The Hidden Connection Between Stress and Wellness

Unlock the secrets to managing cortisol imbalances and reclaiming your health with insights from Damaris Murray Grossman, an integrated family nurse practitioner. Have you ever wondered why you feel so fatigued despite getting enough sleep? This episode sheds light on the often-misunderstood concept of "adrenal fatigue" and dives into the stages of the General Adaptive Syndrome. Discover how persistent stress can throw your body into chaos, leading to inflammation and concentration issues. Damaris guides us through the physiological changes our bodies undergo, explaining the alarming effects of prolonged stress and the critical role of lifestyle choices in maintaining hormonal balance.

By listening, you'll gain a deeper understanding of the connection between mental exhaustion and physical well-being. Explore why a personalized, whole-body approach is essential for effective stress management and long-term health. Damaris emphasizes the importance of recognizing your individual energy levels—whether they're soaring high or scraping the floor—to customize strategies that truly work for you. Through thoughtful discussion, you're encouraged to reflect on how stress affects your own health and the steps you can take towards a balanced and fulfilling life. Reach out for guidance and embark on a journey to wellness with expert advice tailored just for you.

Chapters

• 0:25 Understanding Stages of Cortisol Imbalance
• 14:20 Personalized Whole Body Approach for Health

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:25

Hi, how are you? This is Damaris Murray Grossman, an integrated family nurse practitioner, and I'm talking today about like cortisol stages. I've talked about this before but I'm really kind of getting diving into the more nitty gritty of it. You'll hear adrenal fatigue. That, technically, is not the right medical term. Think of it like you're either too high, too low and these different stages are kind of where your body needs Now cortisol, just like stressors it is, and life. We all need some of these triggers to work, to function. Now the problem is is when they become altered or imbalanced. So what does that mean? Let's talk about it. So I don't say adrenal fatigue because, like I said, that's not necessarily a proper medical term, but it's saying that kind of the adrenals which do produce cortisol may be having an irregularity, either too high, too low or complex. So the stressors within the body may be coming up and we're not able to deal with it because we might be in a stage that has caused us so much allostatic stress in the mind or life that it's just on high, high, high. So imagine that stress level had a small bucket, you were able to just kind of deal with stuff, maybe just relax or go for a walk. But then when the stressors pile up, pile up, pile up and your body is still inflamed or it is still sick, or immune system when it goes up, up, up, then you become depleted. And also there's some things when your body doesn't have enough to work with, then it finds itself low, and actually low cortisol is worse than high. There's two different extreme medical terms, one's Cushing's and one's Addison's, but majority of the time most patients don't have that. So it's kind of like when I talk about celiac disease, most patients do not have that, a very small percentage, but I'm more in this sense of working with clients that always range in kind of that in that middle, oh, I'm still not feeling. Well, that's where it is, Um, and it's like not necessarily a red flag, cause you're not, you know, in the ER, but it's still a problem and it's still affecting you. And so what usually changes or what's part of that? Hormones, age, what you put into your body, the environment, you know those are all going to play, you know lifestyle stuff and management. So let's talk about the stages and this is called like a general adaptive stage syndrome, or the three parts of cortisol.

Speaker 1: 3:06

You would consider it kind of the. Initially you might be just normal. You know, every day everything is kind of going well, but then you've got an alarm stage. The alarm stage is what we would use when um fight or flight. So consider it like oh okay, I need a little bit of adrenaline because, um, I have to pay attention, there's a car, one in front of me, I have to stop. Um, someone is, you know, coming at you. You have to pay attention. There's a car in front of me, I have to stop. Someone is, you know, coming at you. You have to, you know, be aware You're running, you need some adrenaline.

