INTERVIEW: Marcelle Pick - Battling the New Epidemic: Stress
Marcelle Pick, R.N.C., M.S.N., OB/GYN N.P., and director and co-founder of Women to Women Healthcare Center, is coming to the store for a talk on reducing stress. She'll discuss the dangers of stress and share ways to identify stressors and take back the life you want. After the talk, she'll sign copies of her new book "Are You Tired and Wired?".
We checked in for a sneak preview of the event.
- What have you noticed about women and stress?
I've seen an increasing number of women of all ages coming in with fatigue in my practice. Stress crops up in many ways and causes a lack of energy, disrupted sleep, and restlessness. Some women have too much to do all the time. Others can't get away from work or be in the moment. In today's world we are inundated with stress. We check emails at red lights and move between our iPhones and iPads, Blackberrys and computers with very little down time or time left for ourselves. Our bodies are constantly "on" and that continual stress can have a serious impact.
- How does stress affect our bodies?
From your body's point of view, stress means any type of demand or challenge that requires the body to expend extra energy. (Getting up out of your chair and moving across the room is a minor
stressor, for example, because it requires more effort than remaining seated.) Our adrenals are walnut-sized glands located on top of each kidney. These glands serve as important manufacturing centers for many of the body's hormones and their job is to help us cope with stress. They pump out cortisol to give us little bursts of energy and strength. Years ago, their job used to be to give an extra push when a tiger was chasing us. Nowadays, the tigers are bigger and stronger and staying with us - there is no end to the stress and so our adrenals are continually pumping cortisol to deal with this influx of stress. It's depleting our energy and affecting our health.
- What are the dangers associated with prolonged stress?
When chronic stress repeatedly forces our adrenal glands to continually produce high
levels of cortisol, the adrenals slow down in their ability to regulate your other hormones.
And the continual flood of cortisol may start to damage healthy tissue. Women with adrenal dysfunction often have trouble in a wide variety of ways: sex- hormone imbalances, thyroid abnormalities, blood sugar dysregulation, fibromyalgia anxiety, depression, cardiovascular issues, inability to concentrate, poor memory or poor immune function.
Stress just isn't uncomfortable and unpleasant - it can actually be dangerous. Numerous studies have linked chronic stress to such life threatening conditions as heart disease, diabetes, as well as migraines, thyroid abnormalities, digestive disorders and backache. Stress has also been linked to a variety of autoimmune disorders (sometimes making them worse or sometimes setting them off) such as Crohn's disease, lupus, asthma, multiple sclerosis and Hashimoto's thyroiditis. It makes sense that stress is dangerous because none of our body's systems operate in isolation. There is a lot of cross talk between all our systems, including adrenals, sex-hormones, thyroid, gut and brain.
- How can we identify and change our stress levels?
It's important to take a look at your life. In our talk - and in my book - I offer quizzes to help identify which category of adrenal dysfunction you may fall into. Are you the a racehorse - on fast forward all the time, or a work horse - on the go from the minute you wake up until the minute you fall asleep? Everybody has a different solution and the key to reducing stressors and making a change is to understand your lifestyle and determine what works for you.
We'll talk a lot about this next Wednesday. We'll discuss nutrition tips and take a look at how insulin affects stress. (The more stable you can keep your insulin levels, the less stress.) We'll discuss keeping gluten out of your diet, the importance of good fats, and why it's important to eat protein throughout the day.
- And who do you think will benefit most from your talk?
Women of all ages! Anyone who is feeling fatigued and starting to slow down, or not able to accomplish all they want to. Every woman deserves the life she wants and there are times when stress gets in the way. By pausing to change your diet, adjust your lifestyle, and reprogram the emotional patterns which are stressing you out, you can get back to the life you've been wanting to lead.
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