Stress will kill your Hormones in Midlife
- Sep 21, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 20, 2023
By Stacy Gaucys
I think a lot of women over look stress and call it normal, without realizing how detrimental it is on your hormone production, metabolism, and overall health. "It's unavoidable." "I just have stress. We all do. It's not like we can get rid of our kids, our jobs, our toxic people we can't just get rid of, etc......"
Yes, I understand all of this. How can we just stop stressing? (Stress includes constant worry, btw)! This may seem impossible, especially in certain situations that are unavoidable. Let's take a look at what chronic stress does on the inside in regards to your hormones....
The stress hormone cortisol is produced in the adrenal glands that sit on top of the kidneys. Cortisol is helpful when we need to react in a situation that requires flight or fight, as it dumps glucose into the blood stream for quick energy.
Having constant stress in your life will result in constant high levels of cortisol, which in turn will result in constant dumping of glucose into the blood stream. Because the glucose isn't used for fight or flight, Insulin is released to take the glucose from the blood and usher it into the cells for energy to use later. Constant stress leads to constant high blood glucose which leads to constant high insulin levels. Like many things in your body, it is a feedback loop.
Your cells get tired of being constantly asked to take in the glucose and eventually become resistant to insulin's effects. Your cells are now insulin resistant, and all of that blood sugar roaming around gets a new storage place, in your fat, largely in your belly fat. Ugh!
If you have constant high stress AND you are approaching midlife (or there), you now may have some serious issues. For one, your cells are already becoming more and more resistant to insulin naturally with your declining hormone production. Add in increased insulin resistance from chronic stress, and now you have a double whammy leading to even more belly fat.
More belly fat is bad, and not just because you don't like how it looks. Belly fat surrounds your vital organs where it produces specific chemicals that can lead to inflammation and deadly diseases like heart disease. That is why women have an advantage over men before menopause. They carry less body fat in their bellies.
Secondly, after your ovaries shut down and stop producing progesterone and estrogen in midlife, your adrenal glands take over. Adrenal glands produce and release your stress hormones. If your adrenals are constantly busy making cortisol, it can diminish the production of your other sex hormones. You need these sex hormones to keep you vital, sexual, energetic, strong, etc. To compound to this problem, you need progesterone in the production of cortisol. If you are under a lot of stress for an extended period of time, your progesterone levels get depleted. Progesterone triggers a calming effect for your brain. It helps you sleep, reduces anxiety and depression, and helps you deal with stress! (If you haven't hit menopause, your progesterone production declines in the same manner with response to stress, although your body may have an easier time dealing with stress due to high production of quality hormones produced by the ovaries compared to weaker adrenal hormone production).
As you can see, balancing declining sex hormones (I haven't even touched on the thyroid!) with chronic stress present will not be easy. Losing unwanted belly fat won't be easy either. Increasing your health will be an uphill battle. We need to take stress seriously, especially in midlife, and make an effort to reduce stress levels. If you have chronic stress, don't stress...lol. You can do something about it!
Luckily, the Nutrition component of Transform Body Works Method helps reduce your stress automatically! Here are some ways....
Being in Ketosis helps your brain function much better than depending on glucose. Lifting your brain fog and reducing the spikes and drops of energy the brain depends upon with constant carbohydrate intake helps you think more clearly, manages your stress better, and helps you make better decisions.
Ever stress about your body, how you look, or what you should be eating to improve these? I think 90% think about this.... and often. This method helps alleviate the stress of what to eat and when to eat. Plus with the lessened carb and sugar intake you wont stress about when your next meal is...... you wont be hungry!
Using your fat as fuel produces the most prevalent ketone body called Beta Hydroxy butyrate (BHB). Besides providing your body with fuel, helping your body ward off heart and brain diseases, and generally improving health span and longevity, it also acts as a mild euphoric in the brain. Being in ketosis and intermittent fasting produces a calming effect. It raises dopamine and serotonin levels, and reduces anxiety, depression, aggression and stress in the hypothalamus.
TBW Foods that help with stress: Dark chocolate, red wine in moderation, broccoli, seeds, avocados, spinach, and probiotics.
One of the 7 steps in the Transform Body Works Method is Stress Reduction. We encourage stress reducing tactics that you can incorporate into your lifestyle other than through diet alone. We want you to be happy and healthy.... and as stress free as you possibly can be!
Sources:
https://www.menopausecentre.com.au/information-centre/articles/our-adrenal-glands-through-menopause/
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