Vibrant Sexy Strong

Go here to like and comment: http://bit.ly/WBkddo

Hey Y’all!

Posts have been sparse for some very exciting reasons, the best one being that I’m working with clients.

Eeeee!

If you are a long-time reader, you know my life today is completely different than three years ago. If you are a newer reader, let me assure you, my life kinda sucked before I got healthy. While I tried to have a good attitude, the horrible health issues and potential debilitating diseases associated with PCOS constantly goaded me into self-loathing.

Not anymore. I started with Paleo and I’ve done some additional therapies to get me to a place where I not only love myself, but I love my life as well.

My Readers Are So So Awesome

The countless emails I receive from you inspired me that I can’t keep this life energy to myself. You share your pain with me and it brings me back to that hopeless place I used to be in. And it doesn’t have to be that way. We can heal. We will heal.

So I started a business—named Vibrant Sexy Strong of course—to help people do just that.

A Little Help…Pretty Please?

Now…I have a small request from you. There is a lot to this online marketing stuff that I don’t know. I love to write on this blog and I also love to work with clients, but I must admit, it is a challenge doing both (especially while raising my Littles). I know it is possible, but I just don’t know how.

This is where you come in.

I entered a contest to win one of Marie Forleo’s B-school scholarships (for online marketing). It’s a YouTube video that makes me feel quite a bit more vulnerable than I care to admit. But I want this for myself, my family, my clients, and my readers. So I took a deep breath and recorded a small portion of my PCOS experience.

.@marieforleo needs @JenniferHuntVSS to #winBSCHOOL so more women can be Vibrant Sexy and Strong http://bit.ly/WBkddo

Image by rachellynnae

The first Sunday of each month at my church is dedicated to a 24-hour fast without food and water. Before I knew about PCOS, these days were dreadful. After three hours, I couldn’t concentrate because I was too dizzy. After seven hours, someone sitting next to me would notice the shaking. After ten hours, I was begging for night to fall so I could just sleep the remaining 14 hours. I was lightheaded, I couldn’t drive because I was so unsteady, and I couldn’t stay asleep.

I assumed this meant I was weak. There are millions of people in my church worldwide who fast on the same day. They could do it. Why not me?

When Cortisol Is Too Low

One of my doctors decided to run cortisol labs (four-part saliva, not urine). My cortisol output was L-O-W.

After reading last post on what happens when cortisol is too high, you may be thinking that you would prefer low cortisol to increased cravings and poor sleep. Not so fast. Among other things, shakiness and lightheadedness may enter the equation.

Hypoglycemia and Low Cortisol

Hypoglycemia occurs when your blood sugar is too low. Many people develop hypoglycemia when their blood sugar is used too quickly, when there is too much insulin circulating in the blood, or when blood sugar is released too slowly into the blood stream. But what is the root cause of these malfunctions?

One of cortisol’s jobs is to raise blood sugar. When you don’t have enough blood sugar but cortisol is too low to produce an adequate amount, the body responds by releasing adrenalin instead.

One of adrenalin’s many jobs is to raise blood sugar quickly. When blood sugar is raised, more insulin is secreted. Insulin’s job is to lower blood sugar.

Once insulin does its job, adrenalin kicks back in to raise the blood sugar back up. The constant dance between adrenalin and insulin keeps you on a terrible roller coaster of blood sugar fluctuations.

In the meantime, your brain needs blood sugar to function properly. Raising and lowering blood sugar at this inconsistent rate leads to shakiness and lightheadedness. There are additional factors to consider when dealing with hypoglycemia, but low cortisol (and the subsequent cortisol dysregulation) is routinely ignored as a major contributor.

