The weight of stress

When we’re stressed, we produce a hormone called cortisol and its job is to make us store fat. This may sound like insanity, but it all stems from prehistoric times when this hormone kept us safe during ‘stressful’ times like famine. PHOTO | FILE 

In Summary

• When we’re stressed, we produce a hormone called cortisol and its job is to make us store fat. This may sound like insanity, but it all stems from prehistoric times when this hormone kept us safe during ‘stressful’ times like famine.
• You might be eating when stressed, bottling up anger when it deserves to be released, or even engaging in destructive relationships (friendships or otherwise). All these things can take their toll.

By SONA PARMAR MUKHERJEE
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Gillian was 36 years old and pretty desperate to lose weight. At her last weigh-in, she was 105 kilos. When I saw Gillian, we quickly established that her thyroid wasn’t the issue. An underactive thyroid can often be responsible for weight that doesn’t shift. I also realised that she wasn’t eating that badly.

There were plenty of colourful vegetables, lean meat, brown rice and even 8 glasses of water (lack of hydrating fluids can also cause weight gain – more on this next week).

So why couldn’t she lose weight? The short answer, is stress.  When we’re stressed, we produce a hormone called cortisol and its job is to make us store fat. This may sound like insanity, but it all stems from prehistoric times when this hormone kept us safe during ‘stressful’ times like famine.

STRESS HORMONE

So what was Gillian doing that was pushing her body into stress mode? First was her job.

Yes, it was demanding, but she simply wasn’t able to deal with the stress of it all. She’d had two miscarriages in the last few years and coupled with those, she wasn’t at a very good place emotionally.

As I’ve seen with many of my patients, sometimes it takes an outsider to point out the damaging lifestyle practices that you might have adopted after a crisis. You might be eating when stressed, bottling up anger when it deserves to be released, or even engaging in destructive relationships (friendships or otherwise). All these things can take their toll.

Gillian was also drinking a fair amount of tea and coffee. The caffeine in these not only further increases cortisol levels, but it also boosted the amount of adrenalin in the blood. Adrenalin is another stress hormone and pretty much puts her body in a situation of high alert. 

Yes, this will make her thinking more focused and black and white (there is no grey abstract areas when it comes to survival), but in the long-term parts of her body will wear out faster and she will be carrying more weight.

In just one month, Gillian was sleeping better, her hormones were healthier, her skin glowed and she was feeling altogether happier. Eight weeks on, she’s already lost five kilos and counting.