What stress and gas have in common

Are you struggling with symptoms like bloating and gas? Low energy? Extra pounds that just won’t seem to go away?

Ugh, these symptoms are awful and yet SO common. Nearly every client that I’ve ever worked with in the last 16 years has had at least one of them.

Today, I want to share with you some insider information on a little hormone called CRH that may just be the reason you continue to experience symptoms. I’ll also share 3 tools to help you rebalance this hormone and start feeling better.

CRH, corticotropin-releasing hormone, is the hormonal precursor to cortisol~our primary stress hormone.

CRH does a lot of important things in your body and I want to be clear that neither CRH or cortisol are the bad guy. However, when you encounter stress often, as many of us do, and you don’t have tools to minimize your stress on the regular, that’s when your health goes downhill and you start to see and feel symptoms.

2 big ways that CRH cause weight imbalance and gut issues

1. CRH lowers your stomach acid HCL. You need to have healthy levels of HCL in your stomach so that you can properly digest your food to make energy and think clearly. It’s also a really important part of your immune system and kills bacteria, viruses, and pathogens that you come in contact with through food, water and life. If you don’t have enough HCL and you get an infection, this can cause symptoms like gas, bloating, low energy, and excess body fat.
2. Imbalanced CRH decreases growth hormone, considered by many to be the “fountain of youth hormone”. Among many things, growth hormone helps us maintain healthy muscle to fat ratio and have more energy.

Best advice?

You aren’t immune to stress. None of us are. Your body gets stressed from all kinds of things: poor diet, not drinking enough water, lack of or too much movement, job stress, relationship stress, financial stress, feeling overwhelmed…the list goes on and on! And I want to be clear that there’s no such thing as life without stress. We need some challenges in order to get stronger and not die of boredom, but if you are having symptoms, your body is telling you that things have gotten out of hand. You can act now, or wait until it gets a lot worse, but it won’t just improve on its own.

3 tools to help you rebalance

1. Take reset breaks often throughout your day. A reset break can be as simple as a few deep breaths or something like Pleasure Meditation (a 1-3 minute joyful stress reduction practice).
2. Get a good night’s sleep. Aim to get to bed by 11pm (earlier if you have to be up earlier in the morning). Research shows that 7-8 hrs of sleep each night does wonders for your mind, body and gut and that we need a minimum of 7 hours per night to sustain health.
3. Customize your diet. Eating the foods that work best for you is a key part of reducing weight, gas and low energy. Start a food journal so you can begin to notice the foods that work best for your body or even better, get in touch with me to test for your optimal diet.

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

~Rebecca