What Truly Happens When You’re Stressed
The human body is a machine and machines are built to preform. When I would think of cortisol, I always thought “stress”. “Oh that’s a stress response mechanism”. But it’s truly so much more than that!
Cortisol is a hormone. It reacts in response to the internal or external environment. It is constantly preparing the body to adapt to whatever is happening in your day to day life. If you are scared, nervous, happy, upset, hungry, anxious, when you move, when you go to sleep, wake up, etc. cortisol adjusts to compensate for those chemical fluctuations. When we take time for self care, that replenishes our cortisol “bank”. When we slow down, meditate, take deep breathes, sit down, eat a nutrient dense lunch and ultimately take care of our bodies, our cortisol will level out.
If you are someone who is always go-go-go/high strung, you need to take a break. If you’re in your 20’s-30’s maybe even 40’s, you may not feel it as heavily now, but you are burning through your cortisol storages. This is one way metabolic chaos will occur and the body will start to break down if not addressed. Metabolic chaos can look like immune system breakdown, fatigue, weight gain, lack of motivation, feeling stressed out, dizzy upon standing, digestive issues, malabsorption, irritability, anxiety, afternoon crash, poor memory, etc.
So what should you get tested to know how close you are to metabolic chaos? Well a lot of things but to gauge how to support stress in the body:
DHEA
Cortisol/DHEA Ratio
Cortisol Sum
And how do we STOP the chaos!?
Cortisol and DHEA must be in balance. Cortisol dominance over time leads to a catabolic state where the body physically breaks down. The cortisol level on a lab test reflects the best your body can do even under high stress. DHEA counter regulates cortisol. Cortisol is catabolic (breaks down) and DHEA is anabolic (builds up). So when you see a depressed DHEA level, know that is an early warning sign of adrenal dysfunction- your body is breaking down and needs help!
This is the DHEA level from my personal saliva stress and hormone panel. It may look “in range” here but as a Functional Practitioner I do not follow decade old ranges, I look at the optimal population so I want to see a saliva DHEA level 1.0-1.3 ng/mL. During the time I took this SHP (stress and hormone panel) my body was breaking down indicating that if I do not correct this soon, I will be facing numerous chronic stress related disorders in the near future.
Again, knowledge is power and prevention is key.
My cortisol sum is a little below optimal (ranges shown on the right are functional ranges). My body had been running on cortisol to the point where even DHEA is depleted which shows signs of immense stress indicating the body is having trouble building back up. This is why looking to DHEA and cortisol/DHEA ratio is imperative.
As you can see, I am in what’s called the exhaustive phase but only slightly! The good news is this is reversible with a proper action plan!
Stress is inevitable. Everyone will experience stress in their lives and it can look like unknowingly consuming an overload of herbicides/pesticides or suffering through an unwanted divorce. We have to slow down and take care of ourselves DAILY. You deserve to show up as the best version of yourself everyday, knowing exactly how to fuel your body in order to do so.
I hope this helps shed some light on cortisol and how imperative functional assessments are! True wellness is obtained by being proactive and then letting your body do the healing it was made to do.
xx, Steph
