You’re Not Sleeping. You’re Barely Eating. And Your Weight Is Going UP.
In the medical world, they see these as being separate issues….at least that’s what we’ve been told.
As a dietitian, we’re trained to think of everything as being separate, too.
But here’s the thing –
It’s not.
Our body is regulated by hormones that work together to regulate body temperature, sleep, metabolism, reproduction, mood and growth.
They also control our reaction to stress and regulates our energy.
When we are exposed to lots of stress, our stress hormone pathway become over-stimulated, and ultimately, it wears down. The reality is stress is first picked up by the brain, and it sets off a cascade of responses that ultimately results in the dumping of cortisol into the blood.
Since our bodies are designed to keep us alive, it will prioritise the stress response, and kick our bodies into a state of preservation anytime we’re stressed.
Because of this, several physiological changes will start to occur – we dump more sugar into the blood for energy, our heart rate increases, inflammation levels drop, our immune system shifts to protect us more systemically, our pupils dilate and our mind sharpens.
In the short term, this is great, and it’s exactly what we need to stay alive.
However, when we become over-exposed to stress, that’s when things go south.
As you can imagine, if our bodies were constantly dealing with stress, our bodies will be non-stop working to keep up with the production of cortisol, as well as do it’s other jobs in regulating everything else in the body.
Overtime, our stress response mechanism breaks down, and frankly, we break down.
Imagine your office space.
Everyone has their own individual tasks to perform, as well as mini projects that they work on in small groups. Then, from time to time, there are massive projects with a high-priority label on them, and it requires the whole team to work together to get it done.
Short term, the workers can cope with their individual work loads, their mini projects and do their part in getting this high priority project done. Sure, it’s a bit taxing on the team, but they can do it.
However, what would happen if these “high priority” projects became a weekly thing? What about a daily thing?
Since these projects are labelled “high priority”, they will be prioritised ahead of everything else. The team will dedicate most of their time and energy to work on this. As a result, their mini projects and their own roles will suffer.
Give it more time, and everything starts to fall apart.
The individual stuff will be left undone, the mini projects won’t sync up anymore, and even these high priority projects won’t be completed to a satisfactory level (that’s if they’re completed at all).
The end result?
A complete office meltdown.
The truth is, our hormones work much the same as this office space – each hormone have their own individual roles, they also work together on other functions of the body, and then in times of stress, they come together to produce adequate quantities of stress hormones to keep the body alive.
Overtime, and overuse will lead to a system-meltdown – not only will their individual functions be compromised, but their collaborative effort to produce adequate amounts of stress hormones will also be compromised.
This is why, under prolonged stress, the body will produce seemingly unrelated symptoms.
Metabolically, you notice that your cravings increase, your weight goes up and your energy levels plummet.
Mentally, your mood shifts with you oscillating between being irritable and flat, and anxiety builds and you experience a constant fog in your head.
Physically, the gut starts to play up and you think you have IBS, your sleep patterns are all screwed, your joints and muscles hurt, your sex drive falls through the floor, you’re catching every bug under the sun, and in some cases you start to notice other mystery symptoms like rashes on your skin or your hair falling out. As for your productivity? That goes through the floor, and you can’t seem to work out why you’re procrastinating more and resisting getting things done.
But here’s the thing.
All of this is fixable. Through food.
If you’re a business owner experiencing any of these issues, and you’re worried and frustrated at the lack of answers, shoot us a message and let’s have a chat!
