I’ve been talking about how Stress impact the rest of our body… NOWHERE is this more apparent than with the other organs of the Endocrine System.
All the endocrine glands have one thing in common… Even though They carry out different orders, there is one primary function for the endocrine system as a whole… SURVIVAL.
Keep in mind, Survival is expressed in two different ways…
Survival of the individual, and survival of the species.
And when it comes to Survival, the individual is always the priority. So when you look at it this way, Reproduction is actually a luxury! That means that, if need be, the building blocks that make up your sex hormones and energy required to make them will instead be directed to other glands which support the individuals survival.
Your body’s FIRST Priority is always to provide a constant energy supply going to your brain and heart… in fact, the other organs will always sacrifice their optimal function to make sure the Brain and Heart have their constant supply of energy.
This triangle above, shows the order of importance for your individual survival, bottom being most important, top being the first to be sacrificed.
So what’s supplying the Brain and Heart with steady energy?
Your blood sugar. That relies on you not skipping meals and eating foods that are balanced in terms of Protein, Fat and Carbohydrates. When we are not eating at regular intervals, or if we’re eating foods that are too Carbohydrate based (think sweets, cereals, breads and pastas), our blood sugar can go too high or too low… In this case both the Pancreas and Adrenal Glands are called in to assist in regulating our blood sugar level back to where it should be. *click* But these two foundational glands of the Endocrine System can become overtaxed and hormone production can become imbalanced. When this happens, the impact on hormone balance is HUGE!!
Next in the Survival System hierarchy is the Fight or Flight Response of the Adrenal Glands.
The “Brain” (meaning your Hypothalamus and Pituitary) views many aspects of our daily life as stressful. Long gone are the days when a stress event was occasionally chasing down wild animals for food or running from it, so not to become its food. Now its argument with a coworker or loved one, being late for a meeting, computer issue when trying to work from home, or paying bills. Then there is getting busy and forgetting to eat or eating too many quick burning carbs. There are also physical stresses, pain and inflammation in our body from an injury or food sensitivity dietary stress caused by what you’re eating or what you’re NOT eating, and toxic overload from environmental pollutants, lifestyle products or conventional foods that overwhelm the body with chemicals and pesticides.
Realize that in all of these cases, the building blocks and energy that should normally go to produce the sex hormones will instead be directed to other glands which support the individual’s survival
This brings us to Thyroid Gland and the hormones it makes. When the Adrenal Glands are called upon frequently due to all the different kinds of stress affecting the body, the Hypothalamus and Pituitary will slow down Thyroid hormone production. And this is bad news for your sex hormones. Thyroid Hormone provides the energy for your cells to do their jobs. The ovaries know how to make their hormones, but without the building blocks or the energy to do so, then not enough hormones will be created to allow for reproduction.
So now you see how dysfunction can cascade throughout the entire endocrine system and ultimately affect your sex hormones … you CAN return balance back to this whole system, the first place to start is addressing your lifestyle stressors.
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