Is Your Stress Response System Permanently Engaged?

In a healthy body, the stress response turns cortisol production on and the relaxation response turns it off. If you feel that your stress response is permanently engaged, you may not be getting enough rest to achieve hormonal balance. If your stress response is triggered too frequently, your body may be stuck in an imbalanced state. This could be in response to an emotional stress, such as preparing for a speech, or to a physical stress like an illness or inflammation from an injury. Since foods contain chemical stressors, reducing the consumption of processed foods, added sugars, and artificial ingredients can make it easier to recover from long-term hormone imbalances.

Sleep Provides Time for Your Body to Regulate Hormones

In order for you to get restorative sleep, your brain must pass through four levels of sleep cycles each night. If not, it can lead to hormonal disruption. When you do not spend enough time in REM sleep at night, it may be due to:

• Not being active during the day
• Not spending time outside
• Staying up too late
• Not getting the sleep you need
• Relying on caffeine and sugar

Chemical messengers, such as cortisol, estrogen, adrenaline and testosterone, flow through your body to regulate important functions every day. You may begin to experience hormonal disruptions if you're experiencing chronic stress.

Eat Right to Produce Optimal Hormonal Balance

Unfortunately, there are as many culprits for hormonal imbalance as there are symptoms. But, once you recognize a hormonal imbalance, the trick is understanding what you can do to restore harmony. As far as your adrenal glands are concerned, there is no differentiation between physical or emotional stress, as both are perceived as a threat. That's why stress reduction and proper management of stress is essential to speed hormonal healing. Eating right to restore balance depends upon developing the right balance of macronutrients and micronutrients to feed the endocrine system. The right adjustments to your diet can go a long ways to producing optimal hormone production.