Wednesday, November 3, 2010

The Stress and Hormone Link

Bodies get sick or diseased because of 3 basic reasons: traumas, toxicities/nutritional deficiencies, and stress. Even hormonal imbalances can be worsened and affected by an innappropriate stress response! Here’s just one of the connections between stress and hormonal imbalance.

All of the sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone) are made from cholesterol in the body. These hormones are vital for healing, repairing, and many other vital functions. When things are going good, there are enough of these anabolic hormones for the body to hum right along. However, when the body shifts into a stressed state, cholesterol will instead be used to make the body’s main long term stress hormone, cortisol.





I mentioned in the last post how elevated levels of cortisol disrupt sugar cycles, change where your body deposits fat, and accelerates wear and tear and breakdown in all of your body’s tissue like joints, the digestive tract, and skin.

So too much bodily or emotional stress = sickness, disease and faster aging.

If you haven’t been able to solve a health challenge, chances are an imbalance in your body’s stress and repair hormones are holding you back. It’s exciting to watch people reclaim their well being and watch their symptoms disappear by addressing stress hormones. I like to use a variety of ways to test stress hormone levels, from seated/standing blood pressure to saliva testing, depending on what the individual’s needs are.

Call me and mention this blog for a $35 credit towards a health assessment to see if stress and imbalanced stress hormones are limiting your health and well being.



-Dr. Shriver

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