Happy Friday! I hope you’ve had a nourishing and stress-free week (one can hope!)
I’ve been recovering from a nasty head cold this week. It seems all the stress from the past few weeks has finally caught up with me. *sad face*
As far as colds go, it’s thankfully been a rapid road to recovery. Just 2 - 3 days and I’m already feeling a lot better. 🤞🏼 My immune system definitely kicked in and has been fighting the good fight. This is actually one of the reasons I avoid taking any cold & flu medicine or paracetamol in the first day or two - I want my immune system to kill the viruses with a fever.
Paracetamol reduces fever - which is helpful if the fever is going to dangerous levels, but a bit of fever is beneficial initially because it is the body’s self-defence mechanism - viruses can’t survive in higher temperatures. So even if it feels rough at the time, I endure it for the overall gains (quicker recovery).
I’ve mainly been sleeping a lot (9+ hours a night) and supporting myself with plenty of adrenal cocktails, nourishing warm homemade chicken, ginger and egg congee (like what my mum used to make me when I was young) and fresh vegetables.
It’s made me think a lot about how much stress impacts our health. I recently shared the below reel on my instagram to shed light about the many signs that often go unnoticed or are just accepted as a normal part of modern life.
I listed a few signs I’ve mentioned before, like often waking up feeling groggy, or that feeling of being “wired but tired” at night, afternoon energy crashes, sugar or salt cravings, getting sick easily, brain fog, needing caffeine to function.. all of which are signs of chronic high cortisol which, if left unchecked, inevitably leads to hormone imbalances and irregular cycles.
But how exactly does stress interfere with your hormones?
Getting back to our biology here! Below is a little chart I created that shows your hormones when they are playing nice. They all work in harmony, with the goal of ovulation (and nurturing a potential bebe). If there’s no bebe, estrogen and progesterone are not needed and both hormones drop off, leading back to menstruation.
You can see FSH and LH on this chart too - I haven’t talked about them much before, but these are signalling hormones which tell the ovaries whether it’s time to grow ovarian follicles, or release the chosen one (ie. ovulate). The big surge in LH as estrogen surges is pivotal for triggering ovulation.
If this surge doesn’t happen and estrogen isn’t high enough, your body won’t ovulate (and it usually tries again later). This is why periods are sometimes late, due to an extended follicular phase with delayed ovulation. And this is what happened to me this cycle - I ovulated about three days later than normal which will extend my cycle length by three days.
So.. when you are stressed, your adrenals are pumping out high amounts of cortisol. This is great if you’re running from a lion, but not so good if it’s a chronic thing lasting weeks, months, or years on end. This prioritisation of survival interferes with the signalling (FSH and LH) from your brain to your ovaries.
High cortisol lowers GnRH production from the hypothalamus (the “control center” in your brain) which is responsible for telling the pituitary gland to release FSH & LH (the hormones that instruct your ovaries to do their thing). This causes lower levels of FSH and LH (which means the ovaries stop doing their thing), decreasing production of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone - which inevitably slows or stops the menstrual cycle completely.
End result: Irregular cycles or missing periods! (And often a host of other symptoms like PMS, mood swings, painful periods etc..)
So what can you do to help yourself?
Ok ok, it may all be sounding doom and gloom, but there are plenty of ways to reduce cortisol and support your hormones naturally.
I’ve touched on this before (and this is a big part of my work with one-to-one clients). Below are ten simple tips that help manage stress and minimise it’s impact on your body:
💖 Make some home made adrenal cocktails. Certain nutrients and minerals are very helpful for supporting the adrenals and managing stress — like potassium, sodium, magnesium, and vitamin C. Adrenal cocktails are packed with these essentials - there are many variations out there now, but click the link below to download my tried and trusted recipe!
💖 Check if you are shallow breathing. If so try deepening your breath so it fills the belly and uses your diaphragm. Or use the “physiological sigh” as taught by @hubermanlab which is helpful for immediate stress relief.
💖 Spend time in nature. Well known for its ability to reduce cortisol and shift you away from the sympathetic nervous system, a.k.a “fight or flight” mode, towards “rest and digest” — that is your parasympathetic nervous system.
💖 Eat a proper breakfast within 1-2 hours of getting up. If you are already stressed, the last thing you want to do is stress your body more by starving it of fuel after it’s already been fasting overnight.
💖 Drink your coffee after breakfast. (I know, I know - I don’t always do this either)!
💖 Regular meditation. Also well researched in it’s ability to reduce stress and build resilience to life’s stressors.
💖 Spend time with supportive friends. I’m sure we all understand and feel the benefits of this one as we are communal beings by nature.
💖 Cultivate healthy boundaries and learn to say “no” or “not now”.
💖 Journalling / free writing. Writing down all your thoughts can help get them out of your brain and reduce worry and anxiety.
💖 Move your body regularly. Working out, running, dancing, yoga, skating - do whatever feels good to your body. But… don’t overdo it! And remember to fuel your body appropriately with a good amount of quality protein, fat and carbs.
On the note of breathwork and meditation - earlier this month I uploaded a 22 min guided meditation for mental clarity and calm for my paid subscribers, but I’ve decided to make it available to everyone for the next two weeks as a gift. Enjoy! 👇🏼
Well, I hope those of you in the UK are ready for our bank holiday / carnival long weekend!
But before you go… I have one favour to ask!
If you have any friends who struggle with hormone or menstrual cycle problems, OR just would enjoy learning more about how to support their bodies, menstrual cycles and holistic health — I would appreciate it SO MUCH if you could share this Substack and/or my instagram @flowradiance with them. It would mean the world to me as I really want to be able to help more people, but have been struggling with the limitations of social media algorithms (like many others out there).
Sending lots of love and the last of this summer sunshine,