Additional Symptoms of Low Cortisol

Low cortisol comes with symptoms in addition to hypoglycemia and often occurs after you’ve had a period of high cortisol. The adrenal glands can no longer keep up with the demands being placed upon them for increasing amounts of cortisol, so they start to slow down. Stress levels are still the same (high!), but your cortisol doesn’t match up. This imbalance can lead to:

• Sugar cravings and the need to eat often
• Seasonal Affective Disorder, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Fibromyalgia
• Feelings of depression or overwhelming stress
• More allergy symptoms and chemical sensitivities
• More infections
• Low blood pressure
• Cold body temperatures

Low Cortisol is No Bueno

Low cortisol is not comfortable. It can be miserable and can lead to greater malfunctions in the body.  In future posts, we will talk about the role of low cortisol in adrenal fatigue and how that relates to other disorders such as PCOS.

We like cortisol because it can do good things for our bodies when in the appropriate amounts for our body. When we are under stress, cortisol is higher and does things that seem desirable to have all the time—such as speeding up metabolism. However, maintaining elevated cortisol for an extended period of time weakens the body. The body was not designed to sustain large amounts of cortisol for long periods of time.

The First Phase of Elevated Cortisol

In the beginning, you may feel fabulous. You are under stress and the cortisol pulsing through your body makes you feel superhuman. And in fact, you kind of are. Cortisol enhances adrenalin, which can make you stronger and more energetic in the short run.

As Time Goes On

When cortisol is elevated for longer periods of time, you begin to lose your superhuman abilities. As those good feelings subside, they are replaced with symptoms—and lots of them. Some of these symptoms can include

• Increased appetite and cravings
• Weight gain in the waist
• Increased risk for gut infections and bacterial overgrowth
• Sleep disturbances
• Increased risk for illness
• Bone loss
• Depressed moods
• Less will power
• Lowered memory capacity
• Loss of muscle mass
• Low libido
• Low energy
• Low muscle tone
• Hypothyroidism

After researching PCOS for so long, symptom lists like this sometimes make me say, “Yeah, yeah. Tell me something I didn’t know. Everything leads to these symptoms.”

In a way, that’s true. Our bodies have limited ways of telling us there is a problem. Small babies can only cry to let us know they are hungry, tired, sad, bored, uncomfortable, or dirty. Our bodies are held to similar limitations.

Let’s look at what is underneath some of these symptoms in order to understand how too much cortisol is making you tired and forgetful.

Why Elevated Cortisol Makes Me Feel Bad

Increased appetite and cravings. Cortisol increases your blood sugar. When your blood sugar goes up, your insulin goes up. Insulin helps lower your blood sugar. When your blood sugar gets low, your body calls for food. Cravings often play a role here because your body is asking for quick energy. You give your body quick energy (all while cortisol is increasing blood sugar) and get another dose of insulin. Rinse and repeat.

Loss of muscle mass. As mentioned above, cortisol raises blood sugar. Your body will begin to eat up muscle mass in order to create that blood sugar to handle the stresses being put upon it.

Sleep disturbances. High cortisol lowers melatonin, which helps you sleep at night. High cortisol also keeps you awake. Not a lot of good, solid sleep happening here.

Weight gain in the waist. This is not an “I indulged too much over the holidays” kind of fat. It is an inflammatory, hormonal kind of fat. The increased insulin in your body from the blood sugar fluctuations discussed above increases something called interleukin 6. Interleukin 6 creates a lot of inflammation in the body. It happens all over, but can concentrate in the waist.

Increased risk for gut infections and bacterial overgrowth. High cortisol suppresses secretory IgA. Secretory IgA is abundant in your intestines (gut) and is the barbed wire for the cells—keeping all the nasty stuff out. With high cortisol weakening the barbed wire, your gut is at greater risk for gut infections and bacterial overgrowth.

Lower moods, will power, and memory capacity. When the brain is overwhelmed with too much cortisol, frontal lobe capacity is lowered (mood and will power) and the hippocampus does not function properly (memory loss).

Low libido, low energy, and low muscle tone. High cortisol often requires the hormone pregnenelone to reduce its production of sex hormones in favor of producing more cortisol. A decrease in sex hormones means your sex drive is down, your energy is down, and your muscle tone is down.

Increased risk for illness. With high cortisol comes an imbalance in the immune system (TH2 is too high, TH1 is too low). In addition, studies have shown that bodies heal during appropriate nighttime sleep. Immune system imbalances coupled with sleep disturbances increases risk for illness.

