Home > Irritable Life Syndrome > ILS Stress Management

Irritable Life Syndrome - Stress Management

By Paul Lubicz "The Wellbeing Manager"

"Stress can make you fat and get the flu more often"

And who wants to get fat AND have the flu eh? If you're one of those people who are under constant levels of stress - you'll all be sharing a common underlying theme: adrenal burnout. This is the unfortunate result of racing through life with a constantly aroused sympathetic ("fight or flight") nervous system. Cavemen and dinosaurs relied on "Fight or Flight" for survival - but it was never meant to be used on a constant daily basis in our lives (or in the office!)

Here's the science bit: In the heightened nervous state of adrenal burnout, the body overproduces adrenaline, cortisol and other stress hormones. Eventually, this causes the adrenal glands, the front line in the stress reaction, to show wear and tear and become depleted. This frequently leads to impairment in the thyroid gland, which can cause a further decline in energy level and mood, your immune system and is one of the reasons why so many people have thyroid glands that don't work well.

You'd think that running around like a headless chicken would mean you'd be a skinny little thing too right? Not so. Some of the most manic people end up with the fattest bellies too (!).According to new studies there is a direct link between stress, tension and excess belly fat. Too much production of cortisol this stress hormone can causes weight gain. When the body feels stress it produces the cortisol hormone which tells the body to save energy to fight the stress. Saving energy means storing fat.

The over production of cortisol accelerates the accumulation and storing of excess body fat, particularly around the waist and stomach areas. The excess cortisol also increases your appetite, prompting the need to eat larger quantities and cravings for sweets and simple carbohydrates-foods that make insulin levels spike and then plummet.

This unhealthy activity also makes you hungrier than normal and increases the urge to eat more frequently, often resulting in over-eating of unhealthy or fattening foods.