HOW TO OVERCOME STRESS TO BALANCE HORMONES AND GUT HEALTH

Could Stress Be Causing Your Gut And Hormone Problems

We’ve all heard the phrase “take a chill pill” but when it comes to stress, that might be easier said than done! If you're feeling stressed out, you're not alone. Stress is a normal - but overwhelming - part of life and yet if it's not managed properly, it can wreak havoc on our body systems and overall wellbeing (or insert problem they want to solve). 

But don't stress! You can proactively manage your stress levels using natural remedies and holistic health practices that work with your body's systems rather than against them so you can manage your gut and hormone problems.  In this blog post, we'll explore a variety of helpful tools and tactics rooted in traditional healing approaches like yoga, herbalism, guided meditation and more that you can use as proactive measures for dealing with stress on a daily basis. Ready to take a deep breath? Let's dive in!

How Stress Affects Your Body - Unravelling the Truth

Stress can trigger a cascade of reactions throughout our bodies - it's not just your mind that is affected! When we're stressed, our bodies release adrenaline and cortisol, which can increase heart rate, blood pressure, and contribute to chronic diseases like high blood pressure and heart disease. Stress can also cause digestive issues, such as ulcers and inflammation, and weaken our immune systems, making us more susceptible to illnesses. Understanding the hidden impact stress has on your body is crucial to overcoming its effects. 

Here’s what you need to know about why it’s so important for hormone and gut health to make sure that you are keeping your stress under control: 

• Elevated cortisol levels contribute to excess estrogen levels making the symptoms of PCOS, heavy menstrual bleeding, ovarian cysts , breast pain and hot flushes worse

• Stress can affect the functioning of your digestive system decreasing its capacity to digest and absorb your nutrients effectively. This will leave you in a nutrient deficient state eventfully worsening your symptoms. The elevation in stress hormones will also promote increased inflammation and reduced healing within your gut.

Keep Your Cool: Manage Stress Naturally

Now that you know stress can take a toll on both your physical and emotional health, what can you do to overcome this? Often we turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms, junk food, mindless scrolling, Netflix without the chill... but why not try some natural ways to manage your stress that actually work? 

Here are my top five tips I give my clients/members/patients to help establishing a regular sleep pattern:

1. Get some movement in your life! – for example, walking, yoga,
   
2. Try a short meditation –  10 to 20 minutes will help to reset your nervous system.
   
3. Take some deep breaths –  sit in nature and focus on your breathe, 5 breaths in and 5 breaths out.
   
4. Eat calming foods that nourish your nervous system –  warm cinnamon oats , hearty stews and soups and warm herbal teas such as chamomile, lavender, licorice, withania  and lemon and honey drinks.
   
5. Find tranquillity with essential oils – chamomile, lavender, patchouli, rose

All in all, stress is part of life, but it doesn't have to control your life. 

Can you now see how managing your stress is essential for anyone looking to improving your gut and hormone health?

By taking care of yourself and practising healthy habits, you can manage your stress levels and improve your overall healt.

Call to action: You need to give clear instructions now for what you

Some examples are:
If you’re ready to finally ready to improve your gut and hormone health please reach out as I’m always here to help.

✨Hot flushes during peri- menopause can be due to declining levels of progesterone and excess estrogen. These fluctuations in hormones  create hot flushes, as well as many other symptoms including insomnia, anxiety, joint pain, gut problems and increased inflammation. It can be a debilitating time for women women and symptoms can really vary from one women to the next

✨ At Nourish Naturopathica we help women who are struggling with hormone imbalances by using gentle and effective natural remedies. We work with the gut and the liver detox pathways to help reduce the excess estrogen and prescribe hormonal herbal preparations that rebalance the body.

✨We focus on helping women imrpove their diet and help address the other triggers which may be causing the hot flushes. Some foods are known to trigger hot flushes and these include coffee, chocolate, spices, processed foods, sugar and alcohol. 

✨We can do clinical food tolerance testing to assess what other foods may be  difficult for your body to digest. During peri- menopause and menopause women can often become more sensitive, and begin to experinece new histamine reactions from foods. We can help you address this and prescribe a specific diet to help you get back on track and enjoy life.

✨ Appointments are available online , please find us at nourishnaturopathica.com or send a message to book in with us now.

✨ If you have any questions please comment below ✨

🍓🥬🍇Get clear on your 'why'

The clearer you get on why you want to eat healthier or get in shape, the easier it'll be.

🍓🍇🥬Start small

Healthy habits happen step-by-step... not in one fell swoop. If you overhaul everything all at once, it's easy to get overwhelmed.

🍇🍓🥬Shift your identity

If your story is "I'm lazy," then swap that story out for "I'm active." Start seeing yourself as who you want to become.

🥬🍏🍇Change your environment

To set up your environment for success, remove any barriers to good habits or place a hurdle in the way of bad ones.

🥬🍇🍓Make unhealthy habits harder -For example, if don't have time to exercise because you're scrolling Instagram after work, put your phone on airplane mode until after your workout.

🍓🥬🍇Reward yourself

Rewarding yourself for a job well done helps you stay motivated to keep pushing forward. The trick is to choose a healthy reward.#healthyhabits #reward #identity #clear