Hypothyroidism. Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) is lowered when there is too much cortisol in the system. Low TSH blocks the conversion of T4 to T3, leading to hypothyroidism. It is possible that a diagnosis of hypothyroidism could be a secondary issue if the cause is high cortisol.

Elevated Cortisol is No Bueno

After an initial feel-good period, high cortisol can harm your body in several different ways, ranging from hypothyroidism to gut infections. In the next post, we will talk about how low cortisol is not exciting either—and often occurs after a period of having high cortisol.

I am a contributing writer at Modern Alternative Mama and Modern Alternative Health. Each Monday, their sister site Modern Alternative Kitchen puts out a Meal Plan Monday link-up.

I’ve never participated for two reasons: 1) My meal planning is woefully unplanned and 2) My food choices are similar to most of the readers there, but the no grains/no beans/no dairy is where we differ.

However, site creator Kate Tietje put out a call to action to her contributing writers to include any meal plans or recipes for all of the new Real Foodies looking to figure out how to eat for their New Year’s Resolutions. So if you are visiting from MAK, welcome! And if you’re an oldie-but-goodie, I’m still glad you’re here.

Food Rules

We are a mostly Paleo family, which is essentially meat, veggies, some fruit, and healthy fats (read more specifics in my Paleo Pitch). We initially embarked on this journey because it cured my PCOS and continued because of the reasons outlined in the Forcing the Family to Eat Kale series. It’s still the same now as it was two years ago for me, my husband, and my son. My parents aren’t Paleo anymore, my daughter has some stricter guidelines because of her intestinal inflammation, and we eat a little bit of rice (helps me sleep better).

I don’t have a meal plan (see reason 1 above), but here is what we ate the past four days, keeping in mind we use leftovers like they are the last morsels of food on Earth and vary our choices about every four days once we need to go shopping again. If not specified, everything is cooked in coconut or olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Friday

• Breakfast: Creamed kale (coconut milk + coconut oil + salt + pepper), leftover chicken, banana pancakes (1 banana + 2 eggs + cinnamon)
• Lunch: Kobe burgers, raw sauerkraut, roasted parsnips, raw kale
• Dinner: Sweet Potato Chicken Sandwiches (shredded chicken, baked sweet potato chips as the bun), sauteed celery, grapes

Saturday

• Breakfast: Fried eggs and potatoes
• Lunch: Pan-fried steak, raw sauerkraut, sauteed green beans
• Dinner: Mini meatballs (it’s a new food to the kiddos when they are mini), sauteed zucchini, rice

Sunday

• Breakfast: Eggs and kale
• Lunch: Homemade beef jerky, grapes, leftovers
• Dinner: Pumpkin pancakes (our Sunday tradition), Hawaiian Mini Meatballs, Pineapple

Monday

• Breakfast: Pan-fried tuna (coconut aminos + salt + pepper), raw sauerkraut
• Lunch: Cajun chicken, sauteed green beans, potatoes
• Dinner: Grilled steak, roasted cauliflower, celery, potatoes

What’s on your meal plan this week?

Image by stockerre

This year has been a growing year for me in terms of health and wellness. I overcame a lot of my binge eating issues, my daughter’s intestinal inflammation is healing, and I started consulting with clients about how to better take care of their bodies (by examining lab results).

Considering what I have conquered in my personal life, I wanted to see what resonated most with my readers. Here are the Top 7 posts, receiving more traffic than the rest.

Hirsutism: The Big Hairy Truth. Outlines hirsutism, includes a chart on varying degrees of hairiness, and I share my own personal experience with it.

A Primer on Macronutrients. My first Science Made Simple post still gets a lot of traffic from people trying to figure out what the heck protein, carbs, and fat are…and which ones to eat.

7 MovNat Lessons from an Uncoordinated Stay at Home Mom. MovNat opened my eyes to how I could like physical activity, how I am a powerful woman, and how to better trust my children’s physical abilities.

Paleo: A Nutrient-Dense Eating Disorder?. My struggle with using healthy food in an unhealthy, manipulative way.

