Is Chronic Stress Affecting Your Health?
Everyone experiences stress at one time or another, but chronic high stress and how that stress is perceived, can damage your physical and mental health. It can cause anxiety and overwhelming fear. It can also weaken your immune system and overall health, increasing your risk of getting colds and flus, developing aches and pains, and/or developing other serious illnesses.
How We Help Our Clients Transform Stress Into Success
Chronic stress can silently deteriorate many aspects of your health by causing hormone imbalances and changes to the structure and function of your brain. These changes make it more challenging to cope with daily stress and can cause brain fog as well as decreased concentration and memory.
Chronic stress has often been referred to as “The Silent Killer” because often the effects of stress go unnoticed until the accumulated effects result in mental or physical exhaustion or burnout.
Here are examples of symptoms and conditions that can result from chronic stress:
- Decreased concentration
- Mental or brain fog
- Decreased memory capacity
- Insomnia
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Fatigue
- Muscle or back pain
- Blood sugar dysregulation
- Increased risk of type 2 diabetes
- High blood pressure
- Headaches or migraines
- Hormonal and thyroid imbalances
- Weight gain
- Addiction (smoking, alcohol or drug abuse)
- GI conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome
- Frequent infections (such as cold or flu)
- Accelerated aging
What Is Stress? What Are The 4 Key Stressors?
The HPA axis and the SNS regulate your body’s fight-or-flight response, which is important for preparing the body to quickly respond to immediate danger, such as avoiding a car accident. The result of HPA and SNS activation is a heightened sense of awareness, an accelerated heart rate and rapid breathing.
Cortisol is the primary hormone involved in regulating the stress response. The adrenal glands secrete cortisol, along with the fight-or-flight hormone epinephrine (also known as adrenaline). These hormones travel through the bloodstream preparing the body for a quick response to potential danger.
In addition to heightened awareness, you will experience an increase in blood sugar and blood pressure, as well as decreased immune defense, decreased digestion and a breakdown in muscle. Once the stressor is removed, this state of “sympathetic nervous system dominance” will subside and your body will return to a normal relaxed state.
It is natural for the body to respond to occasional “acute” or temporary activation of the HPA axis and sympathetic nervous system. However, the chronic, unrelenting stress so common with our modern lifestyle is not what the body was built to withstand. If the stressor(s) are not removed or managed, the hormones will cause damage to the body by depleting the body’s resources and shifting into a state of catabolism, or breakdown.
The 4 Key Stressors
When most people think of stress, they usually just think of mental and emotional stressors. For example, changing jobs or losing a loved one can send your stress (and cortisol) levels soaring.
However, blood sugar imbalances, inadequate sleep, and inflammation are examples of physical stressors that also powerfully stimulate cortisol and the HPA axis. The result is activation of the stress response system.
Blood sugar imbalance is one of the most common and easiest stressors to control.
Skipping breakfast after fasting overnight, causes your blood sugar levels to drop. Your body attempts to restore balance by increasing cortisol levels which will restore blood sugar to normal. There are no major consequences if this is an occasional occurrence, however, ongoing blood sugar fluctuations controlled by hormones can become a problem.
If blood sugar remains an issue, coupled with inflammation in the body, poor sleep patterns, and then topped with mental and emotional stress, you have created a recipe for disaster. It is critical to identify the major stressors in your life so you may develop a plan to overcome stress before it becomes a pathway to chronic disease.
Introducing The SOS Stress Recovery Program
Each person’s response to stress is unique and complex. The essential tools in this program are designed to be flexible as they help support each component of the stress response, allowing you to find the perfect balance that restores your vitality and optimal health.
Throughout the program, you will better understand how stress affects your health on a daily basis – including why your body responds, or fails to respond, to the stressful events in your life.
Starting with the “Life Event Stress Inventory,” you will discover the life events that may be the most stressful. Additionally, the program outlines recommendations for the four major factors that trigger a stress response in the body: mental and emotional stress, blood sugar imbalances, insomnia and inflammation.
Once you understand these basic principles, you will have the tools to control your stress response, rather than be controlled by the events and circumstances around you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The SOS Program Right For Me?
If you want to get to the root of your chronic health issues and optimize your health holistically through sound lifestyle modifications, advanced lab testing and mind-body techniques without unnecessary medications, then our program may just be what you’ve been looking for. Just know that it takes a serious commitment to make the lifestyle changes necessary to transform your health once and for all.
What Is the Cost of the SOS Recovery Program?
We are preferred providers for most major insurance companies. If paying out of pocket at the time of service, there is a 25% discount on office visits. Please refer to our Pricing page for more detailed information.
What About Supplements & Lab Testing?
As a prospective patient, you may wonder about additional costs beyond office visits. We know that you’ve likely been to other providers before that may have already run lab tests. That is why during our comprehensive intake consultation, we will review any existing lab results – so that we can determine if additional lab testing is needed in order to create your personalized recovery plan. We might recommend certain pharmaceutical-grade supplements for a limited time to support your body’s innate healing process. However, our long-term goal is to remove as many obstacles to health via diet and lifestyle changes with the least amount of supplements and prescription medications as possible.
What Should I Expect From My Free Discovery Call?
During the free discovery call, we will see if partnering with our team is the best next step for you. You can ask any questions you may have about our approach, and how it differs from what you’ve tried before – so you feel comfortable about the journey ahead.
What Should I Expect From The Initial Appointment?
Before your first appointment, you will complete our extensive background history forms and submit any recent lab work that you have done. This way we can properly review your history and lab results before we meet. During the appointment, we will together review your completed intake form, medical history, current and past lab tests – as well as any medications taken, so that we can arrive at a baseline assessment of your overall health and nutritional status. If needed, we may decide on additional lab tests to confirm (or rule out) a specific diagnosis, so we can create a personalized treatment protocol.