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YHM 078 - Unpacking Cortisol: The Impact of Stress on Your Health
59 Plays1 year ago
Join us on "Your Health Minute" as we delve into the world of cortisol and stress with functional nutritionist Micaela Riley. Discover how chronic stress impacts your health, contributing to conditions like obesity and anxiety, and learn practical tips for managing stress through mindfulness, sleep, and nutrition. Don't miss this insightful episode packed with strategies to help you take control of your well-being!
Follow Micaela:
@bebalancedbymicaela
bebalancedmethod.com/welcome
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Transcript
Introduction to Cortisol and Stress
00:00:11
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Your Health Minute brought to you by Aqua Omega. I am your host, Max Marion. And with me, as always, is my co-host and moderator, Calvin Morrow. Hello, everybody. We have got a great episode for you today. We are going to be unpacking cortisol and exploring the impact of stress on your
Guest Introduction: Michaela Riley
00:00:30
Speaker
health. And with us to do that is a very special guest, functional nutritionist, Michaela Riley. Welcome to the show, Michaela.
00:00:37
Speaker
Thanks for having me. I'm super excited to break down cortisol.
00:00:42
Speaker
Yeah, so are we actually. I think it's gonna be really interesting. I think a lot of people don't realize how much of an impact stress is having on their cortisol levels and the overall impact on their health. And I think we're gonna really dive into that today. And like I was saying before, unpack cortisol and really get to the bottom of it. But before we do that, I always like to give our guests the chance to introduce themselves to our listeners.
Michaela's Health Journey with Cortisol
00:01:07
Speaker
Let them know how you got into the functional nutritionist space and specifically your focus on stress and cortisol.
00:01:19
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. My story could probably take the entire episode, so I'll save you from the long version. But essentially, many years ago, I was struggling with a slew of health issues, and I saw so many doctors and specialists. And of course, all my labs were normal, and birth control was really my only solution in their eyes.
00:01:43
Speaker
And the weight gain, the bloating, I really just didn't even recognize the person that was in the mirror. I lived a very healthy or so I thought lifestyle, working out all the time, tracking all my calories and doing all the things, but my body was just not responding.
00:02:03
Speaker
Ultimately, that led me to the functional space because I knew that all the solutions that I was being provided of birth control, more medication, just work out more, eat less. I'm sure women that are listening have heard that time and time again, just wasn't working. And I knew that there was an alternative way of healing.
Transition to Functional Nutrition
00:02:23
Speaker
So functional nutrition was just coming onto the scene many years ago. It wasn't nearly where it's at today, but
00:02:30
Speaker
I was able to work with a few functional practitioners, but ultimately what helped me realize what was going on was functional lab testing. So the Dutch test, GI map testing, a few other things, really just getting optimal data and results to see what was going on in my body.
00:02:49
Speaker
And I realized that chronically high levels of cortisol were really the catalyst of a lot of things that I was experiencing. And I was really just getting in my own way when it came to feeling like myself again, or just not
00:03:07
Speaker
being burdened by all these annoying health issues. So working through a very integrative process, I was able to come off of thyroid medication, put my autoimmune disease in remission,
00:03:22
Speaker
put my PCOS into remission and ultimately just heal my body medication free using natural medicines, the right type of movement, stress management and all the things. And now today I am able to live my life symptom free and I also help hundreds of women all around the world do the same with my business, the B Balance Method. So ultimately that is where I'm at today.
00:03:51
Speaker
That's a great story. I like that. I love it. I love it when the story comes from a place of personal experience. Cause there's always like a lot of passion that comes behind that. And obviously the want to help other people. I mean, that's what we see all the time. Most of the time when we have our guests on our show comes from a real place of passion like that. And that's really cool.
Impact of Exercise and Birth Control on Cortisol
00:04:08
Speaker
So what were like the biggest stressors you were dealing with that were, that were having an impact on your cortisol, which obviously would throw off the hormonal balance and everything like that. But was it, was it food related? Was it,
00:04:18
Speaker
exercise and it was interesting when you say like eat less, work out more, but oftentimes it's the opposite. It's eat the right kind of food, eat the right kind of foods in balance, like the right amount of carbohydrates and proteins. You know, everybody's, you know, we talk about omega-3 deficiency all the time, but everybody's deficient in proteins. They're not a lot of times eating enough proteins or enough fibers in their diet. So what was like the biggest thing for you?