Meet the Cast: Food Personalities. A follow-up to the eating disorder post, highlighting all the strange roles I assigned to food that have nothing to do with nourishment. Re-reading, I am sure happy those dark days are over.

Paleo Mistakes 101: Cheat Meals. People Paleofy a lot of foods and claim they taste the same. They don’t. Don’t be fooled.

Mat Lalonde Humbles a Crowd in 48 Minutes. A summary of Mat Lalonde’s AHS11 talk. I don’t agree with everything I wrote here anymore (mostly the tone) and hesitated to include it…but it made the top 7 and I’m nothing if I’m not honest.

Bonus: Most popular Link-up: Paleo PCOS Success Story featuring Danielle who showed PCOS who’s boss.

I’d never heard much about adrenal fatigue until last year (for an explanation, catch my guest post A Primer on Adrenal Fatigue over at Modern Alternative Health). Once I learned about it, I couldn’t get enough. It was like my entire life was being read back to me in terms of my symptoms. Not just PCOS, but everything leading up to PCOS.

A few examples.

Case 1. High School.

In high school, I was constantly tired. I was simultaneously voted “Best Sight Reader” in choir and “Most Likely to Fall Asleep During Rehearsal” (thank goodness I could sight read!). I was starving and dizzy by second period and couldn’t wait for lunch, so I stashed a Slim-Fast in my bag and drank it in between classes. I had constant sinus infections, lost my voice from illness once a month, and received weekly allergy shots.

Case 2. College.

In college, I was a woman of all trades. I was an officer in every club, went out every night, took a million credits, and generally lived a go-go-go lifestyle. I even got married in college and planned a wedding in 2.5 months. Shortly after our wedding, I contracted mono and was out for the count for a few months. When I finally started to emerge from my exhaustion, I relapsed and had a few more months of laying on the couch and trying to make arrangements with my professors for classwork. And during a trip to London, I had to lay down in the middle of Kensington Gardens to take a nap. My allergies were so bad from some beautiful white flower in the air and I couldn’t walk another step.

Case 3. Post-baby.

My second pregnancy was wrought with stress. We lost our health insurance and couldn’t get our family covered, there was a problem with our taxes and our employer, my son’s autism symptoms weren’t getting any better, I was gaining too much weight with my PCOS, and the deaf elderly woman with dementia we cared for started wandering at night.

My baby was born sans drugs, but I was completely exhausted. We brought her home and quite instantly, she proved to be louder and more colicky than my first (who we were told was one of the most colicky babies in existence). Worse, she couldn’t be comforted and I was up for nights at time.

Then my son had a febrile seizure and I thought he died. Once he was in the clear, I had three days of panic attacks. Then we moved to a home 45 minutes away from my best friend and support system, where I cried for a month straight. Then I found out I was allergic to eggs, which was the only fast protein source I liked and thought I could tolerate. Then we moved again. And then my husband quit his job and we sold everything we owned to move across the country with no job prospects. My baby just turned one at this point.

My baby was still up all night and I was nursing 4-7 times each evening, getting an average of 4 hours of interrupted sleep each night. She still refused to be comforted by my husband. Even more, despite eating well, her eczema was worsening, her diarrhea was worsening, her constipation was worsening, her crying was worsening, her facial rashes were worsening, her psoriasis was worsening, her stomach pains were worsening… Oh yes, and my son’s autism symptoms were also worsening.

During this time I found Paleo which alleviated a ton. But all in all, not the easiest two years of my life. I blamed it on postpartum depression.

Adrenal Fatigue

Despite going to several doctors, I had no answers. I wasn’t doing anything particularly out of the ordinary for most people my age. We all abused our bodies in high school and college (and I would even suggest I abused mine less with a strict no alcohol/drugs/caffeine/sex-before-marriage policy).

Now looking back, it is so clear. I was exhausted. For years upon years. My body was screaming, “Rest me!” and I was answering with less sleep and more activity. Those two years after my second child was born were particularly hard, but since the 12 years leading up to them were also particularly hard, something had to give. Turns out it was my body.

