Are Your Hormones Stressing You Out: The Link Between Stress and Hormone Imbalance

“My calendar has been overbooked for weeks. I have absolutely no time.” “I work 16 hour days and weekends. Gotta hustle.” 

These phrases are commonplace in our stressed-out culture. In fact, stress has quickly become an epidemic, with three out of four Americans citing stress as causing physical or psychological symptoms. It’s pervasive in our culture and if you aren’t stressed, you must not be doing enough.

We all know that stress can interrupt our sleep, make us more irritable, or even contribute to break-outs but what we may not fully realize is that chronic stress can have negative effects across all systems of our body.

Stress (perceived or real) causes hormones to be released and if it becomes chronic, it can cause imbalance and ultimately disease. So before we dive deeper into stress and its specific effects on hormones, let’s make sure we understand what a hormone actually is and why they are important.

Hormones are chemicals that your body produces as a part of your endocrine system (think endocrinologist) and travel through your blood until they reach their desired target. Since, by definition, they travel through your blood, hormones have body-wide effects. And what makes endocrinology fascinating and complex, hormones can affect one another. A hormone can either promote the release of others, block the release of other hormones, or even increase the action of another. The possibilities are endless!

Hormones need to be released regularly to maintain proper functioning of the body, otherwise known as homeostasis. Similar to how you are trained to stay in your lane while driving, the body has systems in place so if it veers a little too far one way, it can course correct to avoid causing an accident. 

However, hormones can go awry in a few different ways.  And for women, since we are at the mercy of our monthly (in reality, closer to weekly) hormonal fluctuations that coordinate menstruation, we are subject to feel these hormone imbalances more acutely. Hormonal fluctuations are also what cause menopause to be such a difficult time of transition for some women, with hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, headaches, weight gain, and even hair changes. 

When a disease happens related to hormones, it can be due to our hormones being produced too much, too little, or not being metabolized (broken down) properly and staying in our circulation too long. Diabetes is a perfect example. In type 1 diabetes, your body stops producing insulin, a hormone responsible for letting glucose into your cells. In type 2 diabetes, it makes too much insulin.

Since this can become complicated quickly, we’re going to focus on how stress affects some of your hormones. We’ll also discuss some tips on to help rebalance hormones due to stress. 

What Happens When You’re Stressed

When you first feel stressed, your adrenal glands (one sits atop each kidney) release two hormones in succession: adrenaline (epinephrine) and cortisol. You may already be familiar with the effects of adrenaline. Adrenaline gets the body ready for “fight or flight” by increasing alertness and moves blood away from the digestive and urinary systems and towards skeletal muscles, heart, and lungs to better run or “fight”. 

Adrenaline also promotes the formation of fuels like glucose (fighting takes energy) but inhibits the release of insulin so your brain has plenty of fuel. Adrenaline is what is responsible for making your heart race, your breath quicken, and making you more alert, ready for whatever bear, email, or narrowly-avoided traffic collision comes your way.

After a few hours, if the stressful situation is still imminent, the second hormone that’s released is cortisol. In the short-term, cortisol, like adrenaline, promotes the formation of fuels. But since infection or injury is viewed as a stress to the body, cortisol also has an anti-inflammatory effect. This is why hydrocortisone cream is used to help with swelling or inflammation. 

Essentially, cortisol is focused on repairing any damage to the body. Cortisol also causes insulin to be released to take up any residual glucose that was not initially used up.

What Happens When You’re Chronically Stressed

If you have chronic stress, these normal hormones are present in abnormal amounts and disrupt our homeostasis. So that car keeps veering out of its lane with no way to correct course. 

Long-term elevation of cortisol and adrenaline reduces your immune systems activity, which is why chronic stress can cause or worsen infections, cancer, and autoimmune conditions. 

Since higher amounts of cortisol causes increased release of insulin, this pro-inflammatory storage hormone promotes fat formation. It’s thanks to insulin, as an indirect product of stress, that it makes belly fat more difficult to lose and increases your risk for metabolic syndrome (think blood sugar, weight, cardiovascular, and cholesterol issues). 

But it doesn’t stop there. Those elevated stress hormones can also wreck havoc on your gut by not only decreasing it’s overall activity but can impact your microbiome (gut bugs) and cause things like leaky gut (intestinal permeability), worsen ulcers, and lead to digestive issues like constipation and bloating. 

And if you’re always in that hyper-alert state, it may cause elevated blood pressure, anxiety, and sleep disruption. 

Since hormones impact other hormones, such as estrogen, more cortisol can lead to higher levels of estrogen which causes estrogen dominance. Estrogen dominance has been implicated in endometriosis, fibroids, and even breast and ovarian cancer. This can also cause irregularities in menstruation, decrease fertility, and lower libido (who needs to have sex and make babies when you’re stressed?!). 

