HPA Axis / Stress and Gut Health / Stress and Digestive Symptoms

You’re overwhelmed and you just can’t take it anymore! You’re wired and tired. When you’re stressed, your body goes into a fight or flight mode always ready for the next threat. This pattern, over time disrupts the HPA axis or adrenal function and creates a cascade of hormone imbalance. When your body remains in a sympathetic state (fight or flight), over time this can lead to a whole host of issues like digestive symptoms, hormone imbalance, weight gain, fatigue, sleeplessness, aches and pains. We can work together to get your body back into a parasympathetic state (rest and digest) by uncovering the obvious and not so obvious stressors in your life.

What is Stress?

Stress can come from internal or external influences that cause or lead to malfunction in the body. Stress is anything we perceive as a threat. Traditionally we think of an acute situation where we’re confronted with a lion or a bear, and our fight or flight response kicks in. But in today’s modern world, stress can come in many forms and become chronic. It can come from work, relationships, thought patterns, an accident, a tragedy, or from hidden stress to the body, such as toxic overload, food sensitivities, infections, viruses, or parasites.

Our stress response is designed to work brilliantly when we need to fight or take flight. But if stress becomes chronic, (which is common in our modern day lives), there is a biochemical response in the body which depletes our steroid hormone pathways and adrenal function, creating imbalances, which lead to metabolic chaos™ and a variety of symptoms and disease.

Changing our mindset about stress to one of meaning and courage can also help facilitate healing from the potential negative impacts on the body.