Currently I’m taking steps to revive myself. Paleo is good and helpful, but my body needs a little more and I’m happy to be doing it. More sleep, different supplements, lots of stress reduction. Looks like 2013 is going to be a great year.

In order to understand the critical role of cortisol (the stress hormone), a basic primer on stress is necessary. In light of that, I am postponing “What Happens When Your Cortisol is High” until next week.

I’m starting to crack

Image by Nina Matthews Photography

Whenever I would think of the word stress, it only meant stressed out. In my mind, stress was restricted to feelings of anxiety because of too much to do at work, school, home, and the like.

Upon learning about adrenal fatigue and other health-related topics however, it became very clear that not only is stress a root cause to several ailments and diseases, but it is far more comprehensive than too many items on a to-do list.

Types of Stress

Stress takes many forms, which I typically split up into three categories: mind, body, and soul.

Mind

Mental and emotional stressors are generally what most people think of in terms of stress. These include:

• Long work hours and mental fatigue
• Worry, fear, and anxiety
• Anger and sadness
• Guilt and loneliness

Body

Stressors on the body are also important to consider and can be evident or hidden. Some of the most common evident stressors include:

• Drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine
• Injury, illness, and surgery
• Sleep deprivation
• Intense physical activities
• Environmental pollutants

Hidden body stressors include:

• Food allergies and sensitivities
• Nutrient and mineral deficiencies
• Chemical sensitivities
• Infections, parasites, and bacterial overgrowth

Soul

The soul or spiritual elements of a person also are not ignored when considering stress. Examples include:

• Poor relationships
• Unhappiness
• Financial pressures
• Spiritual misalignment

Stress As It Relates to Cortisol

Cortisol is not finicky, so when there is any form of stress, cortisol is released. Cortisol does not distinguish the life-threatening stress of a car careening toward you from the non-life-threatening stress of an argument with your mother-in-law. Stress is stress. In any of the above stressful situations, cortisol is released as a survival mechanism.

Eliminating and reducing the amounts of stress within your control becomes an essential component of health. For instance, you may not be able to do much about the lack of sleep you get with a colicky infant, but you do have the ability to reduce high-intensity exercise if it is doing more harm than good.

As the cortisol series wraps up, the effect of these stressors will be discussed, along with suggestions for stress reduction to aid in building and maintaining health.

This is part of an ongoing Science Made Simple series that aims to make the tough science a little more palatable. To view all posts, click here.

Image by Aristocrats-hat

In the last post, the basic properties of cortisol were covered. In the proper amounts, cortisol can do fantastic things for our bodies. Cortisol is known to:

• Act as an anti-inflammatory and painkiller
• Enhance epinephrine
• Raise blood sugar
• Suppress the immune system
• Speed up metabolism
• Slow down digestion

This is good.

Some of these properties are appealing while others may seem undesirable. However, in a survival situation (which is how our bodies perceive any form of stress), we need all of these reactions.

In times of stress, our body goes into fight or flight mode. Whether we are running away from danger or going into combat, we need energy and lots of it.

Imagine for a moment.

Right now your body is using energy for the following things:

• Healing a bug bite on your arm (anti-inflammatory)
• Fighting a cold (immune system)
• Digesting your last meal (digestion)

A hungry lion appears. You run as if your life depends on it, because incidentally, your life does in fact depend on it. In this moment, your body has one job: Get outta here!

Your body produces cortisol to respond to the imminent danger of being eaten or mauled. You are no longer healing that bug bite, fighting off your sinus infection, or digesting your last meal. But preserving energy isn’t enough. You need more. >Your body obtains additional energy (requested by cortisol) in the form of:

• Longer-lasting adrenalin in the instance you may need to sprint for a long time (enhanced epinephrine)
• Burning more fat, protein, and carbohydrates for increased energy (metabolism)
• Extra glucose excreted by the liver (raised blood sugar)

On top of that, you slammed your leg into a tree stump. You don’t feel it because of the painkilling properties of cortisol. There’s no time to limp if you are going to survive, and cortisol wants you to survive.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Nature never intended we run from lions for years at a time. That is a short-lived experience (acute stress) and the excess amounts of cortisol are appropriate for that situation.

