How Stress Impacts Your Energy, Mood and Hormones

Is stress wreaking havoc on your health?

Stress can easily become an everyday experience, and some of us are so used to being regularly stressed that we now feel this is just our ‘normal’ state!

Over time stress can contribute to many symptoms and health concerns. If you experience some of these issues, it’s likely stress is involved to some degree:

  • Anxiety

  • Insomnia

  • Fatigue

  • Depression

  • Brain Fog

  • Digestive Issues such as IBS and Bloating

  • Changes in Weight

  • Hair Loss

  • Increased Infections/Colds/Flus

  • Period Problems (PMS, Heavy or Painful Periods, Irregular Periods)

  • Lack of Motivation and Apathy

  • Skin Issues - Dermatitis, Eczema, Psoriasis

HOW YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM WORKS

Your nervous system and stress response are designed to help you in a life threatening situation - to allow you to fight or run away from danger.

This is called your SNS (Sympathetic Nervous System or ‘Fight or Flight’) and when Cortisol (one of your major stress hormones) is pumped through your body to give you the energy to fight or run.

Once the danger has gone, your cortisol level decreases and your nervous system calms down to its preferred state called PSNS (Parasympathetic Nervous System or ‘Rest and Digest’).

Our bodies are designed to spend most time in a calm state. However many of us are now living on cortisol and stress every day. While our bodies can cope with this demand for so long, they will eventually start to suffer and health issues will start to appear.

Certain functions in your body are shut down or minimised during a stress response (when cortisol increases) to direct energy to where it’s needed most, in helping you to escape danger. This is primarily to your muscles, heart and lungs so you can run or fight, while other areas are minimised such as digestion. While this process is great in short bursts, your body is unable to sustain optimal health when vital processes such as digestion, are regularly impaired.

ENERGY, MOOD AND HORMONES

The HPA (Hypothalamus - Pituitary- Adrenal) Axis is how your brain and body communicate during stress, and regulate the release of Cortisol from your adrenal glands.

If the HPA axis is constantly activated, then Cortisol levels will be higher. Cortisol can give us energy, and make us feel ‘wired’ and anxious if we experience regular stress.

However, after a certain amount of time, our body will be unable to keep up with the extra demand and cortisol production can then become too low - leading to fatigue, exhaustion, brain fog and depression.

You may also experience swings and crashes in energy and mood, due to the concurrent changes in blood sugar levels which are also influenced by stress and Cortisol.

As cortisol is a ‘life saving’ hormone, it is given preference over the production of other hormones such as progesterone and thyroid hormones.

Over time this preference can deplete the level of thyroid hormones and progesterone your body produces, thereby leading to hypothyroidism and low progesterone (in comparison to Estrogen). These hormone imbalances can lead to symptoms such as:

  • Fatigue

  • Constipation

  • Hair Loss

  • High Cholesterol

  • Weight Gain

  • Infertility

  • Increased risk of miscarriage

  • Anxiety

  • Period Changes (PMS, Painful periods, Irregular periods, Fluid Retention)

While there may be other factors involved such as nutritional deficiencies, ongoing stress can be a major contributor to hormone imbalances.

PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE

If we ignore the signs our body gives us and continue to operate from stress, our symptoms and health issues will likely become more chronic and much harder to recover from. This burn out stage may take 6 months, 5 years or 10 years - everyone has a different level of resilience, however it’s best to not push this to the limit!

This is a big reason why it’s always best to try and prevent these conditions, rather than trying to recover once they are well advanced.

There are some great herbs and supplements that can help calm a stressed nervous system, such as Magnesium, Lemon Balm, Lavender and GABA.

There are also many tools you can practice, that can have huge benefits for your nervous system such as:

  • Becoming aware of stressors and implementing strategies to help manage stress

  • Learning to slow down without feeling guilty

  • Implementing Boundaries especially in regards to your time and energy

  • Prioritising sleep

  • Breathing properly

  • Spending time in Nature

  • Gentle to moderate exercise

  • Music, writing, reading, creative hobbies

  • Taking a bath with magnesium salts

  • Meditating

  • Minimising sugar, alcohol and caffeine

  • Spending time with like minded people



A lot of our stress is perceived stress, ie. not even ‘real’, but we can worry and stress ourselves out about what might happen or not go right. This imagined stress unfortunately produces the same stress response and has the same health consequences as real physical danger would. Becoming aware of our thoughts and learning to manage them can also be a great practice to support your nervous system.

If you’d like to work on calming your nervous system to improve energy, mood or hormones, please get in touch.

If you would like to learn more about how to improve your Energy, Mood and Hormones - check out my Free Guide here.

To find out more about working together to improve your health - click here.