00:04:41
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. It was really a mixture of a lot of things, but ultimately the chronic amount of exercise that I was doing was ultimately leading to all the issues that I was experiencing. And at such a young age, I was put on hormonal birth control. And now with everything that I know now, hormonal birth control can truly impact your ability to put on muscle as it can suppress
00:05:06
Speaker
testosterone and androgens, which is great for some people that have PCOS, but ultimately when you're thinking about just the average person being put on birth control, it can impact your metabolism long-term.
Gut Health Issues from Elevated Cortisol
00:05:20
Speaker
Pair that with over-exercise, your body will start to use muscle for energy. So you are losing your muscle mass and then wondering why you're all puffy and bloated and not seeing any results in the gym.
00:05:35
Speaker
Um, so ultimately for myself to work, it's like a snowball, right? Like I'm listening to it in my head and it's like, I'm not getting the results I want. I'm going to starve myself some more. I'm going to exercise more. So you keep pushing yourself the wrong way versus taking like the right functional approach to understanding, you know, which like, did you have some food intolerances at the time as well? You were just talking about your GI mapping.
00:05:59
Speaker
Yeah, so the birth control and I was also put on long term antibiotics, which ultimately like, f your gut, like life. But yeah, those two mixtures of things plus the cortisol caused me to have a SIBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, parasites, like really just a whole slew of issues was going on with my gut causing me to look like six months pregnant, bloated,
00:06:27
Speaker
no matter what I ate or didn't eat, I was eating very clean, but still so bloated, which was so annoying. But the cortisol issue, which your cortisol and your digestive tract are so closely related that when you're super stressed out, working out all the time, barely eating, your motility slows down a ton. So that leads to fermentation.
00:06:49
Speaker
that annoying bloat that you can't get rid of, you can't button your pants at all. It's all closely related. But yeah, truly for me, it was just the chronic amount of exercise, the many medications that I had been put on. And I see this all the time in women. And it's really frustrating to I will say, I get a lot of women, you know, and I can totally relate to it that want to lose weight. And of course, you know, the traditional method or
00:07:16
Speaker
bro method of, you know, trying to lose weight is just eat less, move more, you know, like, that's all you need to do. But when you put that on top of a f'd up thyroid, or your metabolism is just not working optimally, you have chronic stress levels, it does not work. And especially with something like PCOS2, you have to be so careful about
00:07:41
Speaker
that traditional method of eat less, move more, it will seal your fate for the rest of your life to have metabolic issues. So yeah, it really was kind of like so many things at play, but chronic exercise and under eating really was a huge proponent. The digestive issues and the gut health issues, brain fog, fatigue, pain, all these sleep issues, it just compounds, right? Yeah, for sure.
The Dual Nature of Cortisol
00:08:11
Speaker
Why don't we kind of take it back a notch and define cortisol and the stress response in the body and why it's so important to be aware of it? Yeah, for sure. So cortisol is actually in very small amounts anti-inflammatory. So when we have acute stress, we want to have that response. So if somebody were to break into your home, you want to have that cortisol response where you
00:08:38
Speaker
immediately know what to do. And that initial response of your adrenal glands, which are two little glands that sit above your kidneys, they secrete cortisol. And in small amounts, it's very anti-inflammatory. And obviously we want that to happen. But when you have that
00:08:54
Speaker
Chronic amount of release of cortisol all the time. That's when it leads to all the issues that I'm talking about today and your body doesn't know the difference between You know running from a bear in a very small situation or waking up every single morning and going to a boot camp hit class and
00:09:13
Speaker
and just running your body into the ground your body doesn't know the difference between the two so that's why cortisol and chronic amounts are just being released all the time is very negative to your overall health and ultimately what can happen is it will lead to burnout down the road so
Daily Stress and Cortisol Levels
00:09:33
Speaker
Everyone's talking about high cortisol levels, but also, you know, burnout fatigue, adrenal fatigue is very real, but it's often a result of being in that high flighty state for so long, which can actually feel really good, but it feels good until it doesn't.
