Let’s be real: stress isn’t just a buzzword we throw around when our calendars start to look like a trainwreck. It’s a full body experience; one that impacts women in a very specific way. Stress can alter women’s sleep cycles, energy, hormones, mood, mental health, vaginal health, and even life expectancy, if left unchecked.1
Luckily, there are many things we can do to combat stress before it gets to the point of the dreaded (and this is a buzzword) “chronic stress,” but before we get to all that good stuff, let’s take a deeper look at stress itself.
Differences Between Stress and Chronic Stress
If you’ve ever felt your heart pounding before a big presentation, or a pit in your stomach when you receive some bad news, or even experience a string of days of feeling on edge after not sleeping well— that’s short-term stress. It’s the feeling of your body firing up in moments, because it’s trying to help you survive. Historically, we’d be running from something like a predator; but these days, it’s more likely that adrenaline boost comes up for something more innocuous.2
Chronic stress, on the other hand, is when the stress cycle doesn’t really shut off. For weeks, months, even years, that “fight-or-flight” system stays on, leaving cortisol — the stress hormone — elevated and running the show. Over time, that can start to impact everything from sleep to immunity to mood.2
Short-term stress comes and goes, but chronic stress keeps cortisol high and stress responses active long past the actual danger, and that’s when it starts affecting your health in real ways.
How Does Cortisol Affect the Body?
Cortisol may get a bad rap these days, but it actually has a very important role: It is highest in the morning, so it helps us wake up; and it also helps us respond to stress in order to fight or flee a situation.3 (This is an oversimplification, but don’t stress about it.)
In the short term, this boost in cortisol can feel like your heart beating faster, muscles tense or tingling (ready to run), sugar flows into the bloodstream for energy, and digestion takes a back seat so your body can respond to whatever threat is in your way.3
But when cortisol stays elevated long-term, it can start messing with other systems in the body and lead to things like2:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Digestive problems
- Headaches
- Muscle tension and pain
- Heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure and stroke
- Sleep problems
- Weight gain
- Problems with memory and focus
Tips for Managing Stress
According to Mayo Clinic, these things are shown to help reduce stress— and ultimately, lower cortisol levels2:
- Prioritize a healthy diet
- Get regular exercise
- Make sure you’re getting enough sleep
- Regularly do relaxation exercises like meditation, deep breathing, gentle yoga, or massage
- Keep a journal— write down the things you need to process, and also the things you’re grateful for
- Make sure you have time for fun. Hobbies aren’t an option, they’re a necessity
- The same goes for social time. Research shows that loneliness is a major predictor for poor health and even a shorter lifespan, so spend time with friends you love, for your health.4
- “Have a sense of humor.” Not kidding, this is an official recommendation by Mayo Clinic, and they know their stuff. So be sure you’re letting yourself laugh.
- Volunteer in your community.
- Keep your calendar and home organized, as best you can.
Mayo Clinic also advises that folks stay away from unhealthy ways of managing stress— like drinking, drug use, binge eating, unhealthy foods, drugs, or tobacco. These sorts of things may feel like they’re helping in the short-term, but longterm, they only put more stress on an already-stressed out body.
Bottom line: Even if you only have five minutes— make sure you’re not just burying stress; feel it, let it out, and move through it.
Calming / Relaxing Supplements
There are several clinically-studied ingredients that are getting a lot of attention these days for their calming effects— things like magnesium, L-Theanine, passionflower, and Ashwagandha.5,6,7,8*
That’s a big reason why we’re excited about FLO Daily Calm + Relaxation, which blends three of these powerhouse ingredients: Sensoril® Ashwagandha, passionflower, and L-theanine. Research shows this should support6,7,8 :
- Healthy cortisol levels*
- Stress management*
- Mental wellbeing*
When to Seek Support
The short answer to this is, at any time!
Seeking support should not be a last resort; instead, don’t wait until stress is physically impacting you before turning to a therapist, psychiatrist, counselor, or even (and hopefully this is your first line of defense), a friend.
