Too much stress depresses the helpful hormone DHEA

Stress for Success

March 4, 2014

What exactly is stress? There are multiple definitions:

·         Anything you perceive as a threat;

·         Your assessment of your ability to handle a challenge is less than you believe is required;

·         A perception of insufficient control;

No matter which definition you prefer, stress boils down to any situation or perception that triggers the cascade of fight/flight response stress hormones that pour through your body.

This stress response is very effective with short-term stressors like our ancestors faced with their life-threatening dangers. But modern stress tends to go on and on, like worry over your kids, deadlines or traffic.

How much stress you have can be measured in your body by the amount of the adrenal steroid hormone, cortisol. Cortisol is a necessary hormone and helps regulate many bodily functions from blood pressure to sleep. It’s released in reaction to any physical stress like illness and psychological problems like financial or marital ones. When cortisol is released it sets off a series of physical changes to prepare you to deal with (fight or flee) stressors including insuring your brain receives enough energy.

Your body regulates cortisol levels through an elaborate feedback loop, involving the pituitary and adrenal glands and the hypothalamus, which raise or lower other hormones accordingly.

Your body also has a balancing system to protect you through the excretion of the hormones cortisol and DHEA. These hormones serve as your body’s shock absorbers buffering stress and its negative impacts, according to Dr. Joseph A. Debé, Licensed Certified Dietitian-Nutritionist and Chiropractor.

DHEA, dehydroepiandrosterone, is the most abundant hormone in the bloodstream and it helps suppress cortisol. It is vital to health partly because it regulates many other hormones. DHEA is also a good stress barometer, because when stress goes up, DHEA goes down. It also decreases with age, peaking in your mid-20s then declining about 2% per year. You may begin to feel the effects of lower DHEA levels in your 40s.

The problem with these hormones is chronic stress. With normal day-to-day stress, your body produces more cortisol and DHEA. When the stress is over, your body returns both to normal resting levels and into balance again. However, chronic stress over time triggers increasingly more cortisol and less DHEA. And this doesn’t take long to occur. According to Dr. Debé, “One study showed after just 28 days of continuous stress, cortisol levels had climbed to 240% of starting values and DHEA had dropped to 15% of initial levels! What's even worse is that even after the stress was removed, the body sometimes didn’t recover and bring these hormones back to normal levels, but instead, the stress response remained with high cortisol and low DHEA output.”

Dr. Debé points to the consequences of elevated cortisol and reduced DHEA levels which he labels disturbing:

·         A compromised immune system: increased risk of infections, allergies, some cancers, and autoimmune diseases;

·         Glucose use and insulin function are altered producing higher blood sugar levels;

·         Salt and water are retained, with a possible result of higher blood pressure;

·         Blood cholesterol and triglycerides increase and can predispose you to heart disease;

·         Thyroid function becomes impaired, resulting in decreased metabolism, lowered body temperature, and reduced vitality;

·         The body stores fat, especially around the midsection;

·         Depression, insomnia, hunger, and can PMS result;

·         Reproductive function weakens possibly resulting in infertility and cessation of the menstrual cycle;

·         The combination of reduced R.E.M. (rapid eye movement) sleep and lowered growth hormone release at night diminishes mental and physical regeneration, which results in acceleration of the aging process;

Phew! Scary!

Not everyone will experience these effects. Your genetics and your daily lifestyle choices along with environmental factors greatly influence who experiences which symptoms.

If you have been overstressed for months, to bring about a healthier hormonal balance you must first normalize your adrenal activity. And the great news is you can begin to achieve this by using simple techniques to increase the emotions associated with DHEA and diminish the emotions associated with cortisol. That’s my next article.

Jacquelyn Ferguson, M. S. is an international speaker and a Stress and Wellness Coach.  Order her book, Let Your Body Win: Stress Management Plain & Simple, at http://www.letyourbodywin.com/bookstore.html.  Email her to request she speak to your organization at jferg8@aol.com.