In this blog, Surrey based Naturopathic Nutritional therapist and functional medicine test expert explores the statistics behind stress in the UK, how it effects health, delves into the body’s fight-flight response, and discusses the biochemical effects of chronic stress, including cortisol production, adrenal fatigue, and HPA-axis dysfunction.
In today’s fast-paced world, stress has become an almost ubiquitous part of daily life. From demanding jobs to the constant pressure of social media, it’s no wonder many of us feel overwhelmed. This is especially true in the UK, where the prevalence of stress has reached alarming levels.
Finally, we will explore how functional medicine testing and naturopathic nutritional approaches can offer personalised support to manage and mitigate against the harmful effects of stress; while helping you obtain a better understanding of stress, and its impact on health.
The Prevalence of Stress in the UK
According to research conducted by the Mental Health Foundation in 2018, a staggering 74% of UK adults have felt so stressed at some point over the last year that they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope. This statistic underscores the severity of the issue and highlights the urgent need for effective interventions to manage stress. It further illustrates the need to support health more holistically; we cannot keep pigeon holing individual health concerns, the body and mind are connected, and this detrimental impact on the mind impacts physical health in more ways than we can imagine!
Naturopathic Nutrition and functional medicine view each person as individual and their body and mind as one.
The Basic Fight-Flight Response: A Double-Edged Sword
The fight-flight response is the body’s automatic reaction to a perceived threat. When you meet a stressful situation, your brain triggers the release of hormones that prepare your body to either confront the danger or run from it.
This response involves several physiological changes, including increased heart rate, rapid breathing, and a burst of energy. While this is an essential survival mechanism adopted by humans many years ago in response to be able to run away from the lion for example, the chronic activation of the fight-flight response is not something we are meant to experience constantly, and the effects of a constantly elevated heart rate for example will have detrimental impact on health.
Biochemical Effects of Chronic Stress and it’s impact of Health
Cortisol: The Stress Hormone
Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands in response to stress. While short-term increases in cortisol are beneficial for survival, chronic stress leads to prolonged high levels of this hormone, which can disrupt various bodily functions. Elevated cortisol levels are linked to a host of health issues, including weight gain, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, hormone dysregulation and weakened immune function.
In fact, elevated cortisol increases blood glucose levels, because the innate fight-flight reactivation is to release glucose from storage (in the liver) and pump it into the blood stream, so we have energy to run fast and act swiftly. This is often why, over training or training too hard means you are not necessarily losing weight in the gym, because you are fooling the body to think it is in fight-flight and thus it will increase blood glucose levels, which can cause you to store fat. This is why many naturopathic nutritional therapists may tell you to slow down, to stop going so hard in the gym and instead focus more on slow controlled strength training and restorative type exercise like yoga and Pilates.
Elevated cortisol and blood glucose will also increase inflammation, and detrimentally affect GUT health.
Adrenal Fatigue and HPA-Axis Dysfunction
Over production of cortisol, can cause the adrenals to be become overworked, leading to their inability to produce adequate amounts of hormones, including cortisol and testosterone for example. Symptoms may include chronic tiredness, muscle weakness, difficulty concentrating, waking exhausting, mood fluctuations, hormone in-balance, reduced libido, inability to switch off, and that wired-but-tired feeling e.g. you want to sleep but you cannot.
This can lead to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction., which some may refer to as adrenal fatigue. HPA-Axis dysfunction is a complex network that regulates the body’s response to stress; it’s the bi-lateral communication between the brain and the adrenal glands that help us regulate stress. When the adrenals become overworked, and struggle to produce the homeostatic levels of hormones necessary, the feedback mechanisms to the brain becomes distorted and in turn the brain can no longer read and understand what the body needs, and thus can not provide the correct instructions for the appropriate balanced response.
This may mean; instead of producing cortisol in the morning to wake us up, we are producing cortisol at night when we want to sleep, and hence there is dysfunction and lack of a balanced response, which many refer to as either adrenal fatigue or HPA-Axis dysfunction.
We can test your cortisol response via a Cortisol Awakening Response Test (CAR), which is included as part of our DUTCH tests. Learn more about our DUTCH tests here: https://www.natnuthc.co.uk/hormone-dutch-testing/
The Impact of Stress on your Health
- Hormone Balance: Chronic stress disrupts the balance of hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline, and sex hormones, leading to issues like irregular menstrual cycles and reduced libido.
- Energy Levels: Prolonged stress can lead to fatigue. But energy is also needed for all bodily functions, such as the production of immune cells and new hormones, this in turn can also further impact hormone balance, as well as cause increased susceptibility to illness due to poor immune function.
- General Physiology: Chronic stress via its impact on inflammation also has various physiological effects contributing to conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and auto-immune disease.
- GUT Function: Stress impacts gut health by altering the gut microbiota and increasing intestinal permeability, leading to digestive issues and a weakened immune system. In essence when we are stressed, blood flow to the GUT is reduced, meaning the GUT lining does not get the nutrients it needs (delivered via blood supply) to support its health, and we may struggle to absorb key nutrients such as iron, calcium and vitamin B12, this may lead to anaemia, bone density loss and myelin sheath deterioration.
