Is Stress making your pants TIGHT?

Cortisol is a vital human hormone that is secreted by the adrenal glands in response to stress. It is vital, because without it, we would not survive. But maintaining your cortisol levels within normal levels is one of the most important factors in increasing muscle tone and losing body fat.

Cortisol is an important adrenal hormone and is involved in many functions in the body. It should be naturally occurring in the blood in higher amounts in the morning and should decrease as the day goes by into the lowest levels in the evening so you can sleep.   It is known most commonly as the “fight or flight” hormone or the “stress” hormone and is used for quick bursts of energy for survival reasons, but it has other purposes in the body:

  • Immune Functions
  • Inflammatory Response
  • Insulin Release for Glucose Maintenance
  • Glucose Metabolism
  • Regulation of Blood pressure

When the body is in a chronic stressful situation prolonged exposure to too much cortisol can cause many negative effects:

  • Abdominal Body Fat
  • Blood Sugar Imbalance
  • Decreased Bone Density
  • Decreased Muscle Tissue
  • Higher Blood Pressure
  • Impaired  Brain Function
  • Impaired Immunity
  • Suppressed thyroid function


Some of the primary reasons as to why cortisol levels become elevated are as follows:

  • Lifestyle
  • Mental health
  • Medications
  • Stress

Adrenal Fatigue

Adrenal fatigue is produced when your adrenal glands cannot adequately meet the demands of stress. The adrenal glands mobilize your body's responses to every kind of stress (whether it's physical, emotional, or psychological) through hormones that regulate energy production and storage, immune function, heart rate, muscle tone, and other processes that enable you to cope with the stress.

Whether you have an emotional crisis such as the death of a loved one, a physical crisis such as major surgery, or any type of severe repeated or constant stress in your life, your adrenals have to respond to the stress and maintain homeostasis. If their response is inadequate, you are likely to experience some degree of adrenal fatigue.

During adrenal fatigue your adrenal glands function, but not well enough to maintain optimal homeostasis because their output of regulatory hormones has been diminished - usually by over-stimulation. Over-stimulation of your adrenals can be caused either by a very intense single stress, or by chronic or repeated stresses that have a cumulative effect.
  • Feeling generally unwell.
  • Tiredness.
  • Low energy.
  • Decreased sex drive.
  • Muscle weakness.
  • Mild depression.
  • Anxiety
  • Craving salty or sweet foods.
  • Feeling rundown, overwhelmed and unable to cope


Here at Immersion of Balance, William uses a Nutritional and lifestyle assessment to help identify problematic lifestyle factors helping support his clients who are negatively effected by stresses of daily life and excess cortisol levels in the blood. 
 
To find out how!

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