Reduce stress in order to reduce your autoimmune symptoms. Stress triggers the release of cortisol. Cortisol is coined as the “stress hormone.” In the short term, cortisol acts as a natural painkiller and anti-inflammatory. However, in excess, cortisol production can wreak havoc on the body. Too much cortisol raises your blood sugar, suppresses your immune system by lowering SIgA (secretory Immunoglobulin A), slows down digestion, and overall is a catabolic hormone (which means it breaks down cells and tissues in the body).
The Feedback Between Cortisol and Adrenaline
In fact, cortisol and adrenaline feed off of each other. We often think of adrenaline being triggered during the fight or flight response. So, when we feel like we are in danger, adrenaline is released into the body which also stimulates cortisol. Cortisol in turn enhances the activity of adrenaline. This high-stress state affects our brains dramatically, specifically the prefrontal cortex area. It will thus cause difficulty with concentration and learning, and impair your ability to think logically and rationally.
Relationship Between Stress and Autoimmune Disease
No wonder that there is such a strong correlation between stress and the development of autoimmune diseases. Some researchers have found that stress and trauma increase the risk of developing an autoimmune disease by 36%. This is just one statistic and from personal experience. I believe stress is almost directly related to developing autoimmune diseases. I’m speaking from personal experience. My autoimmune disease unfolded by the time I was 21 years old after experiencing multiple major traumas and stressful events leading up to that point. Not only that, but other toxins in my food and environment added to this stress. Most of my clients can think back to a time in their life right before they started noticing their autoimmune symptoms, and they can recall major traumas or stressful events that happened just prior. Sooner or later stress and trauma overwhelm our nervous systems and our immune systems. Thus, you need to actively work to reduce your stress.
What Is Perceived As Stress By The Body
The body does NOT distinguish between what KIND of stress the body is experiencing. In other words, stress can be a variety of things. Stress can be allergies, food sensitivities, exposure to toxins in the environment, going through a divorce, experiencing the death of a loved one, getting in a car accident, caloric restriction, surgery, financial stress, insomnia, illness, etc.
Everyday Events That Play A Role In Increasing Your Risk of Autoimmune Disease
This is a big problem in today’s world, where we are constantly being exposed to toxins in the beauty care products we put on our skin, in the water we drink, in the air we breathe, and other toxins circulating in our environment. Another problem is our aggressive, “go-go-go” attitudes about work and life nowadays. We are pressured with constant stress with longer work hours, the ability to work from home, and staying up late on our phones and computers trying to work into the night. There is so much pressure to achieve that stress is more prevalent. On top of that, our world is becoming more disconnected from relationships. Everyone lives in an online bubble, creating distance between people in the real world, and increasing mental and emotional issues. Today we have pesticides and herbicides sprayed on our foods and toxins in our water from industrial pollution.
Your Body’s Response To Stress
The body can only do so much to combat all of this stress. Your liver tries to detoxify toxins, but can often become overburdened by trying to process so much. You have DHEA which is an anabolic hormone, and essentially builds up tissues and muscle in the body. Normally, DHEA combats the negative effects of cortisol. However, cortisol can start to run the show if you are constantly under stress… and most of us are today. DHEA will start to deplete over time and cortisol will dominate. This leads to an even worse ability to combat stress and creates dis-ease in the body. When we have a ton of cortisol and it’s overpowering our DHEA, inflammation develops.
How Much Stress Can The Body Handle?
The threshold of stress that our bodies can handle is different for everyone. This is why some people can smoke, drink alcohol, and party into old age without ever developing a disease, while another person can eat all organic foods, not drink alcohol, but go through a major trauma in their life and develop an autoimmune disease. The issue is that we don’t know our own thresholds, but luckily there are ways to live in order to reduce the amount of stress we put on ourselves.
10 Ways To Reduce Stress and Your Autoimmune Symptoms
- Consume organic, whole foods. The purpose is to avoid the toxic chemicals sprayed on non-organic foods. You also want to avoid processed and packaged foods because they have additives, sugars and preservatives that are harmful and stressful to the body.
- Consume grass-fed, organic, and wild-caught animal products. The purpose is to avoid farm-raised fish which contain environmental toxins, and non-organic, grain-fed meat that is inflammatory to the body.
- Filter your water or drink natural spring water, while avoiding plastic bottles.
- Move your body daily (walking, biking, lifting weights, hiking, yoga, swimming, or whatever movements you love). It’s important to get rid of stress and toxins by moving your body. You will lower your blood pressure and cortisol.
- Practice mindfulness techniques. This could be breathing exercises, yoga or meditation. Mindfulness techniques help you relax and will help turn off the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response), and turn on the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest response).
- Seek therapy or counseling if you need to work through any trauma.
- Get body work to lower blood pressure, lower cortisol, and release stored trauma and stress in the body. Body work includes massages, cupping, acupuncture, etc.
- Have healthy relationships and remove toxic people from your life.
- Supplement with certain vitamins and minerals that stress depletes from. These include: Vitamins A, B5, C, and E, Zinc, calcium, magnesium and selenium.
- Other ways to add supplements into your regimen include those that will support your adrenal glands (that produces cortisol and DHEA), support your immune system, and support your liver to aid in natural detoxification.
How I Can Help You Reduce Stress and Autoimmune Symptoms
I help my clients in all of these areas, from nutrition and toxins to the mental/emotional side of stress, in order to help them reverse symptoms related to their autoimmune disease or chronic illness. We even look directly at their cortisol and DHEA levels, in addition to looking at gut function, immune function and so much more.
If you’re ready to dive deeper into what is holding you back from healing, reach out to me, schedule a free call, and we will determine if we should work together to identify your stressors and achieve your health goals.
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