Hashimoto’s Health Tip: Stress Is Not Your Friend
Did you know that low thyroid function is often caused by some other condition first, and often adrenal gland stress is the culprit?
Chronic adrenal stress can:
* Affect communication between the brain and glands that produce hormones. The hypothalamus and pituitary gland are the directors of hormone production and chronic adrenal stress can mess up communication with the thyroid.
* Increase thyroid binding activity, keeping thyroid hormones from getting absorbed by the cells of the body.
* Interfere with the conversion of T4 to active forms of T3 that the body can use.
* Affect detoxification pathways that clear out unnecessary thyroid hormone, when these get stuck in the body you can develop thyroid hormone resistance making cells lose their sensitivity to thyroid hormones.
* Weakens the immune barriers of the gut, lungs, and brain and weaken the immune system, in general.
When this happens, you can have more immune flare ups and this can trigger your Hashimoto’s and make it worse.
So, what are doing about stress?
Here’s the tricky thing about adrenal stress: it’s almost always caused – at least in part – by something else.
These causes include anemia, blood sugar swings, gut inflammation, food intolerances (especially gluten, dairy and soy), essential fatty acid deficiencies, environmental toxins, and of course, chronic emotional and psychological stress.
Sound familiar?
These are also all the things that make Hashimoto’s worse.
We can’t ignore them or pretend like they aren’t there like so many doctors do. We have to deal with all of them.
Here’s the thing, we have maxed out our stress cards (like our credit cards for stress).
With Hashimoto’s your body is under so much physiological stress, all the time, that extra emotional stress will often totally wipe you out.
This happens because we’ve emptied our accounts and now we have to reinvent our lives and this means what you do everyday.
We have to start putting relaxation and fun back into our “stress savings” accounts.
Seriously, you have to replenish this account. It’s not enough to say “Yeah, I have nothing in that account.”
Because just like your bank account if you aren’t putting money back in and you’re always just taking money out, what happens?
Eventually, you go broke and you got all these creditors after you and lose your house and your car and eventually, you wind up on the street.
Talked about stressed out!
That’s what’s happening in your body. You wind up with the functional equivalent of being homeless inside your own body.
Here are 5 common mistakes people make when dealing with stress in their day to day lives.
And, really, we have plenty of opportunities to take positive actions regarding stress every day, and often these wind up being missed opportunities and actually lead to more stress.
Here are 5 common mistakes people make every day dealing with stress.
The most important thing you can do is start becoming aware of this.
Are you…
1. Working through lunch (or other meals)?
This is a really common problem. many people don’t take the time to relax and enjoy their meals. This is a huge opportunity to relax and if you are stressed during your meal, it has a big impact on your digestion and absorption of food and vital nutrients.
2. Using your break time to vent and complain?
What you focus on is what becomes reality. Put that energy into manifesting something positive, like healing.
Go for a walk, appreciate the things around you instead.
3. Doing too many things at once?
Try slowing down and doing one thing at a time. So many people spend their days multi-tasking themselves into a totally stressed out state of mind (and body).
4. Not asking for help?
How often do we let our pride stop us from asking for help when we really need it? There’s no shame in admitting you need help and reaching out to someone and asking.
5. Denying there’s a problem?
So many people pretend they have stress under control when they really don’t, at all.
It is a very powerful trigger of autoimmunity. It can completely torpedo your progress.
You can’t just pretend it’s not here.
It’s here and it’s here to stay, so you need effective strategies for having less of it.
Every day.
Please share with us your best stress relieving practices.
About the Author Marc Ryan
So now, not only is it my profession, it’s my passion, and it’s personal. I’ve been joking with people lately saying it’s a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I really get it, and a curse because I really got it! ?
