ARE YOU STRESSED? HERE’S WHAT STRESS CAN BE DOING TO YOUR BODY

Stress is something we all experience often. Some of us experience stress more often than others, but regardless it can be damaging to your body. Most of us don’t realize how stress affects our body, but it’s important to be aware of it. Who knows, maybe this blog will motivate you to find good ways to de-stress when you are feeling like things are becoming too much.

I just want to start off by saying that our body CANNOT differentiate between real and imagined stress. So for example, a person is chasing you, you are stressed and adrenaline and cortisol push through your blood. Let’s say someone isn’t chasing you but you’re imagining it. Your body will have the SAME exact response as it would if you were actually being chased. Your body can’t distinguish the difference! Pretty crazy right?
It’s also important to know that we experience stress in four different ways.

1. Biological / Chemical – In the processes of the body
2. Mental / Emotional – In the thoughts, beliefs and feelings
3. Spiritual – In our sense of connection
4. Structural – In our bones and muscles

Today, I’m going to talk about the biological / chemical effects stress has on your body.

Increased cortisol production

• This is a big side effect when we are stressed. When we are stressed our body produces more cortisol. This is not good! Increased cortisol is associated with weight gain, can stop you from loosing weight, gaining muscle and it also ages you prematurely.

Decreased healthy gut flora populations

• Our gut health is so important! Stress can destroy the healthy intestinal bacteria in our gut. Without those healthy bacteria, we can develop immune problems as well as digestive stress.

Increased nutrient excretion

• When we are stressed, our body can lose nutrients. We can have a loss of calcium, potassium, magnesium and the list goes on!

Ability to burn calories dwindles

• This one pretty much speaks for itself!

Decrease in thyroid hormone

• This one also decreases our body’s ability to burn calories. This makes it harder for people to lose weight.

Cholesterol increases

• Stress alone increases our LDL levels. LDL cholesterol is the bad cholesterol, and any increase in this is not good for our bodies.

Decrease in growth hormone

• The growth hormone is a key hormone for our body. It helps us grow, heal and rebuild body tissues, as well as helps burn fat and build muscle.

And this isn’t even a full list of how stress affects our bodies. These ones just stood out to me the most.

It may seem overwhelming but we have the ability to control our stress. How do we start? My advice is first finding the core stressor in your life. Is it work? Finances? Body image? Finding the core root of the problem and admitting it is the only way you can move forward.

Stay tuned for a blog about ways you can de-stress.