Speaker 1: 3:34

So in those scenarios, your heart rate is racing, you're out, you can elevate a blood pressure, heightened alertness, you have more energy and it's there to, you know, help with the immediate stressors. Um, the thing is is that we end up being way high, we end up having those stressors a little bit too much and um, our cortisol levels stays too high. Um, one indicator we also use is a DHEA Um and that's another way of kind of determining where our um cortisol levels are depleting. Now it stays normal, in this case, sometimes an alarm stage. The thing is, what you have to worry about is is the person able to trigger off or are they always staying in that fight or flight scenario? Because if you're doing that, what happens is your body is more about breathing in your heart, which is like it wants to stay alive, and less about rest and digest, which is going to the bathroom, getting through the day. That's why a lot of GI issues where people are like I'm constipated or I have diarrhea because they are in such a heightened state whether it's depression or anxiety and their body is not, it's triggered off because the cortisol levels are off, because their body is inflamed or autoimmune systems off in some manner. Obviously a little bit more technical than that, but that is, it's triggered because you know our brain health, our body health, is not in tune, it's not in line, and then you know it's not balanced. So how do you get it back to? So that's one area.

Speaker 1: 5:12

The next stage from that is resistance stage. So they call that um. It's when the stress in the body enters resistance stage. You're just about trying to adapt, so we call it adapt stage. Now this is a stage where your body is trying to get over the stressors. Now you're hoping that happens, but in this time the person is starting to become fatigued. So sometimes they overcompensate for the stressors in life.

Speaker 1: 5:38

So this is like hence someone's like, oh, I've got it, I've got it all situated, you know. Um, you know, started off Rosie. The second stage was an alarm stage but then you were like, okay, I'm, I'm overall getting there, but I'm able to pass, you know. So I look kind of all right. The resistance stage is oh, my goodness, I'm running, running, running. I'm going to look at my watch. I got to do this. I've got multitasking kind of feeling, um, and things are not in where you want them to be.

Speaker 1: 6:06

The next part of that kind of really is you start to become fatigued or poor circulation concentration. This is that early, like I'm wired but I'm tired. This is not fully depleted cortisol. This is starting still high cortisol, high to low, starts to dip down and you're also noticing the three o'clock dip, three o'clock in the morning, starting to raise a little bit and your patterns are just starting to go off. The purpose of this is trying to help you, like, get through long-term stressors. But if this is not going well in that stage, you're going to have a hard time recovering. So this is still kind of in that high cortisol level and how do we kind of get through that? So in another podcast I will, in discussion I will talk about how to and what to use in different stages of this types of cortisol stressors.

Speaker 1: 7:04

And, like I said, you know it's not that all of them are bad. They're used for a reason. It's just a matter of where do you lie and we all do lie depending upon what's going on age, time, environment, things of that nature and what you're putting in your body. Now, the most concerning stage is actually exhaustion stage and you know it's like that's the one when you're like done. Now, um, cushing syndrome would be the one that's like completely done. You know that's or a severe. I mean Addison's disease is when it's completely bad, when you have very low cortisol. Cushing's is when you have very high cortisol. Most of the time those scenarios are very, very rare, but patients are really pretty close to low, low cortisol when they work themselves, work themselves.

Speaker 1: 7:50

So, uh, an exhausted person usually has I mean not always, but I usually feel like they're the high achiever very skinny, always working, always doing, never stopping, never sleeping, never doing anything, and then they're just done and then those get to the point where they crash and their body's just on and on and on. The um ones that are depressed and slow moving. They're usually overweight, having problems in um, you know, concentration and stuff. They're more in that like middle Um. They're not really like I said, they're not in the extremes and they're not in the ER, but they're still pretty sick and I think it can't be overlooked. So that's, you know, it's super important to still see that.

Speaker 1: 8:36

So when people come to see me they want to get a cortisol test. When they come to see me, they want to talk about why their hormones are off, what else is going on, and then how can I help them through, whatever stage they're in. And you know there's a lot of ways to do that and it's some of it is undoing and some of it is doing, depending upon what stage you're in. And I think that's super important to understand that, because I think what it is is um, some people think that they're doing the right stuff and they may not be, and some people may be doing things overdoing it. So just depends.

Speaker 1: 9:08

But in the exhaustion stage this is kind of the most concerning, usually because the body is completely burned out, you're in fatigue, you're weak in immune system. So this is a time when usually it's either going to be a heightened instead of actually a low immune system you're actually like hyper vigilant immune system. So this is when you actually your body starts attacking itself. That could be Hashimoto's, that could there's a lot of different. You know scenarios that might come up. That could be a psoriasis, an eczema, a brain issue, an inflammatory issue. There's many things that could come into play here, usually hormone imbalances, chronic fatigue, metabolic issues and, you know, depression. So then it gets worse and worse. So it's just like the idea is you're trying to stop it before it gets worse or identifying it.

