Apart from the daily stresses of life, we place
additional stresses on our bodies in the way we eat, exercise and our inner
voice or self talk. If you constantly put yourself down with negative messages
and place stress on the body and this disrupts the hormonal/endocrine system –
resulting in the possibility for PCOS.
Stress is a huge topic for women with symptoms of PCOS. That’s because studies have shown that women
with PCOS produce higher than normal amounts of stress hormones, and they don’t
metabolize them well.
So we make more stress hormones, namely cortisol, and they stick
around longer.
In normal circumstances, we would become alarmed at something, our
stress hormones, like cortisol, would increase, and then when the threat
subsided our cortisol would lower, and our blood levels of stress hormones
would lower too.
Studies show that women with PCOS tend to have higher than normal cortisol levels. But it’s complicated for many reasons. Here
are a few of them:
1. High sugar diet:
raises insulin (the key that gets sugar into our cells for fuel) which raises
cortisol
2. Lower progesterone: high cortisol = low progesterone, and progesterone is nature’s
Valium. It’s very calming and good for the brain.
3. Depression & Anxiety: women with PCOS have higher rates of depression and anxiety.
Part of this is due to higher cortisol levels affecting our brain chemicals
serotonin and GABA creating lower moods.
4. Symptoms of PCOS: symptoms like extra weight, facial hair growth, being told that
you’ll never have a child, acne, PMS symptoms and hormone imbalance in general
is very stressful.
5. Insulin resistance: one of the causes of insulin resistance is high cortisol levels. High insulin can
delay ovulation, cause excess male hormones (androgens) to be produced.
6. Extra fat storage: insulin resistance caused by high stress hormones causes us to
store fat making symptoms of PCOS so much worse.
7. Suppresses thyroid function and utilization of other hormones; high stress hormones actually make it harder
for your body to make the active form of thyroid hormone, and makes the cells
in your body less able to use estrogen, progesterone and thyroid hormones
(which you already have less of).
To summarize, stress levels in women with PCOS are higher for so many reasons.
But just having an awareness can help you to make some changes that will have a
profound affect on your health.
To alleviate stress, the part of our nervous system called “flight
or fight”, it’s important to do things that support the other part of our
nervous system called “rest and digest.” And that’s where pleasure of every
kind becomes very important.
Here are 7 ways to lower stress right now:
1. Implement the 5% Solution: Each week make one small change that moves you in the direction of
lowering stress and healing. Think baby steps, and keep it going. Each baby
step will lower the stress on your body.
2. Add in the good instead of taking away the bad: instead of saying, “I can’t have this”;
say, “I can have this”, and that will encourage you to stay on track and be
motivated. One really simple thing you can do is add in more vegetables. For
instance, cut up some of your favorite crunchy vegetables each day like carrots
and celery, and have a bag of them as your go-to when you need something to
munch on. Your stress will gradually begin to lower.
3. Go Paleo (with beans): Managing your blood sugar and insulin spikes will lower
stress dramatically. And protein is very grounding, so it helps with anxiety
and depression because it feeds your brain the necessary amino acids for
building happy brain chemistry. Focus your diet on healthy proteins, fats and
carbohydrates in the form of vegetables. You can add in small amounts of low
sugar fruits like berries and grapefruit, and beans if they seem to work for
you.
4. Eat more fat: this
is where counting calories is completely wrong. Fat will feed your brain so you
feel better. And it does not raise insulin, so we keep your stress hormones
down. Focus on ground flax seed, coconut oil, coconut milk, olive oil, butter
(from pastured cows), ghee, nuts and seeds.
5. Sleep: sleep allows your
body to heal, metabolize the stress hormones and rebuild for the next day. It
is essential for managing stress. In fact, sleep could easily be the #1 thing
to lower stress. Get at least 8 hours every night – to be no later than 10pm.
6. Give yourself the gift of time: women need time. Period. If we feel we don’t have enough
time, we get stressed. Especially in the morning. Give yourself time for
self-care to feel beautiful. Just taking a bath with 2 cups of Epsom salts in
the morning can make all the difference in your day.
7. Meditation-
Check the video here:
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