What is stress?
Stress is a normal reaction to a demand placed upon us. When the brain perceives an immediate threat, it activates our sympathetic nervous system, triggering a cascade release of neurotransmitters, including adrenaline and noradrenaline. These chemical messengers affect almost every part of the body. You might notice an increased heart rate, dry mouth, and tingling in the hands for example.
Stress helps us to survive in life-threatening situations when we need to think and move rapidly – for example when faced with a physical threat. But our brains tend to respond in the same way regardless of whether the threat is real or imagined.
While a small amount of stress can help us get through a difficult challenge, stress becomes more of a problem when it turns into long-term chronic stress. Chronic stress leads to increased levels in the body of the hormone cortisol.
Stress can in turn cause a number of symptoms:
- Raised blood sugar levels
- Muscle breakdown
- Low mood
- Impaired immunity
Left unchecked, these symptoms can eventually lead to stress related conditions:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Insomnia
- Weight gain
What are hormones?
Hormones are chemical messengers released from glands that send messages to different parts of the body. There are many different types of hormones supporting each system in the body, such as reproductive hormones, stress hormones and digestive hormones.
Hormones act together in harmony to keep our bodies functioning properly and keep us feeling at our best. Their balance in turn relies on a healthy lifestyle, incorporating regular exercise, rest, good quality sleep and adequate nutrition.
Sometimes, the harmony of hormone activity can become disrupted. This can be due to the hormone not working properly (for example insulin in type 2 diabetes), or because there might be too little or too much of it in circulation (for example under or overactive thyroid).
How does functional medicine help with hormonal health?
If you suffer from any of the following, a functional medicine approach may make an important difference to your day to day health and wellbeing:
- Stress related problems: Anxiety / Depression / Insomnia
- Type 2 diabetes / pre-diabetes
- Endometriosis
- Skin conditions including acne, eczema, psoriasis
- Menopausal symptoms
- Polycystic ovaries / PCOS
Functional medicine to support health issues related to stress / hormones
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Step 1: Understand the root cause
In addition to discussing your current symptoms and concerns, I will take a detailed medical and lifestyle history that incorporates a full analysis of your diet, exercise, stress exposure and sleep quality, as well as interpretation of any previous test results. You may also be asked to complete a three-day food diary.
I will use this to create a timeline of your health concerns to date, mapping these to any significant life events that you may have encountered so far.
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Step 2: Undertake further testing
If necessary, I may recommend further testing in order to better understand the cause of your current symptoms.
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Step 3: Create a personalised wellness plan
I will use the information we have gathered during our initial session, combined with any further results, to design a personalised functional medicine programme for you. The aim will be to address your current symptoms as well as optimising your long-term health and wellbeing.