Cortisol can also negatively impact your thyroid function, which affects almost all systems of your body. And cortisol can affect our short-term memory, will power, ability to control our emotions, and decision-making due to its long-term effects on the nervous system.

In summary, there is no part of your body that is spared from the negative effects of high cortisol due to chronic stress. Luckily, there are steps we can take to correct this imbalance.

So What Can Be Done?

When it comes to stress causing a hormone imbalance, I find it best to take a two-pronged approach. We work on helping the body recover from its current state of stress and subsequent hormone imbalance and we also need to work on how we view and deal with stress so we don’t get into this situation again in the future. 

It’s similar to a leaking bucket. We need to plug the hole in the bucket while we also prevent any leaks in the future.

Janelle’s previous article highlighted some great tips for changing our perception and relationship with stress for the long-term (preventing the bucket from having future leaks) so we’ll focus on more immediate tools that can help (plug the current hole in the bucket).

Feed Your Adrenals

One way to support your body in times of stress is to feed your adrenals. Prolonged periods of high stress can deplete the adrenals of key nutrients they need to make adrenaline and cortisol. These nutrients include vitamin C, pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), and magnesium. Some foods that are rich in these nutrients and would be great to include to help feed your adrenal glands include:

• Citrus fruits
• Cantaloupe
• Broccoli 
• Brussels sprouts
• Cauliflower
• Potatoes
• Nuts
• Whole grains
• Legumes
• Leafy green vegetables

Supplementation of key nutrients may also be required to provide additional support.

In general, consuming whole foods are going to be of more benefit than processed foods since they contain more vitamins and minerals. Processing of foods strips them of their essential nutrients and lowers their nutritional value overall.

And since with higher stress, we will have higher levels of insulin and inflammation, keeping your added sugar intake low is important to not add more fuel to the fire. 

Reset and Restore

In addition to feeding your adrenals, there are additional steps you can take to reset your body’s response to stress. 

One supplement that helps decrease the cortisol surge, improves mood, and makes you feel less stressed is called phosphatidylserine (fos-fa-tid-l-sear-ene). As an antioxidant, it has been shown to improve brain function as well. We usually start with a higher dose of 100 mg three times a day for about a month and expect more subtle shifts.

I particularly love using herbs to help reset and nourish your nervous system, which is responsible for switching on more fight and flight or rest and digest. There are herbs that help restore normal function and essentially calm the system down. Unlike medications, herbs gently remind the body of how it’s supposed to function. 

In herbal medicine, we group herbs by action so all the herbs discussed in this article are either nervines (help calm the nervous system), adaptogens (help you adapt to stress), or trophorestorative (help rebuild vitality in the nervous system).

When it comes to herbs, always speak to your doctor if you have any pre-existing health conditions, are on medication, or are pregnant/nursing. And since herbs are helping to rebuild your system, it may take a month or longer before you start to notice the positive effects. 

Schisandra chinensis

Schisandra (shi-san-dra) is a Chinese herb and easily one of my top herbs I use in formulations. It is a nervine, adaptogen, and trophorestorative so it’s a triple threat when it comes to chronic stress. Schisandra helps improve stamina and endurance. It’s also an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. Since chronic stress and inflammation can be taxing to our liver, Schisandra is also a great liver herb to offer additional support on par with Milk thistle. Schisandra is relatively safe herb with only a few people experiencing mild GI upset or indigestion. You can take it as a tea, tincture, capsules, or even add a few berries to soup.

Withania somnifera

Another triple threat herb (nervine, adaptogen, and trophorestorative) is Ashwagandha (ahsh-wa-gan-da). This Ayurvedic herb has been growing in popularity over the years and for good reason. Not only does Ashwagandha help calm the nervous system but it also improves immune function, enhances fertility, thyroid function, and produces a more restful sleep. Ashwagandha is best suited for people who are exhausted and agitated while under stress. This herb is also relatively safe and can be dose in tincture or capsule form.

Avena sativa

Milky oat seed helps to feed and replenish the nervous system. It is a nervine and trophorestorative that helps restore normal function to a weakened and exhausted nervous system. Like Ashwangha, it can help with sleep maintenance (staying asleep) and increases stamina. This herb has also been used to help people wean off addictive substances by reducing withdrawal symptoms and cravings. Avena is a safe herb and I love to dose it as milky oat seed glycerite. 

Our medical system has become too quick to supply band-aids in the form of hormone replacement without investigating or treating the root cause of those hormone imbalances. As we’ve learned, chronic stress can have profound effects on our health that may not be immediately apparent.

Changing your approach to hormone balance requires you to rethink your relationship with stress. Have you been stressed for so long that it has become your new normal? Do you suspect stress may be to blame for some of your health conditions? What is one step you can take today to change the impact chronic stress is having on your health?

Share your experience and thoughts below!