block our progesterone receptors and deplete GABA. GABA is a calming neurotransmitter in the brain that promotes relaxation and sleep. In the longer term stress can impair ovulation which is when we make our progesterone. Progesterone is our calming hormone. It balances our estrogen, stimulates the thyroid, reduces inflammation, builds muscle, promotes sleep, protects against heart disease and calms the nervous system to make it easier to cope with stress. If you have PMS it is a good sign your body is not coping with stress, and your hormone imbalance is actually contributing to your bodies inability to cope with stress. It is a vicious cycle.
What can you do about it? You can book a consultation with me to get a personalised treatment plan. You can also read more about what you can do in the blog posts below. Magnesium for PMS Broccoli Sprouts for Hormonal Balance Raising Progesterone and Lowering Estrogen Naturally
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