Stress
Remember back in the day when doctors actually said stress did not cause harm? That diet made no difference to health? It wasn’t that long ago, I remember it. Thankfully things have changed and most health professionals will agree that stress is a major contributor to many diseases, often aggravating existing conditions, sometimes even triggering new ones.
We know quite a bit about the stress response and how it affects the human physiology, especially mineral changes. This is not new information, it has been around for quite a while. It’s just the mainstream, the regulated, the conventional systems are slow to change and accept new ideas. Very slow, sometimes it doesn’t happen. Some valuable concepts never see the light of day.
The mineral response to stress
If you physiology is strong and healthy, there are certain, predictable changes that will occur with increased stress.
- Sodium increases, rather rapidly – the body absorbs more, and releases less. This increase in sodium actually supports healthy adrenal function. As sodium rises, generally potassium rises also because it is the ratio of sodium to potassium that is important to maintain. With the rise in sodium, there is also a rise in inflammation as sodium is an acid-forming mineral.
- Sodium and potassium are potent solvents (think water softeners), and when higher levels are present in the tissues, they will begin to dissolve some compounds of calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper and other alkaline-forming reserve minerals. If the stress response continues, these alkaline-forming minerals will need to be replaced or nutritional deficiencies will result. In particular, magnesium tends to be lost with stress.
The mineral response to prolonged stress
- As nutritional deficiencies build, the body will use compatible replacements, often heavy metals to replace the missing vital minerals on binding sites. Eventually, the body cannot keep up and it starts to slow down. The sodium begins to fall and the fight/flight response weakens along with the adrenal glands.
- The alarm stage of stress is over and thus begins the exhaustion stage of stress.
- Because sodium and potassium are solvents, the amount of ionic/soluble or bio-available calcium and magnesium falls as well.
- Non-soluble calcium may start to increase in the blood, but because this is so harmful, the body will push it into the tissues. This is where we start to see calcifications, loss of calcium and magnesium from bones and teeth, and increased losses of magnesium because calcium “calcifies’ the cells, so magnesium cannot enter. Instead magnesium is lost and the cells do not work as well.
- A vicious cycle will ensue:
- Lowered energy/vitality;
- Lowered ability to remove toxins;
- increased infections;
- blood sugar, thyroid and hormonal imbalances; and
- a type of numbness/painlessness so the individual may not realize the severity of the situation.
Testing your unique physiology
In my opinion, the best way to assess how you respond to stress is a hair mineral analysis. It’s time-tested, there’s loads of research behind it and the protocols designed from the information gained using the test get results.
Hair is a tissue directly from the cells – it holds keys to what you are eliminating, how your cells are adapting to stress and what metals may be upsetting the balance. The nice things about hair is that it assess a period of time – an average, if you will, of the last three months.
So unlike blood, which has hourly fluctuations in hormones, the hair will show us absolutes for a period of time. And unlike blood, which cannot deviate from certain parameters, the hair can have high variability in its mineral make-up which betrays what is happening on the tissue level.
If you would like to see if this type of testing is right for you, feel free to schedule a virtual meet and greet.