How Stress Affects Your Hormones (And What To Do About It)
Your body keeps score. Every late night, every anxious spiral, every moment of overwhelming emotions, your hormones are registering it all, and over time, they start to push back.
Ever wonder why stress makes you hungry, exhausted, moody, and wired all at once?
It's not a coincidence; it's your hormones responding to a system under pressure.
What Happens in the body during stress?
We’ve already covered an extensive stress article, going through stress and its impacts. If you haven’t already, make sure you read to understand how cortisol, and stress all work in your body.
Provide link to previous post.
Cortisol and its impacts
When you face perceived stress - such as a startling sound (short-term) or a very important exam (long-term) - your brain activates your hypothalamus (a region in your brain that sounds the alarm for DANGER)
The Hypothalamus might put in an order for many different hormones. Examples include: cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline, prolactin, etc. We’re going to be introducing each one on its own, don’t worry!
Adrenaline (Instant Alert):
Released rapidly from adrenal glands, this usually spikes heart rate, breathing and blood flow to muscles for fight-or-flight action.
However, since this is usually for dodging immediate danger, it can manifest into anxiety, high blood pressure, and tension headaches in the long-run.
Cortisol (Energy Mobilizer):
This famous hormone is known but not explained enough; its original function is actually rooted in redirecting energy to your vital organs, such as your heart. Short-term, it increases your focus and keeps you alert. Long-term, it keeps you wired, leading to insomnia (because you are unable to relax and fall asleep), and weakens your immunity, leaving you constantly drained.
Noradrenaline (The Focus Sharpener):
The cousin of Adrenaline, you can say, since they’re often together, heightens alertness, vigilance and glucose release while slowing digestion.
Long-term, this can looks like jitteriness, sleep disruption, emotional burnout.
Prolactin (Reproduction pauser):
Stress prompts the rise to suppress fertility and aid survival adaptation. Short-term, this could help, but long-term, this looks like missed periods for months at a time, weight gain, infertility, and mood swings (hot flashes for women undergoing perimenopause).
Signs stress may be affecting your hormones…
Hormones don’t cause’ the initial stress response. They’re the body’s reaction to it.
Stress is the (DANGER! - loud noise, exam, interview) hormones are the survival chemicals your body produces.
They are meant to protect you for a short while, but long-term they can greatly impact your health and cause you issues with day-to-day functioning.
Who is most vulnerable?
People who are most vulnerable to genetic predispositions, trauma histories or high-demands lifestyle that amplify the trigger of hormones in the body.
High-risk groups:
Caregivers hold a huge mental and physical load. We’ve written more in-depth here.
Since they undertake the constant emotional/physical demands of their children, older in-laws, parents, and families, their cortisol spike is 24/7, preventing them from truly ever relaxing.
Trauma survivors:
Surviving a traumatic experience can lead to high stress, as it re-wires your brain to perceive threats around you. PTSD patients show altered cortisol levels and exaggerated ‘startle’ responses even years later.
Individuals living in a war zone currently:
In war-ridden areas, the rates of PTSD are up to 88%, with anxiety/depression in 63-75% of displaced adults/children, tied to repeated trauma and HPA overactivation.
Women:
Women show higher vulnerability to traumatic stress in conflict zones: meta-analyses confirm elevated PTSD/Depression rates vs. men, plus greater symptom reporting during attacks. We’ve written on the greater toll of stress for women in this article.
First responders:
Face PTSD rates 2-5x general population from repeated trauma priming inflammation; chronic exposure (heat/smoke/environmental stressors/loss of sleep/long hours) weaken resilience before acute events.
What helps restore balance?
- Grounding yourself in sleeping and waking up routines:
Having a set sleep time to wake up and sleep is optimal to grounding yourself around a routine that will help restore balance to your hormones. Sleep greatly impacts cortisol rhythms and overall endocrine function, restoring your internal balance when your external balance might not be fully where you want it to be.
- Mindfulness practices
We have plenty on here with our (freebie) and also (paid stress bundle)
But even a simple 5-4-3-2-1 method grounding your senses is so worth it in the long-run.
The 5-4-3-2-1 method is a sensory grounding technique used to manage anxiety and overwhelm by bringing attention to the present moment. It involves identifying 5 things you see, 4 you feel, 3 you hear, 2 you smell, and 1 you taste, interrupting the fight-or-flight response to calm the mind.
- Moderate exercise
Exercise is a huge stress hormone releaser. By helping regulate hormones and supporting mood and metabolic health, it helps you stay consistent and even more productive.
A simple walk after a meal, a quick exercise video, or whatever you are able to do, everyday as a grounding exercise, pick a time or activity to surround it by, and you will be able to focus on grounding that to your advantage, and healthily release the pent-up stress you may be experiencing.
- Eating Healthy
This one is a huge one but rarely talked about in relation to stress and hormones!
Staying away from excessively sugary foods, reducing caffeine intake, and focusing on sustainable nutrients can do wonders for grounding your nervous system and keeping your huger and sleep levels stable.
- Social Connection
Surrounding yourself by your support system, whether that be your friends, family, or trusted people in your life, can do absolute wonders for your stress release. Simply naming your troubles and confiding in someone you trust is huge, and can help you process and name what you’re feeling.
- Journaling and naming your emotions
Sometimes, the worries seem bigger in our heads because they constantly go back and forth, like a never-ending circle. Writing down your emotions not only allows you to name them → thus process them → and be able to work out what to do next.
Writing down actionable steps for your health not only controls your thoughts, it also allows you to come to terms with how you’re feeling and ground yourself.
If you identified with this blog, the Stress Management Bundle was made for you.
Either way, you don't have to figure this out alone. Our 1:1 Strategic Health Session is here when you're ready for a more personal conversation.
👉Book a session | Explore the Shop
Take Care,
Sarah - PHP Team
Head of Content and Programs