TIRED & WIRED
Is this becoming your new normal??
Cortisol gets way too involved and doesn’t seem to leave any of the other hormones alone.
You see, millions of women feel the same.
They go to the doctor not feeling like themselves...
- Feeling irritable and overwhelmed way more than normal.
- Holding weight especially around the middle.
- Experiencing more forgetfulness, or, less focused.
- Feeling more tired than normal
- Difficulty sleeping
- Caffeine and/or sugar cravings
- Afternoon crash around 2 - 4pm
Blood work comes back, maybe with some elevated cholesterol numbers, otherwise normal.
Doctor says everything is fine, it's just your age, you're busy, you're a busy mum.
Maybe the doctor offers an antidepressant or birth control pill to help with what sounds like depression and possibly something hormonal.
Our clinical psychologist patient, Carly, age 45, said…
"When it happened to me, I left feeling I know something is not right with me, this is more than just the normal stresses of life, I know my body.....
Instinctively, I knew to dig deeper and look for alternative solutions to support me...
I came to the clinic and we saw that my cortisol was completely flatlined. My adrenals were fatigued, it felt so good to see there was an underlying reason for why I was feeling this way.....
Carly's and hundreds of other patients like Carly in the last few months, led me to research more about cortisol.
Cortisol naturally fluctuates throughout the day.........
Cortisol should naturally be at it's peak in the morning, within 30 - 60 minutes of waking up, yet if it remains low during this time after waking, you will struggle to get out of bed, find it difficult to get going in the morning and be reaching for a coffee fix to give you that kick start..
And when cortisol levels are off, many of the other hormone levels go out of balance at the same time. It’s not untypical for us to have patients suffering from cortisol imbalance, low thyroid hormones, and oestrogen dominance, all at the same time. This in turn effects your blood sugar balance and metabolism - causing weight gain!!!
Cortisol is the bully hormone because if it is too high or too low, it pushes the other hormones out of whack.
Cortisol imbalances will directly effect your sleep hormone Melatonin causing sleep disturbance, waking during the night and leave you feeling unrested when waking in the morning.
At the heart of any good night’s sleep is a healthy balance in hormones.
Hormone and energy disorders go hand in hand......If you are struggling with your energy throughout the day and/or sleeping at night, we can look deeper into your hormones to find the root cause and bring the right support to get your energy on track.
So, if we follow the cortisol levels being too low in the morning (instead of at their peak in the morning), you can easily find yourself starting to pack on extra kilos, especially around the middle section, causing a a bit of a muffin top. This affects the thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), which slows down metabolism. It’s not uncommon for us to see cortisol and thyroid imbalances to connect to weight gain, irritability, anger, crankiness, feeling way more anxious than normal, and feeling way more foggy or forgetful than normal.
It’s not uncommon for women to start seeing cortisol levels acting up between the ages of 35 and 42, as many women’s reproductive hormones start to change to prepare for peri-menopause. With many of our patients just starting to shift into peri-menopause, we hear a lot of complaints about moodiness, irritability, and feeling like they have a short fuse. Nearly all of these patients’ hormones have been impacted by their cortisol hormone.
We test cortisol one of two ways at the clinic. We can do a formal Cortisol test with saliva or blood, or, we have an extensive symptom assessment that we do in consultation that looks at your symptoms during certain windows of time during the day, that can tell us whether your cortisol is too high or too low at those times.
If any of this sounds like you or someone you love, we’d love to help you. You can book a Free Introductory Consultation with us here: https://app.simpleclinic.net/public/diary/index/kMJ?location_id=1301&service_id=11430
Look forward to connecting with you soon.
Warmly, Rachel
