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When our brain perceives stress, there are neural chemicals and hormones that are produced to signal changes in our body. Our hypothalamus (area in the brain that is activated with stress will send signals via the sympathetic nervous system as well as to the Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal (HPA) system. The adrenal gland then produces adrenaline and cortisol- stress hormones. For acute stress this system works perfectly to prepare our body for fight or flight. When we are repeatedly stimulated by stress our body will make changes to compensate for this less than ideal situation. Unfortunately, in modern life, many of us have chronic stress which adds to chronic inflammation as well as immune system dysfunction and is at the heart of many of the chronic disease that plagues us.
Our stress hormones should peak in the morning and then fall as the day goes on. We often will test through saliva to see if there is dysregulation of this pattern. This is a common factor in autoimmune conditions, blood sugar problems and chronic inflammation in general. Over time with chronic stress we see a disruption in this pattern where cortisol is high all day long or low in the morning and high at night or low all the time. This can affect how we feel during the day. We treat this through lifestyle interventions and use of herbs that can balance this out while we work on long term solutions for life balance.
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