- Sleep Issues: due to dysregulated cortisol response because of HPA-Axis dysfunction.
- General Malaise: Due to overall imbalance, lack of internal energy, compromised nutrient absorption and GUT dysfunction the body struggles with everyday tasks, and you may experience unexplained illnesses, joint aches and pains and difficulty recovering from injury, exercise or illness.
Naturopathic Functional Testing and Nutrition: A Personalised Expert Approach
At our Surrey clinic, we practice naturopathic nutritional therapy using a functional medicine approach. This offers a comprehensive way to identify and address the root causes of chronic stress. Through detailed assessments and laboratory testing, functional nutritionists can figure out the underlying factors contributing to your stress and develop a personalised nutrition and lifestyle treatment plan.
As mentioned above we can use the CAR test, which is included in our DUTCH tests to assess the level of cortisol dysregulation you may be currently experiencing; this helps us understand which stage of dysregulation you are at, because the stage determines the approach. Learn more about our DUTCH tests here: https://www.natnuthc.co.uk/hormone-dutch-testing/
In addition, some people are more prone to dysregulated stress patterns than others due to their genetics. If this is the case, added support may be necessary based on individual genetic variations. We would normally be able to understand your individual genetic response to stress via our Nervous System Report, however for a truly thorough picture we would recommend also looking at our Hormone Report, Thyroid Report and also our Detox & Methylation Report as all of these other areas of your genetics will play in to how you handle stress and how it impacts other areas of your body. We offer a combined nutrigenomics report; the Complete Life Report, which covers all of mentioned genetic reports here as well as additional areas to provide detailed insight into your genetic variations, and enable use to tailor your nutrition needs specific to your genetics.
To learn more about our genetic test reports, visiting our nutrigenomics testing page here: https://www.natnuthc.co.uk/nutrigenomics-testing/
Functional Nutrition: Tailored Dietary Interventions using Naturopathic Nutrition
Functional nutrition focuses on the biochemical individuality of each person. By understanding your unique genetic nutritional needs, and your stage of cortisol dysregulation a nutritional therapist can recommend a diet that supports optimal health and reduces stress. This may include:
- Anti-Inflammatory Foods: Consuming foods rich in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids can help reduce inflammation associated with chronic stress.
- Adaptogens: Herbs like ashwagandha and rhodiola can help modulate the body’s stress response, although cannot be mixed with pharmaceutical medications. Thus seeking guidance from a qualified nutritionist, naturopath or herbalist is important before commencing any herbal supplements.
- Macro & Micronutrients: Ensuring adequate intake of vitamins and minerals such as magnesium, vitamin B complex, and vitamin D, as well as healthy fats and proteins to support adrenal function, detoxification, hormone synthesis, and nervous system health.
- Medicinal Mushrooms: Like Lion’s Mane and Reishi to balance the nervous system and support the GUT, although dosage is key and knowing what mushroom(s) to use in each individual is crucial for success.
- Anxiolytic Herbal teas: To calm and soothe the mind and help you to wind down.
- Nervine Herbal teas: To nourish and feed your nervous system and adrenal glands.
Lifestyle Modifications
In addition to dietary changes, naturopathic nutritional therapists may also recommend lifestyle modifications for managing stress. These may include:
- Exercise: the right type of regular physical activity to suit each individual can help reduce stress and improve mood. This may involve asking you to swap high intensity training or aerobic type exercise for yoga, Pilates or weightlifting for example in order to reduce your cortisol production and thus also reduce your inflammation and blood glucose levels.
- Mindfulness and Meditation: Practices like yoga and meditation, or even taking time to eat mindfully can help calm the mind, reduce the physiological effects of stress, and support your GUT health.
- Sleep Hygiene: Prioritising sleep and keeping a regular sleep schedule can improve resilience to stress and help to re-balance your cortisol regulation.
Conclusion:
Understanding stress from a naturopathic nutritional and functional medicine perspective, and its impact on health is crucial to understanding the importance of self-care. We live in this modern epidemic where over working is valued but at what cost? Your health? Making self-care and time for relaxation is not something to be ashamed of, it’s a necessity otherwise you may reach a point where you have no choice but to stop!
At NatNutHC we have worked with numerous clients throughout London and the South of England especially those living in Epsom, Surrey and Sussex, UK. We have helped transform their health and overcome issues with fatigue, tiredness, insomnia, frequent illness, hormone imbalance, anaemia, mood fluctuations and much more. Visit our website for more details.
If you would like more information on the best diet and supplements for your particular needs and for more details on how naturopathic nutritional therapy can support you, and to get guidance on what functional medicine tests may be appropriate for you, get in touch today via: info@natnuthc.co.uk, or visit our website: www.natnuthc.co.uk and book your free 15-minute no obligation discovery call to find out in more detail how we can help transform your mental and physical well-being.
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The information provided in this article is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical or nutritional advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your diet, lifestyle, or health care regimen. Individual needs may vary, and what works for one person may not be appropriate for another.
