The link between appetite, inflammation, hormones, and more!

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When I was doing my post-grad work in functional labwork back in the day, I was blown away by how fascinating our hormones are. You’ve probably heard about the hormone cortisol before, right? AKA the “stress hormone”, cortisol is actually much more than that. Cortisol is so vital to life that we can’t live without it. Literally.


When my brother was sick, before we knew it was cancer, his body was pumping out TONS of cortisol and the doctors couldn’t figure out why (spoiler alert: his body was under huge stress from the undetected cancer). The really high cortisol led to all sorts of awful symptoms (rapid heartbeat, extremely high blood sugar, breakdown of his connective tissue which visibly showed up as dark purple stretch marks, rapid weight gain, terrible sleep)…and since these side effects were so troubling and since they hadn’t found the root cause, the doctors took out his adrenal glands which were making the cortisol. Since we can’t live without cortisol, he had to immediately start taking a medication that supplied it.
So I’m well acquainted with cortisol. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
When cortisol is balanced, it’s amazing: it helps control metabolism, helps us manage inflammation, can help us bring up our blood sugar when we need energy, wakes us up in the morning, helps us regulate our water and salt balance (and blood pressure), and helps us react to stress. Unfortunately, too many of us have stress in our lives that is unrelenting and/or we aren’t regulating it effectively (we’ll talk more about this) and so our cortisol levels are too high. I’ve mentioned how awful the symptoms of extremely high cortisol can be, but those levels are rare.

Even moderately but chronically elevated cortisol can cause symptoms like:

  • Increased appetite
  • Increased visceral body fat (deep belly fat)
  • Poor sleep
  • Waking up feeling wired but tired
  • Imbalanced sex hormones (reduced muscle mass, bone mass, sex drive and more)
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • High blood pressure
  • Increased inflammation
  • Decreased digestion, changes to bowel movements (constipation and/or diarrhea), reduced friendly gut flora, and more!

So what kind of stress are we talking about?

There are many forms of stress:

  • Emotional/psychological (worried or anxious thoughts or feelings)
  • Physical (too little or too much exercise; staying in the same posture for long periods of time–like sitting at a desk, not getting enough sleep, structural issues like damaged vertebrae, scoliosis, injury; insufficient recovery time from workouts)
  • Biochemical (lack of nutrition, overexposure to processed foods/sugar, ongoing inflammation)
  • Environmental (various pollution, exposure to metals, plastics, etc.).

Our bodies lump together all these stressors and view them as a threat… and our hormones, like cortisol, respond.

Supporting Balanced Cortisol (and a healthy body!)

Thankfully there are lots of ways to help balance your cortisol levels–and some of you will need to do more than others depending on how resilient you are to stress. Some people have many more stress inputs than others (poor diet, poor sleep, lack of social support, stressful job, long commute, lack of exercise, autoimmune or other disease, etc) and some people do more to offset their stress. The people who are going to have the easiest time balancing their cortisol are those who don’t have a lot of stress inputs, regularly engage in activities that support their stress response to balance, and those who have healthy diet and lifestyle habits.
Some of these things are out of our control (like if you were born with scoliosis, like me) while many others are within our control.
Here are some of the most powerful tools you can use to support healthy cortisol levels:

  • Self-regulate: otherwise known as mindfully shifting your thoughts and feelings. Meditation, HeartMath, biofeedback…these are all backed by lots of research. They are effective and once you learn how to do them, you can do them regularly throughout your day to reset your stress response. In 6-mo follow up studies on subjects practicing HeartMath (my favorite self-regulation tool), cortisol level improvements continued. 
  • Stay active: you need to move your body. You can pick how, when, and how much. Movement and exercise isn’t one-size-fits-all! Yes, there are recommendations (strength train 2-3x/wk, moderate aerobic exercise bw 20-30 mins/day) but there is so much customizing to make it work for your body. Choose your favorite types of movements or activities and do something every day, modifying as needed.
  • Get good sleep: set a regular bedtime that you stick to for the most part (between 10-10:30pm has extra health advantages); make sure your sleep space is quiet, free of electronics, and dark.
  • Get outside: research shows that people who spend at least 10 minutes outside (preferably in nature) had positive shifts to their cortisol levels.
  • Eat a savory breakfast with protein (this goes for lunch and dinner too!). And try to stop eating by 8pm at least on most nights.
  • Stay hydrated (with water).
  • Conscious breathing.
  • If you have structural issues, you will need to take some extra care to help with those (yoga, physical therapy, maybe chiropractic or bodywork, acupuncture).
  • Connect with people, pets, places, and things that bring you joy–laughter is a great reset to your nervous system!