On Wednesday, we will explore that happens when chronic stress causes an excessive amount of cortisol to circulate for a lengthy period of time.

—

You can find a list of all published posts in the cortisol series here

This is part of an ongoing Science Made Simple series that aims to make the tough science a little more palatable. To view all posts, click here.

When I was sifting through practitioners in my search for a PCOS cure, hormones came up a lot. My reproductive endocrinologist threw out the word several times, as did my OB/GYNs, primary care physician, PCOS specialist, and nutritionist.

In these consultations, cortisol was repeatedly mentioned. I didn’t know what cortisol was and wasn’t that interested. I was entirely too stressed about infertility and my barren uterus to worry about yet another dysfunction in my body.

I also had no idea how relevant cortisol is to the discussion of PCOS, other diseases, and everyday ailments. Unbeknownst to me, common symptoms (not just PCOS symptoms) can be traced to inappropriate amounts of cortisol.

To clear up the cortisol confusion, I’m doing a brief mini-series covering the following:

• Cortisol basics
• Why we like cortisol
• What happens when cortisol is too high
• What happens when cortisol is too low
• How cortisol relates to adrenal dysfunction/adrenal fatigue

Cortisol Basics

Today we answer the following questions:

• What is a hormone?
• What is cortisol?
• How does cortisol relate to stress?
• What is a typical cortisol pattern throughout the day?

Let’s get started, shall we?

What is a hormone?

A hormone is a chemical that sends out messages to other parts of the body. In other words, a  hormone is a messenger.

What is cortisol?

Cortisol is a hormone (a messenger). It gives messages to different parts of the body.

Cortisol is produced in the adrenal cortex. Cor – tex. Cor – tisol. The adrenal cortex is part of a little gland that sits on top of your kidneys.

How Does Cortisol Relate to Stress?

Cortisol is also known as the stress hormone. Our bodies make cortisol when we experience any kind of stress.

What is a typical cortisol pattern?

Cortisol follows a diurnal pattern (the opposite of nocturnal). Cortisol is highest in the morning to help us get up and moving for the day. It is lowest at night after you’ve fallen asleep so you can stay asleep.

Cortisol follows this pattern everyday.

Wrap-Up

To review, the basics of cortisol are as follows:

• Cortisol is a hormone
• Cortisol is our body’s response to stress
• Cortisol is elevated in the morning
• Cortisol is low at night

On Friday, we cover why cortisol is good for the body in appropriate amounts. Unless the Mayans were right about the Apocalypse. In that case, cortisol won’t matter that much.

UPDATE: The Mayans were mistaken, so cortisol is still important. You can find out why we like it here.

My doctor is awesome. This is my daughter’s prescription for grass-finished beef; pastured chickens, pork, and eggs; wild-caught seafood; and organic and local vegetables and fruit. All in the name of intestinal health.

Of the 8,000 doctors I visited about PCOS,  only one ever mentioned nutrition. It was my OB during my 5th month of pregnancy and his exact words were:

“Geez, you are gaining too much weight. You need to go on a diet, any diet–South Beach, Weight Watchers, I don’t care. Just stop gaining so much. Research shows your baby has increased odds of being obese if you gain too much during your pregnancy.”

As a woman with PCOS, I found this insulting. Out of frustration I burst out, “And how do you suggest I do that?!” Weight loss wasn’t something I simply hadn’t thought of. It was just impossible to lose weight (or stop gaining for that matter).

I didn’t know about Real Food just yet. I didn’t even know how to cook, so I suspect Paleo would have been too overwhelming to consider.

Nevertheless, Real Food is quite possibly the prescription so many people are looking for. There are limitations, to be sure, but there is often a nutrition solution for many common ailments.

I have needed a handful of other therapies to improve my overall health, but nutrition has been the most enduring treatment, bar none. I’m optimistic that we’ll be seeing more prescriptions like my daughter’s in the future.