00:09:52
Speaker
And I, I'm thinking about like, just today's day and age and like, everybody's constantly in that fight or flight, right? Like you're so busy, like between like, between work and personal life, kids trying to balance it all. Even like just social media, like everybody's on this high, like all the time. Nobody's actually kind of like.
00:10:14
Speaker
grounding or not true it's like all right it's garbage night i'm like we gotta do all the garbage you've got to run around you're like okay sunday we gotta change the sheets last sunday of the month for me maybe everyone else does it every week once a week
00:10:29
Speaker
in war almost. It's like, okay, I got to get the kids a bath, you know? And it's just like all intense. Finally put the kids down. I'm like, okay, I'm ready to lay down. And then it's just like, oh, I got to do taxes. It's tax season. Like, yeah, it really, it's really interesting too. And I work with so many women. It's just like, so interesting to see like how, like that is just constantly in our environment and nobody, like it almost is uncomfortable to like sit down for five minutes and like breathe.
00:10:58
Speaker
Which is so crazy. Not me, Gabe, like personally, like, but, but my wife, it's like, it's intense. Like I get home, you know, spend some time with the kids, do some cleanup, do some things. I can like chill out, like grabs, like watch TV. She's like on
00:11:14
Speaker
overdrive, like all the time. And it's like, I want to help out sometimes I just don't know, you don't know what to do. But it's like, is it are and that's not to sound like like ignorant or anything. But are women just more prone to like be on this overdrive?
Gender Differences in Stress Responses
00:11:31
Speaker
Yeah, men.
00:11:32
Speaker
There's a lot of research. In general, the medical research is actually lacking in the women's health area, which hopefully in the next few years, that really does change. We had a whole show about that.
00:11:46
Speaker
Yeah, it's really sad and interesting. And that's why too, when you know, people say like, Oh, just work out more and eat less, all of that research for the most part is done on men, and, and not just any men, young, young men, which have like, you know,
00:12:03
Speaker
copious amounts of testosterone. They have like, they're, they can literally change their diet. And I know this to be true. My, um, boyfriend we did, I had him do like dry January, you know, gave him a few nutritional tips. And I'm, I mean, I swear he looked like a totally different person within a month, like gained so much muscle, looked like jacked. I'm like, it's crazy. Like, how is that even better?
00:12:30
Speaker
Yeah, women are so different women are so different and the the research is really lacking in that area But there is a ton of research to show that women are like three times more prone to getting autoimmune conditions Having metabolic issues like PCOS from childhood trauma and just really
00:12:53
Speaker
I think it goes to show I don't know that there's any research around it but women just really over commit themselves to so much and that really can lead to you know not taking a lot of pressure on themselves to a leg it's like oh man that's like
00:13:08
Speaker
I was talking to somebody else about this the other day too because being a woman in the social media space and you really just can't do anything right. I feel like I'm constantly like, no matter what you do, you're too thin, you're too big, you eat the wrong thing. People have a lot of opinions on social media and it's really, it's really interesting, but yeah.
00:13:36
Speaker
Yes, that is really sad. Even the research. I feel like I feel like even just everything we've done, we did the Perry menopause post menopause shows like all these like, and like we've learned a ton. I personally have learned a lot of stuff doing these and I think our listeners have too. But I'm like, it's women like biology and it's so much more complicated than men. There should be so much more research to help us understand it better to be able to properly support but it's just not there.
00:14:03
Speaker
Yeah. That's the other thing too is women's hormones are so much more complex than
Women's Hormones and Health Complexity
00:14:10
Speaker
men. And that also leads to like the fluctuations that we have in estrogen, especially when you hit like perimenopause or menopause that completely shifts your gut microbiome and
00:14:21
Speaker
Um, yeah, a whole slew of things that definitely lead to all of the issues that we're talking about today. But, um, yeah, women's hormones are very, very complex. And I don't know who came up with all the hormonal changes that women came up with, but they really, uh, really wanted us to experience something, I guess. Do women have a different stress response and different cortisol response than men?
00:14:49
Speaker
I would assume so. I don't know that there's any research, but just with the amount of women that I work with. And I would say, you know, the people that are investing in health coaching nowadays are usually overstressed, underfed women. And I think that just goes to show that like the cortisol response to that they experience