This is not a complete list–there are plenty of creative endeavors like dancing, music, art, writing, crafting as well as countless hobbies which are amazing tools for managing stress/cortisol. It’s like a choose your own adventure book! Just make sure that you are including as many things as you can each day without adding more stress to your plate.

It is my passion is to work with people like you whose health symptoms–like stress, low energy, gut/digestive issues, excess weight, mood imbalance, and skin & sleep problems–are getting in the way of you living life fully and with a sense of freedom in your body. I help you to regain your health so you can feel great and free to enjoy life fully.

If you’re ready to discover where your best health has been hiding, I’d love to connect with you!

Apply for a complimentary Unstoppable Health Discovery Session. http://bit.ly/schedulinghealth (subject to availability).

Until next time, I’m wishing you unstoppable health!
~Rebecca

Fix Your Gut to Fix Your Sleep

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Getting a good night’s sleep is one of the BEST things you can do for your health. And yet, I meet people every day who are struggling with falling asleep or staying asleep.
Our bodies are complex and many factors can get in the way of good sleep.Today I will focus on the gut-sleep connection.
You’ve heard me say it before, but I’ll say it again: Your gut is at the root of your health. 



Your gut is also known as your “second brain” and is where you take all the good stuff you eat and drink and transform it into the many building blocks your body needs to make energy, think clearly, sleep well, maintain a healthy weight, build muscle, fight infections, and clear out toxins that need clearing out daily so you can thrive. 

And did you know that your gut makes more melatonin (your sleep hormone) than the pineal gland in your brain? In Shawn Stevenson’s book Sleep Smarter, he shares that the gut contains “400 times more melatonin than the pineal gland” and that your gut is a “mass of neural tissue, filled with 30 types of neurotransmitters”. Your gut is amazing!

We now know that your gut flora influences your sleep & vice versa.
When you have a healthy ratio of friendly bacteria to unfriendly bacteria, it helps you to get good quality sleep…and that things like jet lag or poor sleep habits, changes this ratio!!!
Sleep is a time where your gut bacteria have a “changing of the guard” which helps you maintain a healthy ratio of friendly vs unfriendly bacteria: if you aren’t getting the sleep you need, your gut bacteria changes and the ratio of unfriendly flora grows. And it’s a vicious circle bc those unfriendly flora can lead to overeating, poorer food choices…and sleep deprivation can also lead to overeating, poorer food choices PLUS the sleep deprivation is going to drive that microbial imbalance!

5 Takeaways For Better Sleep & Healthier Gut

There are TONS of actions that you can take to improve your sleep and gut health, so I am just going to give you a few actions that make a big impact when you do them consistently.
Make every day count: how you start your day and what you do throughout your day matters just as much as what you do right before bed.
1. Start with a protein & fiber rich breakfast like an egg or tofu scramble with veggies or Greek yogurt with nuts and berries (versus a starchy breakfast like cereal or toast).
2. Take movement breaks throughout your day and focus on deep breathing and releasing stress & worry (huge bonus to get outside as the sun is very beneficial for a healthy circadian clock!).
3. Hydrate with water or herbal teas. Start first thing in the morning and decrease fluids 1-2 hrs before bed.
4. Schedule time to exercise.
5. Lights out by 11pm at the latest (I encourage 10pm). Put away your phone 2-3 hours before going to bed and make sure your notifications are turned off before bed. 

If you aren’t already doing all of these, I strongly encourage you to start now. They are foundational for both your gut health and getting quality sleep. And yes, if you’re already doing all of these things consistently and you’re still struggling with your sleep or your gut, at least you’ll have a huge head start and we can roll up our sleeves and figure out what else might be getting in the way.
It is my passion is to work with people like you whose health symptoms–like low energy, gut/digestive issues, excess weight, mood imbalance, and skin & sleep problems–are getting in the way of you living life fully and with a sense of freedom in your body. I help you to regain your health so you can feel great and free to enjoy life fully.

If you’re ready to discover where your best health has been hiding, I’d love to connect with you!

Apply for a complimentary Unstoppable Health Discovery Session. http://bit.ly/schedulinghealth (subject to availability).

Until next time, I’m wishing you unstoppable health!
~Rebecca