The relationship between cortisol and estrogen - Part 4

Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), the “master stress hormone” and the Greek Chorus

By Maggie McCarey

THE GREEK CHORUS: Each of us has a Greek chorus inside our heads, every waking and sleeping moment of the day.  Unbeknownst to us, they call upon our  hypothalamus to coordinate their reaction to everything we do.  Most often they are messengers of doom.

 

THE HYPOTHALAMUS: Vanessa Bennington describes the hypothalamus in What You Don’t Know About CRH Can Kill You. She says: Our hypothalamus is the control center. It receives messages from within the body that tell it if we are indeed in stress, and then the hypothalamus coordinates the actions needed for the body to react. Our emotions, skin temperature, pain level, and electrolyte balance are all things that the hypothalamus compares to our baseline. Basically, the hypothalamus functions as the epicenter for the mind-body connection.  http://breakingmuscle.com/health-medicine/what-you-dont-know-about-crh-can-kill-you

 

Now, while we think of stress as negative, it is also positive: emotions and memories evoked at a wedding, for example, the thrill of a winning lottery ticket or receiving an unexpected compliment, a cool drink on a hot day. And, a stressful event can be contradictory like watching the Olympics, and feeling both joy and sympathy, when another country  falls behind your country’s team. Butterfly surges in the tummy are perfect happy examples of the hypothalamus at work, too.

TRANSLATED: you are what you fear; what you hate; what you sing; you are what you love; what you need; what you pray ….YOU ARE WHAT YOU BELIEVE because your emotions trigger your hypothalamus to receive all external stimuli, without judgement,  and then to send it on to the appropriate department, like your tear ducts to make water, the vocal chords to sing or scream, the hands to clinch, or the feet to run.

HOW THE GREEK CHORUS CAME TO BE:  They are the sum total of our reactions to everything we have ever encountered outside our bodies perfect, as well as our genetics. If  what you felt at any given moment, was only one or even a dozen emotions, life would be grand, but that is not how we live, particularly in this age with the world, good and evil, at our finger tips. We have layers of complexity coming at us all of the time: commutes in insane traffic, our workload, a multitude of relationships to maintain, technology to learn, 15 hour a day schedules multiplied by the number of family members we have, financial burdens, climate change, sickness, childhood trauma, fear of flying, dating, divorce, boredom, rain, drought, no food in the fridge, tires to buy, fear of death, and desire for salvation, all heading to the hypothalamus (clearing house) at the same time.  As a result of selectivity, some members of the chorus dominate; others are silent. There’s just not enough time in a day to cope with all of it.

 

CHRONIC STRESS and CORTICOTROPIN-RELEASING HORMONE (CRH):  Corticotropin-releasing hormone is also called the “master stress” hormone.  It is released by the hypothalamus in response to stressful stimulation. Do you see where this goes?  Again quoting Bennington: CRH functions as both a hormone and a neurotransmitter. CRH’s role as a hormone is to stimulate the anterior pituitary glad to release adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH). ACTH then reaches the adrenal cortex in the adrenal gland, which causes the synthesis of cortisol as well as several other hormones. So, when a stressful situation occurs, CRH goes up and eventually stimulates more cortisol production.” http://breakingmuscle.com/health-medicine/what-you-dont-know-about-crh-can-kill-you 

 

If you are chronically stressed you will also be chronically over-stimulated and you will make high levels of cortisol  so that daily living will trigger and affect your body perfect like a wrecking ball coming at you.  Bennington says:  “Chronically increased cortisol levels …can lead to all sorts of issues like the redistribution of fat from the thighs and buttocks to the abdomen and upper back, insulin resistance, fluid retention, high blood pressure, decreased immune function, muscle and connective tissue wasting (joint pain, anyone?), and inhibited peptide and hormone production. Absolutely 0% of that is good for health or fitness.”

Chronic Stress?  That’s the full Greek Chorus singing Mozart’s Requiem on a loop day after day.

If you read the first three blogs on cortisol and estrogen, you may have just raised your cortisol a little….but there is more.

UNTIL WE BECOME AWAKE ENOUGH TO TRUST OUR HIGHER SELVES AND THEIR INNATE ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE WITH OUR BODIES PERFECT, WE WILL NOT ACHIEVE PEACE WITHIN. NEITHER WILL WE ACHIEVE DETENTE  WITH OUR FAT AND SELF-LOATHING ILLUSIONS.  CHRONIC STRESS WILL CONTROL OUR LIVES UNTIL WE CAN HEAR  THE GREEK CHORUS’ KEENING FOR ITS LOST MOTHER AND RETURN TO SELF AS ONE WHO IS STRONG AND WISE.

We have to become good parents to our bodies, break through their pain in order to parley with lipedema. Our bodies do talk to us and they will cooperate with us when we are calm. They only want to be loved as they are.

Ditching the stress

By Tatjana van der Krabben

I used to focus on every little change the lipedema made on my body. I mourned what was lost. I mourned once more when I realized some things were lost forever. Through liposuction AND lifestyle changes I reached significant improvement, but I still have lipedema. Very much so. The children kept me extremely aware of my being different: Mommy can’t do this, mommy can’t do that, if I do that I hurt mommy. I considered a change of career, but couldn’t see how I could face the challenging course work  and then the work itself. Simple things like travel, long hours, much walking. Despite my significant progress I still felt limited and a little frustrated. And I still retained water regularly.

Little by little things changed. No matter how sweet the kids were in their efforts to help me, their response was prompted by the signals I gave them. I didn’t want them to treat me like an invalid. Because I’m not. Or worse: a victim. Yikes. It was up to me to make the change. For them I made the effort to point out what I could do and drop the fat vs skinny issue. I never, ever mentioned anything about being fat again. Mommy doesn’t eat certain things, or rarely does, because it’s bad for my legs. Period. Mommy gained a cool factor taking them in fast moving and spinning rides and became the dare devil who swims with sharks. The kids need a role model, not someone to pity.

Little by little this became the standard. My life became less and less about lipedema. I stopped measuring my waist daily. I went from stepping on the scales three, four times a day to once a week or so. When I heard about Ketogenic eating, I got tempted, but left it, because that required counting carbs. I don’t count ANYTHING anymore when it comes to food. No calories, no carbs, no scoops, grams, spoons, nor will I follow a fixed food plan. I learned that food restrictions act like a stressor for me and I’m staying away from that, because stress gives me cravings. I focus on healthy choices, although not exclusively, enjoy what I eat and only eat when hungry.

My last hurdle was my career. I loved to write, yet I felt that it was a choice I made for lack of options. It took me a while to realize, but all the other ideas for career choices I have dropped not just because it would be too challenging. Truthfully, I didn’t want it bad enough. Because if I did, I would go the extra mile and it wouldn’t feel like going the extra mile. I love to write. Long hours rarely bother me. Exactly because it doesn’t feel like pushing myself. It took me a while to see that. It dawned on me when working on a novel at night on top of everything else. I didn’t waste any more time and started my own business as a professional writer and translator.

Sometimes there’s a new challenge. Peri-menopause came knocking on my door frightfully early. I got hideous carb cravings and gained a little over the last few months. A first since liposuction. That stings, I can tell you that. After going through 4 surgeries and the cost involved, gaining is frightfully frustrating. I had hoped to have a few more years without this fuss. For a while I got fussy with the scales and tape measure again, but I’m regrouping. The stress is fading again and so is the pain in my legs. Even when I don't eat perfectly. To me that’s no coincidence. It’s sometimes difficult to step away from stress, but it’s definitely worth the extra trouble to try and break free of it.