How to Test and Track Your Stress Levels

You would think that we would be good at telling when we’re stressed out or not. You would be surprised at how many of my patients take a long time to realize their minds and bodies are under high stress. Being in a state of stress can become a part of your new normal making it harder for you to recognize stress in your life.

It can be helpful to have a way to assess your own stress levels and monitor your fluctuations in stress over time. It can help you determine if a worsening of symptoms (like worsening IBS, acne or arthritis) is happening at the same time as a worsening of stress. This can help you and your health care providers decide if more emphasis needs to be placed on coming up with a better stress management plan for you.

Stress Quizzes

It can be hard to understand stress symptoms. That’s why scientist have developed tools to help with figuring out your stress levels. These tools are widely available for free online. The Perceived Stress Scale and the Perceived Stress Questionnaire are both validated tools for measuring stress levels. These tools are often used in research studies. For something simpler (although not validated in research), you can do the What’s Your Stress Index quiz put together by The Canadian Mental Health Association by clicking HERE. Of course, on their own, these tools don’t replace medical advice but they’re great to bring into your appointments with your naturopathic doctor and family doctor.

Cortisol

Some of my patients ask me about the value of lab tests for measuring stress levels. There is some evidence that measuring cortisol (often called a “stress hormone”) can help with assessing stress levels. An interesting point is that sometimes cortisol levels don’t match up perfectly with perceived stress levels. For example, a patient may feel like they are not stressed out but when they measure their cortisol levels, they are high. Speak to your naturopathic or family doctor to help you decide if and when this test could be useful to you.

In the pre-COVID-19 world, I created a 4 week program to help bring some stress relief to my patients. The program was originally designed to be done alongside acupuncture. I have now modified it so that it can be done virtually without acupuncture if needed. If you would like to learn more about the 4 Week Stress Release click HERE.

Fed up With Feeling Irritable all the Time? Hormone Balancing May be the Answer

I’ve gone through it. I know others who have gone through it. Many of my patients complain about it. That feeling of inexplicable irritability and anger. Snapping at your husband, kids or parents. Complaining about everything. Feeling jealous, stubborn and like you just want to argue against every idea or plan being sent your way. Life sure would be easier if you could get along with everyone…but you just don’t feel like it.

But then the guilt comes. You wish you could be a more pleasant mom, wife, daughter, friend, co-worker. You might feel like you’re “failing” in these roles. You wish you had more patience and that your home or work environment could be happier. It just feels so out of your control.

First, don’t beat yourself up. You’re only human and you have every right to experience all the emotions that come with being human. Second, some of your irritability may be totally justified. Some of it may be a sign that you need to work some things out with yourself emotionally. But some of it could also be a sign that something is off with your health. Often, hormonal imbalances can contribute to grumpiness. Common culprits are estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol and thyroid hormones. When these hormones are too high or too low you could end up feeling anxious, depressed or irritable.

I went through a period of extra irritability myself. It was not like me at all to feel so grumpy for no reason. Sure, I would get irritable from time to time like anyone else - but this was a whole different level. I hated feeling like this so I decided it was time to test my hormones and sure enough there were imbalances. When I put myself on a protocol to re-balance my hormones I felt amazing. I felt like myself again and my energy, mood and motivation skyrocketed (a crazy acne breakout also cleared up as an added bonus). I’ve seen this type of transformation in my patients as well when we committed to testing and treating their hormone imbalances. Sometimes the change is quick (like in my case) and sometimes it’s a gradual transition to brighter, happier days. Either way it’s worth it.

So if you feel like you’ve tried everything to calm your irritability and it’s not working, consider investing in your hormonal health. Get back to feeling like yourself and shining your light on everyone around you.

Why You’re Feeling Constantly Overwhelmed

Life can feel like a hamster wheel sometimes. Like an endless loop of rushing to be on time, working, running errands, doing chores, and sleeping (poorly). There’s often barely enough time to gather your thoughts and take a breather. Living in this state can destroy your motivation and morale making you not want to do anything other than curl up in front of the TV all day. But, of course, you can’t do that. You still have roles and responsibilities, people still depend on you and it’s not always feasible to take a sick day from life.  

But what if there was a way to feel more at ease through all the chaos? There may be no way to avoid your busy schedule, but you can learn to thrive in the midst of it. Learning how to overcome that feeling of overwhelm can get you back to feeling fresh, alert and motivated. It can help you get a much better handle on life allowing you to feel less anxious, less depressed, more productive and better able to juggle all the demands work life and family life throw at you.  

Fight-or-Flight Mode

Let’s go back in time for a bit. When your caveman ancestors were feeling stressed their bodies went into fight-or-flight mode. In this mode the heart rate speeds up, muscles contract, blood pressure increases, and the body is completely revved up. The human body was designed to respond to stress this way – it’s how our caveman ancestors survived the dangers around them. In order for the body to get into this survival mode it has to amp up the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. Our ancestors would be in this mode for short intense bursts like during animal attacks or tribal battles and these bursts were followed by time to rest and recuperate.