Speaker 1: 9:53

So I say manage. You know, nothing is about so sure, it's always cured, but it's a management. So that's kind of the and supportive therapies, as always, will be um lifestyle management. So, above anything in um holistic medicine and teaching, it's about looking at your sleep. What are you doing for your stressors? What can you do for yourself? There's meditation. There's many forms of meditation. I talk many years on this on meditation, mindfulness, and that it's effective in making changes in your practice. And how do you do that? You know, whether it's movement meditation, whether it's sitting, drawing, coloring, whatever that is, it's important Regular physical activity, walking, balanced nutrition and preventing yourself to get to that exhaustive stage. That's pretty challenging for those, but it's important. It's really important, because what will happen is then you will drop and you will be in the hospital and you will not be able to. It will take you a very long time to improve.

Speaker 1: 11:00

Um, adaptogens are always my benefit, my go-tos. Um, there's blends that I love um for this. Uh, of course, I love um. Radiolash, vaganda, holy basil, b complexes, omega-3s and magnesium. Uh, depending upon the stage that you're in is depending upon the stage and um, what I would give you. So it just depends upon that and where we're at. So, like I said, in the stages of these is all depending upon what's going on In your alarm stage.

Speaker 1: 11:30

You might be acute, but I don't want you to get too chronic. Most of the time, though, I will tell you, most people that do come see me are usually already in the chronic stage of stress and they're just trying to figure out how in the heck do they get out of it, and the hardest part is they don't know the tools to do that. Sometimes some of it's very simple, but sometimes people think that oh my gosh, I'm, am I doing the right stuff? And usually it's just there, they just don't know. So it's just kind of getting the tools and interventions for that. So one major ones that of course I love, um, yoga, meditation, mindfulness, breathing exercises. You can see them on my podcast, on, I mean, on my, my YouTube channel, and you know I have mindful coloring books online, different ways of reducing your stress levels, breathing work, aromatherapy, integrative therapies and if you're local to me, there's an acupuncturist and massage therapist so you can always see someone through there with us and then come in as a client.

Speaker 1: 12:27

Nutrition is always going to be a power on no matter anything I talk about, it will always be nutrition, nutrition, nutrition, because what you put in your body is going to be an important part. Now, environmental toxins and things that are in your environment will be hard to get rid of. You know I live in the tri-state area and it is honestly a toxic. You know amount of things and it is pretty difficult to get away from some of those things. But how do I um help myself? I use an air purifier in the house. We have, you know, filters in the water. We use filtered water. We're doing a lot more as as much organic as possible. You know, and, and you know, taking off our shoes, cleaning up and keeping the, the toxins as much away in our life as we can, um, so, overall, these are just ways you know the nutrient foods working on your gut.

Speaker 1: 13:17

Biome Now for that. That comes down to, like I said, when you're in that severe fight or flight, you're unfortunately may not have as much of a good microbiome at that time and your body is just not considering it as important, shall we say. You know it's not going. Hey, let me do some work here. It just kind of doesn't really want to. So, um, there we're in any kind of healing, um, microbiome, uh, you know, things to help heal the gut and help bring back itself to a balance.

Speaker 1: 13:48

Um, and you know, getting yourself into a better sleep cycle is, you know, uh, very, very important supplements as needed, and then working towards some hormonal imbalances, because we really don't want you in that exhausted phase. Like I said, I don't necessarily call it adrenal phase, I just call it adrenal fatigue, I call it more of just exhausted. You know your body is almost at the point of depletion and it's. It's a pretty scary time because that's when you get really, really sick and how can you get yourself to a better point? You know, like I said, some people may not consider it as important, but it is actually very important.

Speaker 1: 14:20

Your body, physically, when it has manifested to a mental exhaustion, it will then, because of the body's stressors in life, will then become very, very sick. So you know the key points here. Really, it's just trying to understand each person, so it has to be somewhat personalized and a really whole body approach and the best way to learn management and long term approach for you and what way are you like high energy, low energy, middle point and see what that is for you. If you have any other questions, reach out to me and I would be glad to help you. Have a great rest of your day. Bye.