What's Stressing You Out?

To recover from stress and burnout, we have to first understand how stress impacts us. Then we can reverse the health issues caused by stress and improve our longevity. While it’s easy to tell someone they should reduce their stress level, how can it practically be done? I have been in medicine since the 1970’s and can unequivocally state that stress and its effects on us creates more basis for chronic health issues than any other trigger. Doni is truly an expert on diagnosing and treating the many impacts on health that stress causes. Information is clearly presented and the strategies for addressing stress are well thought out, practical, effective, and easy to implement. It is not intended to serve as a substitute for professional medical advice. A health care professional should be consulted regarding your specific medical situation. To my patients, my daughter, and my parents for all you have taught me about being a human, in connection with others, exposed to stress, and being committed to living an inspired life. What Happens When We’re Stressed? What Is Adrenal Distress? What’s Stressing You Out? You are in the right place. We publicly wear being so busy as a badge of honor, while suffering silently and privately, afraid to look like the weak link who can’t handle the demands of their job or life. But what if I told you it’s not that simple? My research and experience with patients have shown me that everyone has a unique stress type and a unique way to master their stress. Do you have a compulsive need to be always on the go? Do you feel persistent nervousness and also have frequent digestion issues? All of this means you might be what I call a Stress Magnet, a person plagued by consistently high cortisol throughout the day.

After The Fall

Or do you find that you’re most productive late at night? You might be a Night Owl, a person whose adrenal imbalances peak in the evening, making them unable to turn off. Alternatively, you might not relate to either of those types because you never feel like you have much energy at all, regardless of the time of day. If you pretty much always feel tired, depressed, or generally unmotivated, you might be the Blah and Blue type, a person who wakes up with cortisol levels that start low and stay low, leaving them wanting to pull the blankets back over their head and disappear. The types are important because treatment and management look different for every person. Just as a common cold won’t kill you if your immune system is functioning optimally, stress won’t turn into debilitating burnout if your recovery systems are functioning optimally. I came to this understanding of stress through lived experience. For more than two decades, I lived with severe, debilitating migraines. Once or twice a month, I’d wake up with excruciating pain that quickly led to nausea and vomiting for hours on end. It took me days to recover. When this happened in naturopathic medical school, I still had to keep up, no matter how bad I felt. Later, as a mom and practicing naturopathic doctor, I found myself needing to reschedule patients and activities with my daughter so that I could lie in bed or on the bathroom floor for days at a time. I knew I had to find a better way.

Somewhere Along The Line

First, I needed to accept my body for what it was. My genes and stress exposure set me up for migraines. I couldn’t go get another body, but I could do something different with the one I had. Instead of rejecting my body and being mad at myself for something I couldn’t change, I decided to embrace it. Second, I needed to gather information. I looked at my genes and figured out how to support my body based on my genetics. I measured my cortisol and adrenaline levels and did a test to learn which bacteria were living in my gut so that I could correct what was out of balance. Third, I had to choose differently. Then, when I realized that I have a gene that causes my joints to be hypermobile, which means sitting in the same position for long periods of time is the worst possible thing for me, I ordered a standing desk and made sure to never sit for more than an hour at a time. When I tested my toxin levels and found that my body was filled with flame retardants from the mattress I slept on, I threw out that mattress and took nutrients to get rid of the toxins. After exploring the patterns on a deep emotional level, I realized that the migraines were my body’s way of taking a break from my overly busy schedule. Once I made sure to plan more stress recovery in my schedule, my body didn’t have to create a migraine in order for me to take time for myself.

A Leap Of Faith

As I made these gradual changes, my last headache soon went away. Then my anxiety about the next episode disappeared for good. Migraines aren’t the only signs of burnout that are now in my past. I don’t have autoimmunity, even though my parents and grandparents did. I used to have allergies, sensitivities to many foods, fatigue, menstrual cramps, and depression. Now those issues are all gone, too. It’s been exciting to share this knowledge with my patients and watch them reap the benefits of equally impressive results. I’ve helped patients who previously had recurrent miscarriages finally achieve healthy pregnancies and healthy babies. I’ve helped women with abnormal pap smears rebalance their hormones and get back to healthy pap smears without procedures that could damage their cervix. I’ve helped men and women who no longer knew how they can get through another day due to fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, and/or pain live their passions and feel good doing it. Perhaps you feel like you’ve tried everything, and nothing worked. That’s because you haven’t addressed adrenal distress.