Chronic, unrelenting stress and a cortisol surge that rarely turns off, impacts your health in so many ways. Chronic stressors suppress the immune system. More stress equals more sickness. We know that 95 percent of disease is either caused by or worsened by stress.

What frequently gets overlooked is how toxic stress messes with your hormones, gut health, inflammation, and accelerates aging. Here are 7 ways chronic stress may harm your health:

Gut bacteria: stress can disrupt the number and type of bacteria in the gut, adversely impacting immune function and overall health.

Insulin: cortisol’s main job is to raise glucose levels. Even small increases in cortisol can raise blood sugar and increase insulin resistance.

Thyroid: chronic stress dysregulates thyroid function.

Inflammation: if your body stays in a fight-or-flight mode, a chain reaction of inflammatory responses occurs that spells trouble for your overall health.

Growth hormone: excess stress crashes growth hormone (GH) as you grow older. GH decline accelerates aging, decreasing muscle mass, increasing in adipose tissue, reducing libido and energy.

Telomeres: telomeres protect the ends of chromosomes. Shorter telomere length signifies poor health and mortality. Toxic stress creates oxidative damage and free radical production, aging at the cellular level and shortening telomeres.

Sex hormones: excessive cortisol decreases the hormones necessary for sexual desire and function such as DHEA, progesterone, testosterone, and estrogen. When cortisol gets too high, it can block cells from getting progesterone, which calms you down.

Don’t put off dealing with chronic stress. Many of its effects are happening below the surface so you may not notice them immediately—and there are more not listed here.

Developing a breathing practice or mindful meditation practice has been shown to increase your ability to respond to stress in and move you out of the limbic system, fight, flight or freeze and into a more calm responsive, parasympathetic mode.

* Cassale integrates mindfulness meditation practices and breath work into our weight loss and wellness programs. 

* Dr Gail Altschuler has developed a functional medicine program, which has certain specific tests that can see how your hormones are impacted by stress.

To find out more give us a call on 415-897-9800 or view our website, www.marinweightloss.com