Stress and Early Menopause

Stress comes in many shapes and sizes, and may not even be perceived as stress at all. According to Dr. Evan Mladenoff, “Stress is an ignorant state of mind that believes everything is an emergency.” Stress does not have to produce anxiety or even be perceived consciously before your internal organs believe there is an emergency situation. There are forms of “good” stress like marriage, responsibility, competition, dating, and child birth as well as “bad” forms such as financial insecurity, violence, unemployment, low self esteem, and death. In actuality, our body does not associate stress as “good” or “bad,” but reacts the same way whether the stress is physical, chemical, or emotional. Our bodies were built to respond to stress and do so very well, but as stress becomes chronic (continual) the stress regulating parts of the body begin to fatigue, and no longer work as well as intended. These sluggish stress regulators make it harder for your body to stay healthy.

Stress (whether emotional, chemical, or physical) is processed in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus sends a message to the anterior pituitary gland which is a small gland in the brain that helps regulate all of your hormones. As the pituitary gland secrets hormones in the blood signaling stress, another gland called the adrenal gland responds by secreting cortisol.

Cortisol is designed to control the body’s response to stress by stimulating the body to calm down. When there is to much cortisol production, or a chronic situation where cortisol is released over a long period of time, side effects occur. Many of these symptoms include disrupted sleep, poor digestion, weight gain, poor memory, and more.

As a woman, chronic cortisol secretion can contribute to menstrual disorders. High cortisol levels can lead to amenorrhea (stop menstruation), similar to heavy exercise. Excess cortisol creates a faster removal (conversion) of another hormone known as progesterone. As progesterone and estrogen become out of balance, and a woman nears menopausal age, her body often creates numerous symptoms of accelerated hormonal transition. Many women often report vaginal dryness, painful intercourse, weight gain, interrupted sleep, memory problems, heaviness in the bladder, and hot flashes as their hormones become out of balance.

The good news is, as we reduce stress through diet modification, nutritional supplementation, and light exercise we can balance cortisol, estrogen, and progesterone. In this manner, many women find relief to menopausal symptoms without resorting to drugs or surgery. As a woman transitions from an adolescent, through child bearing and later into mature womanhood, she should not have to suffer from hormonal imbalances and symptoms. Balancing cortisol is one of the many tools we have to help these transition stages to be pleasant throughout a woman’s life.

Are We As Healthy As We Think?

Our body’s are amazing creations.  Whether you feel we were placed on this earth intentionally, or that we have evolved over millions of years to become what we are today, it is hard to ignore how intricately the parts of our body work together, and how intelligent our body is in warning us of potential problems.

According to Dictionary.com, symptoms are a phenomenon that arises from and accompanies a particular disease or disorder and serves as an indication of it .  With this in mind, it is important to know what our bodies are telling us.  Unfortunately, most of us are not trained in recognizing these symptoms, or do not  realize that our body is even telling us something!

The good news is we want these symptoms!  They give us warning (if we know how to recognize it) in order for us to prevent bigger problems from happening.

 

Cardio360.com reports that 33% of those without any prior symptoms of heart disease DIE from their first heart attack. Unfortunately for these heart attack victims, they probably did not  recognize the   warning signs that their body was giving them, and their “first” symptom was death.

As many of you know, many of my patients are women that experience hormonal imbalance in their lives.  When I ask women in my office if they experience: hot flashes, dry skin, weight gain, interrupted sleep, loss of sex drive, vaginal dryness, etc. I am able to categorize these symptoms into certain patterns and give healthy alternative solutions through dietary changes, nutritional supplementation, and quantum neurology rehabilitation in order to help the woman’s body to naturally resolve the presenting symptoms.

 

Many patients contribute their symptoms to “aging” or “genetics” and are often amazed when they begin to see changes by doing simple things in their lives.  Even though age and genetics do have an effect on our bodies, providing proper nutrients, removing food intolerances, and improving neurologic integrity we can see some amazing changes!

The most common symptoms that patients report in my office include: cramping, infertility, weight loss, ADHD, TMJ pain, eczema, acne, fibromyalgia, constipation, PMS, bleeding gums, menstruation problems, fatigue, depression, joint pain, fever, flu, headaches, low sex drive, high cholesterol, nocturnal urination, numbness, hot flashes, tingling, and complications from surgery.

As you can see, symptoms come in all shapes and sizes but help us to know that we need to change something before a bigger problem comes by.  I encourage you to reflect on your health daily, and evaluate the health status that you currently have.  Do you have any of the symptoms listed above? Others?  Are you as healthy as you think?