Stress Reduction
Excessive stress is one of the most salient contributors to poor health today, and are unquestionably associated with increased rates of cardiovascular disease, cancer, autoimmune disease, diabetes, and death. We are experts at the use of Heart Rate Variability, a technology that will be used to demonstrate your degree of stress. A Pub-Med search shows nearly 18,000 studies that have been done in recent years around this technology. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=heart%20rate%20variability
CFM understands the complexities of the adrenal, hormonal, and metabolic contributions to stress. We will determine the cause of your stressors using 21st century science and thinking; but we may recommend an herb or therapy that has two-thousand years of cultural and clinical practice.
CFM understands the complexities of the adrenal, hormonal, and metabolic contributions to stress. We will determine the cause of your stressors using 21st century science and thinking; but we may recommend an herb or therapy that has two-thousand years of cultural and clinical practice.
The ability to mount a stress response is essential to human survival. This stress response is primarily mediated by the hormone cortisol, which is secreted by the adrenal glands. Cortisol is the one hormone without which we are unable to survive, the complete lack of cortisol ultimately leads to circulatory collapse and death.
But too much cortisol is problematic as well, and one could easily argue that it is the singular contribution to a majority of disease in our country today. In order to understand how cortisol contributes to disease, we need to first take a look at how it functions in respect to normal physiology.
In times of stress, whether running from the saber-toothed tiger, facing an opponent in battle, or escaping a rip tide, the human body requires a burst of energy to optimize and maximize the function of the muscles and brain. The primary currency in the human body to effect these functions is the molecule glucose. Glucose is a sugar, and is stored in the muscles and the liver in the form of a molecule known as glycogen. The hormone cortisol instructs the cells of the liver and muscles to liberate glucose from its storage form glycogen. As stresses increase, we have a built-in escape plan in place through our hormones: we liberate energy to power the muscles, we sharpen our thinking and brain processing, and we increase the amount of blood that the heart is pumping. And slipped off to the side, the least of concerns for a body fighting for survival, is our immune function, our gut function (no time for a snack now!), and the production of our anabolic, or ‘building’ hormones, like DHEA and Testosterone. In a stressful state, we are like an airplane that dumps its fuel for an emergency landing, leaving enough to just make it to the nearest airport, and hoping not to crash and burn in the process.
The steps programmed into our genetics to respond to a stressor has served us well for millennia, however the ability to mount such an exaggerated response in our physiology is not without cost. In nature, such stress responses were likely limited; we had time following stressful exposures to lick our wounds, to replenish metabolic stores that were required to let us get away, and to rest.
However the human animal was never programmed to be able to sustain the continual, prolonged and unrelenting stressors as are felt in our modern society. Stress, and its physiological response, is wreaking a phenomenal toll on our health. What is interesting is that for the body to mount a stress response, we need not necessarily be n the throes of a battle. Veterans with a history of PTSD are thrust into a high-cortisol state by little more than a memory of a traumatic event. The daily commute, with unpredictable traffic flows and the nagging fear of being late to yet another meeting; the persistently crying baby; the “pinging” of the recognizable cellular ring tone notifying us of a new project requirement from management, all readily draw us into a state of heightened cortisol. And we are asked to “pay the piper” over time with a deterioration of our health, our memory, and our immune function.
Chronic actual and perceived stress is slowly killing us. Cortisol, in contrast to a building anabolic hormone, is catabolic, meaning that it breaks down the body, slowly melting away our muscles, bones, immunity and minds. But after extended periods of high cortisol states, the brain finally says “enough” and centrally shuts down all cortisol production. At this point the patient is left in a state of cortisol depletion, the so-called ‘adrenal fatigue’, but the stresses keep on coming. It is at this point that we begin to see the deep scars in our health left by a life on unmitigated stress.
The first step on the road is to simply consider that a prolonged and excessive stress response is contributing to our health, or lack thereof. Too often conventional providers fail to acknowledge and test for cortisol excess or deficiency. A functional approach uses detailed testing to identify where you are on the cortisol spectrum, and which other systems have been affected. Treatment depends on this testing. A high cortisol state is managed with stress reduction programs, dietary changes and herbal therapies to counter the effects of excessive cortisol. Hypocortisolism, or low cortisol, is the end result of years of burning the candle at both ends, and requires a more in depth approach, often requiring administration of cortisol until the body is given the nutritional tools to repair the adrenal system.
