A Stress Warrior is someone who is working to be healthy even while stressed. Learn how to live with stress in a new online course from Doctor Doni.
A Stress Warrior is someone who is working to be healthy even while stressed.
You see, we are all exposed to stress. Stress is a part of life. But ignoring and dismissing stress as impossible to control is not the solution. We need to learn to embrace stress. After all, we need stress in order to thrive and accomplish our goals. It is a matter of supporting ourselves and our bodies through stress in order to keep up with stress and to maintain our health.
We also all have our unique genetic variations and tendencies. That’s what makes us unique. What we know now about genetic tendencies is that they are turned on by stress. The better we master and support ourselves under stress, the less we are susceptible to our genetic predispositions. Amazing, right?
And some of us have gene SNPs or variations on MTHFR, COMT and/or MAO, which are known as warrior genes because they help us react and respond to stress. Those of us with these gene SNPs require even more stress recovery.
In this article I’m going to cover:
- What are the common types of stress?
- What is the stress response?
- What does stress cause?
- What about neurotransmitters?
- And the immune system?
- Now, what about methylation?
- How to recover from stress?
- Where to begin?
And I’m going to share new solutions I’ve developed to help you recover and become a Stress Warrior.
What are the common types of stress?
We most often think about death, divorce, and trauma, which are most definitely real and common stresses. Childhood trauma in particular (known as adverse childhood events such as exposure to abuse and/or alcoholism) is widespread and has an effect throughout a person’s lifetime.
There are also stresses that are daily and weekly repetitive stresses, such as deadlines at work, relationship stresses, financial stress, responsibilities, too much sugar, alcohol, and gluten, and too little sleep.
What is the stress response?
All of these stresses trigger a stress signal within our bodies. Our adrenal glands respond by making cortisol and adrenaline. That stress signal helps protect us from stress by raising cortisol and adrenaline, getting us ready to run away from danger, and turning off systems that are not so necessary during stress, such as digestion and ovulation.
Our stress response is a good thing. The issue is when the stress response never has a chance to reset. It keeps getting triggered over and over, and eventually, we get stuck in stress mode.
When we are stuck in stress mode, cortisol may be too high or too low at the wrong time of day. Adrenaline could be too high or too low, as could our neurotransmitters and blood sugar levels. We can check all of these levels to find out exactly how stress is affecting your levels.
Stress mode can cause you to feel tired, anxious, brain fog, low mood, PMS, pain, weight changes, and digestive issues.
What does stress do to our bodies?
Stress leads to leaky gut, a digestive issue involved intestinal cells that are not doing their job to protect us from undigested food and bacteria. Leaky gut leads to inflammation throughout your body causing such symptoms as weight gain, rashes, headaches, infections, anxiety, and autoimmunity. We can determine whether you have leaky gut with a food sensitivity panel.
Stress also disrupts our hormone levels. You name it, every hormone is disrupted by stress. One of the most common to be thrown off track is the thyroid hormone. Many people have the symptoms of low thyroid function, and really it is because of stress and/or stress causing autoimmunity that disrupts the thyroid.
Stress makes it harder to keep your blood sugar on track and makes it more likely that your menstrual cycle will be irregular or that you will have PMS and/or fertility issues. Doctors will tell you the only option is to take a birth control pill, but that is not addressing the real issue.
Stress in various forms is the underlying cause. Address it, and hormones come back to balance.
What about neurotransmitters?
Not only hormones, but neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, adrenaline, and GABA are all negatively affected by stress. No wonder we are more likely to experience anxiety, depression and other issues with neurotransmitters when we are stressed.
But take steps to recover from stress, and use nutrients and herbs in the way your body needs, and you’ll get your neurotransmitters back on track.
And the immune system?
Even the immune system is thrown by stress. We become more susceptible to infections (colds, viruses, bacterial infections), and we also become more likely to have allergies and autoimmunity.
Remember, our genetic tendencies are turned on by stress. So if you have a genetic predisposition to autoimmunity (such as MS, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and others), it is most likely to show up when your body has been stressed. Even psoriasis and fibromyalgia have been associated with autoimmunity and stress.
Now, what about methylation?
Methylation is how our bodies use B vitamins for good things like making healthy new cells, protecting our DNA and processing neurotransmitters. Without methylation, we would be susceptible to the negative effects of stress.
Taking the right amount of B vitamins* for your body will help protect you from stress.
HOWEVER, it is important to know that if your body is currently overwhelmed by stress in any form mentioned above, then you will not be able to use B vitamins effectively and they could even make you feel worse, especially if you have genetic SNPs like MTHFR, MTRR, CBS, and others.
That’s why the BEST first step is to address your stress.
How to recover from stress?
To help your body recover from stress we need to identify whether you have leaky gut and food sensitivities, cortisol and adrenaline imbalances, neurotransmitters too high or too low, thyroid and blood sugar that need attention, nutrients depleted, gut bacteria overgrowing, and immune system disrupted.
Once we know HOW you’ve been affected by stress, then we can create a strategic plan to help you recover based on your levels and your genetics.
Where to begin?
I offer several solutions to help you find out how stress has affected you and protocols you can use to recover from stress and build resilience to stress.
You could start with the quiz I developed called the Adrenal Stress Quiz. It will show you how stress is affecting you and give you some starting solutions, including my 7-Day Stress Reset video series, for FREE.
Then you may want to consider starting with leaky gut healing using what I call the Stress Remedy Leaky Gut Healing Program because it includes a 21-day gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free meal plan that helps you recover from stress and start healing leaky gut. It includes my recommended protein shake and products to follow my leaky gut healing protocol.
You may decide that working with me directly is what you need to make the most progress and have my expert guidance in the process. I created consultation packages you could choose so that you have consultations with me combines with the health panels needed for your case. The Adrenal Wellness Package, for example, includes a food sensitivity panel to show us whether you have leaky gut and which foods to avoid, as well as a cortisol/neurotransmitter panel, plus consultation time for us to review your results one on one.
And finally, I’m excited to announce a new program I created that I call the Stress Warrior Course. It is a group online program comprised of LIVE sessions with me via Zoom. I will guide you and the group through the health panels, results, and my protocols so you can start implementing as you go through the course.
In the Stress Warrior Course, we will have Q&A each session, plus a private Facebook group. You’ll receive the Stress Remedy Leaky Gut Healing meal plan and email tips, and my MTHFR and genetic basics recorded class. You’ll also get 10% off at DrDoniStore.com during the course.
We offer a payment plan for the Stress Warrior Course to make it more do-able for you. For those who do the single payment option, we include a 30-minute session with me so that I can know your goals and guide you in the program.
Overall, the Stress Warrior Course gives you the chance to work with me at a fraction of the cost, and to benefit from working with a group format. It is LIVE and starting July 10th, so be sure to sign up now. The last chance to sign up is Sunday, July 8th at midnight EST.
We do have a payment plan option for the course, so if you prefer to spread the payments over time, please let us know and choose that option.
I can hardly wait to help you all become Stress Warriors so that you can reclaim your health and keep it that way into the future.
–Dr. Doni
6th July 2018
*Please keep in mind that any and all supplements—nutrients, herbs, enzymes, or other—should be used with caution. My recommendation is that you seek the care of a naturopathic doctor (with a doctorate degree from a federally-accredited program) and that you have a primary care physician or practitioner whom you can contact to help you with individual dosing and protocols. If you ever experience negative symptoms after taking a product, stop taking it immediately and contact your doctor right away.