stressStress is the root of so many problems. Most of my clients have significant chronic stress that interferes with their ability to achieve their health goals.
Stress is often inescapable but we can minimize the impact on our health. We NEED to minimize that impact. Chronic stress impairs sleep, interferes with weight loss, causes inflammation in your body and increases your risk of disease including Diabetes and Alzheimer’s Disease.
I want to repeat that last point: stress can lead to Diabetes and Alzheimer’s Disease.
Stress increases blood sugar. It’s supposed to do this…giving energy to your muscles so you can either FIGHT or FLEE…fight the enemy attacking you or run away.
If you’re experiencing chronic stress, your blood sugar is constantly elevated. This means that your pancreas needs to keep pumping out insulin in response to this, in order to get the sugar to your cells.
What happens when insulin is constantly present in your blood? Your cells stop responding to insulin.
Your cells become INSULIN RESISTANT. When this happens, the sugar can’t get into your cells.
Insulin Resistance
Insulin resistance has many possible outcomes including (but not limited to):
😱 Pre-Diabetes and eventually Type 2 Diabetes
😱 Inflammation in your body (which leads to all sorts of issues like HEART DISEASE and CANCER)
😱Damage to your brain (shrinks the hippocampus which you need for memory)
😱Alzheimer’s Disease
😱Weight gain
What can you do about this?
Obviously, you can’t avoid all stress. It’s more important, and within your control, to figure out how to RESPOND to the stress.
Figure out what helps to CALM you…yoga, meditation, exercise, deep breathing.
Box breathing: breathe in for 4 counts, hold for 4, exhale for 4, hold for 4. This is the Navy Seals’ tool for dealing with stress. (Hopefully, your life isn’t quite that stressful, but try this simple technique anyway.)
🥑Eating a LOW CARB diet can help stabilize your blood sugar and reduce the impact of stress. Eating a low carb diet can also make you ‘metabolically flexible’, meaning that your body can switch back and forth more easily to burn either fat or carbs for fuel. This is less stressful for your body!Â
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Brain fog? Memory problems?
Stress might be shrinking your brain. Seriously.
When you’re stressed, your body releases cortisol. Cortisol serves many important functions…it’s not a bad thing.
The problems occur when the stress is chronic, like when you’re constantly functioning on too little sleep and living on coffee or when you’re in a bad relationship that causes you to feel anxiety day in and day out, or you have a job that you hate…or simply that you overreact to everyday events because you don’t have the mental resources to cope.
When cortisol is constantly elevated, it causes damage to your brain. It SHRINKS your prefrontal cortex which is responsible for memory and learning.
STRESS SHRINKS YOUR BRAIN…
What can you do??
Exercise is one of the best ways to counteract this brain shrinkage. Get moving!
Want more details? Read this:Â https://www.tuw.edu/health/how-stress-affects-the-brain/
Ok ladies…this one is for you
Did you know that when you are chronically stressed, the elevated stress hormone cortisol causes a decrease in progesterone?
Decreased progesterone is responsible for all sorts of symptoms including hair loss/thinning, trouble sleeping, headaches, hot flashes, weight gain.
Yeah…it’s important.
Progesterone naturally decreases as we age but you might be making the situation worse by not dealing with your stress.
You may not be able to eliminate the stress but you can change how you react.
If you’re experiencing any of those symptoms above, try some of the techniques that I’ve mentioned above: yoga, meditation, exercise, box breathing…even if you can only manage 10 minutes a day…DO IT!!!
It’s not too late. Even if you’ve had a lifetime of stress, your brain and body can heal, at least to some degree.
Another change you can make that will have a dramatic impact on your brain health and overall health?
Reduce your carb intake and increase healthy fats. Eating a high-fat low carb diet can help reduce inflammation and effects of stress on your body. It can also help to balance hormones.
Check out my online 12 Week High Fat Low Carb Program to learn how to implement this easy, life-changing way of eating.
It’s not a diet. It’s a long term, sustainable way to improve your life.
You might also be interested in: How Yoga Saved My Sanity or Your Mind is a Powerful Tool For Health and Fat Loss
References:
Stress and Insulin Resistance: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4919480/
How Stress Affects the Brain: https://www.tuw.edu/health/how-stress-affects-the-brain/
Progesterone: https://www.bodylogicmd.com/hormones-for-women/progesterone
Carbs and Stress:Â https://www.marksdailyapple.com/4-misunderstandings-about-carbs-and-stress/
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