Transcript
Chronic stress can affect every single tissue and organ system in the body.
So how does it affect our endocrine system, or in other words, all the other hormones in your body?
I would like to imagine that all the hormones in your body work together very much like a symphony orchestra.
So we have hormones in all kinds of different tissues, and yet they need to play together and are connected to create a beautiful symphony.
When one hormone system is out of balance, it can of course affect the melody of the entire orchestra.
So when we are in a state of chronic stress and we are making abnormal levels of cortisol, there can be a domino kind of effect on all the other hormone systems of the body, including the thyroid.
Your thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped gland that sits in your neck, and it produces two thyroid hormones, T3 and T4.
The thyroid gland predominantly controls and regulates metabolism.
Chronic stress has been known to disrupt the normal function of the thyroid and its ability to produce thyroid hormone, as well as the function of the thyroid hormone.
So chronic stress and thyroid problems may go together.
Insulin.
Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas.
It stabilizes and regulates our blood glucose or sugar levels.
When we are chronically stressed, we are more likely to develop an insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance is associated with higher belly weight, a higher risk for heart disease, diabetes, and cognitive changes in the brain.
So chronic stress can disrupt insulin signaling and increase our risk for all sorts of chronic metabolic problems.
Chronic stress and cortisol changes have also been linked to changes in our sex hormones.
Testosterone in men and women can be affected by chronic stress.
Levels might initially go up.
Think about it.
If you’re initially stressed, you might make more hormones that help you to fight, and we may see that in early stress.
But more commonly in longer term stress, patients may come to us showing really low levels of testosterone, and that’s connected to the depletion that chronic stress causes.
Chronic stress and cortisol change has also been linked to changes in healthy female hormone function.
Chronic stress can impact our ability to ovulate, and in this way, it’s been connected to fertility problems, but it can also deplete the body in natural progesterone, and this can aggravate a whole bunch of other hormonal patterns like estrogen dominance, which we can see in hormonal problems like polycystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis.
So we know, and the studies have shown really clearly, that chronic stress may be part of the cause of these hormonal problems in younger women, and may also perpetuate or keep driving the shift in hormones and the diseases.
So be aware of chronic stress and the domino effects it has on all your other hormone systems of your body.
Remember to think of your hormone system like an orchestra, and when you check in with your practitioner or your doctor, encourage them to look at all your hormones together, not just in isolation.