Fast forward to modern life. We still have the fight-or-flight response wired into our bodies. According to scientists, the key difference is that our fight-or-flight mode is being activated way more often at a constant low or high level with way less time to rest and rejuvenate. It’s being activated by things like bills, work deadlines, traffic, daunting responsibilities and sleep deprivation. On a biological level, this survival mode is being activated by inflammatory foods that stress out our bodies, toxins in the environment that burden our bodies, gut dysfunction that makes our bodies vulnerable to inflammation, hormone imbalances that confuse our bodies – I could go on forever. We’re relentlessly revved up both mentally and physically with no time to recover.

The end result is a constant feeling of overwhelm.

Stopping the Hamster Wheel

A lot of your schedule and responsibilities may be out of your control but there are still powerful, natural things you can do to reduce overwhelm. When you can master overwhelm it can transform your life. Not only do you feel better but health conditions like anxiety, depression, IBS, irregular periods and obesity become easier to manage. If you want to go through life with more ease and enthusiasm, don’t ignore this feeling of overwhelm. Don’t accept it as just a fact of life. Get help and treat it like you would any other health condition. Reduce the feeling of overwhelm and watch yourself excel at work, at home and in all areas of your life.

Stress Part 2: Hormones

This is the second article of my series on stress. To read the previous article click here.

Last week I discussed how stress can affect the skin. Today I’ll be talking about some different ways stress can make hormones go haywire. Most women remember a time when their period went wonky during a stressful episode in life. This is just one example of how stress can impact hormones. Read on to find out how stress can play a role in hormonal conditions.

 

Irregular/ Absent Periods

Amenorhea is the term used for when you miss your period for multiple cycles. When this is caused by stress it’s known as hypothalamic amenorrhea. This fancy term is used because when you're stressed the part of the brain called the hypothalamus triggers a release of different stress hormones like cortisol. This can cause the brain to release less of the hormones important for your cycle (like LH and FSH). This ends up disturbing the ovulation process and the whole cycle. A similar process can lead to irregular periods.

 

Infertility

One of the most common pieces of advice given to women trying to get pregnant is to be less stressed. Like with hypothalamic amenorrhea, stress can lead to less consistent ovulation. This can make getting pregnant more complicated. Preliminary studies have found that stress can lead to something called reproductive aging. This involves decreased ability for the ovaries to produce a healthy egg.

 

Diabetes

There is some research suggesting that stress hormones like cortisol can make your body respond less to the hormone insulin. This makes it harder for your body to control blood sugar. Blood sugar may remain high for longer after meals when you’re stressed.

 

Thyroid Dysfunction

Improving stress levels has been shown to improve thyroid hormone levels. Cortisol can reduce thyroid hormone levels.

 

Men’s Health

Don’t think that stress only impacts women’s health! Hormones in men are also affected by stress. The effects are less understood though. There is research suggesting that stress may lower testosterone levels in men.

As you can see stress management is an important part of a plan to treat any of these conditions. If you need help with your hormones or your stress levels book an appointment or free 15 minute consult.

Hormone Testing with a Naturopathic Doctor

Hormone testing can be helpful in guiding treatment plans in some cases. It can tell you which hormones are higher than ideal, which ones are lower than ideal and which ones are normal. This can tell me which herbs, nutrients, dietary and lifestyle changes to recommend. Sometimes it’s obvious what needs to be worked on and we can skip testing. Sometimes it’s not as clear and testing provides guidance.

Cases that I may use hormone testing for are:

- Periods that are irregular and difficult

- Menopause that isn’t responding well to my usual treatments

- Challenging PMS cases

- Difficulty losing weight when there is a suspicion that hormones are involved

- Major fatigue, brain fog and other symptoms when there is a suspicion that hormones are involved

There are different ways that I test hormones. One way is the usual blood test that most family doctors do as well. Another other option is to test saliva. There are pros and cons to both.

Blood Tests

Blood hormone tests have been accepted by the medical community for longer than saliva tests. There is a good amount of research supporting them.

Some MDs and NDs have raised concerns about only relying on blood tests for hormones. Sometimes blood test levels and saliva levels line up with each other. Other times I find that patients with normal blood test levels have saliva levels that are not ideal. These saliva levels often match with the symptoms the patient is experiencing.

Saliva Tests

In order for hormones to enter saliva, they may need to travel into cells/ tissue first. This may not be the case for hormones in the blood stream. Some think this means saliva better reflects the levels of hormones that are actually acting on your cells/ tissues. I won’t be able to explain all the biochemistry here. You should know that research on saliva testing is still ongoing. Opinions on it may change in the future.

Insurance Coverage

It used to be that tests run by naturopathic doctors were not covered by insurance companies. Lately, more insurance companies have been covering testing. The only way to know for sure is to contact your insurance company and ask.

If you need some help managing your hormones book an appointment or free 15-minute consult today.