Stress and our body
Check in with yourself. How are you feeling? Are you constantly thinking/worrying about things? Are you anxious? Are you concerned for our health/safety/finances/longevity? Are these things that keep you up at night? Do you wake up thinking of these things or your work? Are you often cold, have skin irritations, loosing hair, have headaches or migraines? Do you sleep 7-8 hours a night or are you missing sleep? Do you sleep at the same time and wake up at the same time every day? Do you have tension in your eyes or sinus area? Do you have neck or shoulder pain? Are you drinking more than one cup of coffee a day to stay awake or get energy. Do you drink alcohol daily, or are you drinking to relax? do you drink to fall asleep? Do you use drugs or alcohol to take the edge off and help you calm down?
Do you have gas, IBS, SIBO, heartburn, bloating, diarrhea often, or constipated? Do you have pain in your abdomen? Are you unable to digest certain foods?
These are questions we need to be asked by our healthcare providers. These are questions we need to think about and really pay attention to. These are small signs our body is giving us to pay attention. These are things we need to pay attention to. These are questions I ask my clients. If you even have a few of these, they are probably caused by stress on your nervous system. These are the ways in which your body is compensating to keep itself going. You don't need drugs for most of these. You need to take a "chill pill". just kidding. You need to begin to regulate your parasympathetic nervous system and get out of a fight or flight state.
Stress is a huge factor and it causes 90% of our diseases.
Stress is part of a Neuro-Endo-Immuno Loop. Neuro- Nervous system- your stress Endo- Endocrine system- your hormones Immuno- Immune system - located in the intestines/ causes inflammation
Stress is either external or internal- work/life, gut issues, or viruses. Stress is your body fighting to stay in homeostasis.
Stress creates imbalances in our body which then leaves us feeling a certain way, which weakens us, which then leads to more stress. Break the cycle! For some, it's a stress of the mind, and for some it is a stress of the body. Wherever your stress is, start to address root cause and find a way to calm your nervous system.
Your neurological wiring can be giving you stress- these are your thoughts, feelings, emotions and environment. Change one of these and see how it changes your stress. Fix your diet and your body can reduce inflammation. (Posted about this in last few days. Addiction to cortisol and dopamine and serotonin in gut).
We have short term stress and long-term stress. Some short term stressors are good for our body to adapt and function (exercise, fasting*). It helps to increase alertness, increases metabolic rate, converts glycogen (stored sugars) to glucose (usable sugars) into the blood stream and more.
Long term stress on the other hand causes a lot of metabolic issues resulting in disease. It increases blood volume and blood pressure, retains sodium and water by kidneys, insulin sensitivity goes down, immunity goes down and more.
Stress requires greater amount of vitamins, minerals and nutrients to repair oxidative damage and balance nutrient requirement.
The fastest nutrients to be depleted (by your nervous system, hormones, and immune system) are: B vitamins Zinc Magnesium Vitamin C Glutamine.
This is why we look to food as our medicine first. We need to be eating a healthy and nutritious diet to combat our daily stress. Our short term stress can be balanced out by this, but it's our long-term stress (which we will go into soon), that is depleting us and creating all kinds of disease.
Remember fruits and vegetable (esp all the colors) are what provide us with our necessary vitamins and minerals (7-9 servings per day).
*fasting- Our bodies need at least 12 hours of rest for the liver to process and detoxify. It is primarily done while we sleep. This is also why it is important to sleep enough, and routinely. Be sure to give your body at least 12-14 hours of rest without giving it any food. This is also why we shouldn't start our day with coffee (cortisol=glucose)
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