Cortisol is the captain of the hormonal ship. It is essential that the stress response is identified and managed. All other body systems; hormones, energetics, mood and longevity will all fall into place once our stress hormone cortisol , and our physiologic response to stress, is identified and balanced.
What's Next?
Contact us to setup your New Patient Appointment.
Visit our Home Page to read more about Functional Medicine.
But too much cortisol is problematic as well, and one could easily argue that it is the singular contribution to a majority of disease in our country today. In order to understand how cortisol contributes to disease, we need to first take a look at how it functions in respect to normal physiology.
In times of stress, whether running from the saber-toothed tiger, facing an opponent in battle, or escaping a rip tide, the human body requires a burst of energy to optimize and maximize the function of the muscles and brain. The primary currency in the human body to effect these functions is the molecule glucose. Glucose is a sugar, and is stored in the muscles and the liver in the form of a molecule known as glycogen. The hormone cortisol instructs the cells of the liver and muscles to liberate glucose from its storage form glycogen. As stresses increase, we have a built-in escape plan in place through our hormones: we liberate energy to power the muscles, we sharpen our thinking and brain processing, and we increase the amount of blood that the heart is pumping. And slipped off to the side, the least of concerns for a body fighting for survival, is our immune function, our gut function (no time for a snack now!), and the production of our anabolic, or ‘building’ hormones, like DHEA and Testosterone. In a stressful state, we are like an airplane that dumps its fuel for an emergency landing, leaving enough to just make it to the nearest airport, and hoping not to crash and burn in the process.
The steps programmed into our genetics to respond to a stressor has served us well for millennia, however the ability to mount such an exaggerated response in our physiology is not without cost. In nature, such stress responses were likely limited; we had time following stressful exposures to lick our wounds, to replenish metabolic stores that were required to let us get away, and to rest.
However the human animal was never programmed to be able to sustain the continual, prolonged and unrelenting stressors as are felt in our modern society. Stress, and its physiological response, is wreaking a phenomenal toll on our health. What is interesting is that for the body to mount a stress response, we need not necessarily be n the throes of a battle. Veterans with a history of PTSD are thrust into a high-cortisol state by little more than a memory of a traumatic event. The daily commute, with unpredictable traffic flows and the nagging fear of being late to yet another meeting; the persistently crying baby; the “pinging” of the recognizable cellular ring tone notifying us of a new project requirement from management, all readily draw us into a state of heightened cortisol. And we are asked to “pay the piper” over time with a deterioration of our health, our memory, and our immune function.
Chronic actual and perceived stress is slowly killing us. Cortisol, in contrast to a building anabolic hormone, is catabolic, meaning that it breaks down the body, slowly melting away our muscles, bones, immunity and minds. But after extended periods of high cortisol states, the brain finally says “enough” and centrally shuts down all cortisol production. At this point the patient is left in a state of cortisol depletion, the so-called ‘adrenal fatigue’, but the stresses keep on coming. It is at this point that we begin to see the deep scars in our health left by a life on unmitigated stress.
The first step on the road is to simply consider that a prolonged and excessive stress response is contributing to our health, or lack thereof. Too often conventional providers fail to acknowledge and test for cortisol excess or deficiency. A functional approach uses detailed testing to identify where you are on the cortisol spectrum, and which other systems have been affected. Treatment depends on this testing. A high cortisol state is managed with stress reduction programs, dietary changes and herbal therapies to counter the effects of excessive cortisol. Hypocortisolism, or low cortisol, is the end result of years of burning the candle at both ends, and requires a more in depth approach, often requiring administration of cortisol until the body is given the nutritional tools to repair the adrenal system.
Cortisol is the captain of the hormonal ship. It is essential that the stress response is identified and managed. All other body systems; hormones, energetics, mood and longevity will all fall into place once our stress hormone cortisol , and our physiologic response to stress, is identified and balanced.
What's Next?
Contact us to setup your New Patient Appointment.
Visit our Home Page to read more about Functional Medicine.