How Stress & Anxiety Affect Fertility - It's Called the Pregnenolone Steal
So how does stress and anxiety negatively affect hormones and fertility? I'm sure you've noticed that during stressful times, a women's period can become irregular or PMS can get much worse. And severe stress and anxiety can suppress ovulation. Learn more about the Pregnenolone Steal to understand how stress and anxiety can affect the reproductive system.
Pregnonolone is the basic building block that all steroid hormones such as progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, DHEA and others are derived from. It is also the source of a stress hormone called cortisol. And so pregnenolone is pretty important for fertility and managing the stress response!
So imagine that you have $100 in the pregnenolone piggy bank. Because the body needs to balance life stressors and hormones, it devotes $50 to cortisol (your "stress" hormone) and $50 to DHEA, which converts to your sex hormones of testosterone and estrogen. Now imagine that you become more anxious due finances, job pressures, etc and your cortisol "stress" hormone now needs $75; now we only have $25 left for our sex hormones. And this is how anxiety and stress can rob our body of our vital sex hormones.
The more stress that we are under, the greater the demand for cortisol and other stress hormones. This leaves less in the pregnenolone piggy bank to devote resources to our sex hormones. And it's actually worse in real life!
That's because the precursor to pregnenolone is cholesterol. And under additional stress and anxiety, we decrease secretion of digestive enzymes, which leads to less dietary cholesterol absorption. This causes our pregnenolone piggy bank to have less than $100!
Acupuncture can help reverse the pregnenolone steal by moderating our stress response and reducing anxiety. As we feel less stress and increase relaxation, our demand for cortisol goes down. And that leaves more pregnenolone to convert to estrogen. How does acupuncture relax you? Acupuncture stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system which is the relaxation part of the autonomic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system is jokingly called the "feed and breed" and "rest and relax" portion of our nervous system.
It can also help increase the pregnenolone piggy bank by aiding the secretion of bile into our digestive tract. This allows the absorption of more dietary cholesterol, and hence more pregnenolone. If you'd like to learn more about how acupuncture can improve fertility, reduce stress and anxiety, please call (615) 260-6944 or book an acupuncture appointment.
Serving Franklin, Brentwood, Thompson's Station, Spring Hill, Columbia, Nashville and Murfreesboro Tennessee.
So how does stress and anxiety negatively affect hormones and fertility? I'm sure you've noticed that during stressful times, a women's period can become irregular or PMS can get much worse. And severe stress and anxiety can suppress ovulation. Learn more about the Pregnenolone Steal to understand how stress and anxiety can affect the reproductive system.
Pregnonolone is the basic building block that all steroid hormones such as progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, DHEA and others are derived from. It is also the source of a stress hormone called cortisol. And so pregnenolone is pretty important for fertility and managing the stress response!
So imagine that you have $100 in the pregnenolone piggy bank. Because the body needs to balance life stressors and hormones, it devotes $50 to cortisol (your "stress" hormone) and $50 to DHEA, which converts to your sex hormones of testosterone and estrogen. Now imagine that you become more anxious due finances, job pressures, etc and your cortisol "stress" hormone now needs $75; now we only have $25 left for our sex hormones. And this is how anxiety and stress can rob our body of our vital sex hormones.
The more stress that we are under, the greater the demand for cortisol and other stress hormones. This leaves less in the pregnenolone piggy bank to devote resources to our sex hormones. And it's actually worse in real life!
That's because the precursor to pregnenolone is cholesterol. And under additional stress and anxiety, we decrease secretion of digestive enzymes, which leads to less dietary cholesterol absorption. This causes our pregnenolone piggy bank to have less than $100!
Acupuncture can help reverse the pregnenolone steal by moderating our stress response and reducing anxiety. As we feel less stress and increase relaxation, our demand for cortisol goes down. And that leaves more pregnenolone to convert to estrogen. How does acupuncture relax you? Acupuncture stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system which is the relaxation part of the autonomic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system is jokingly called the "feed and breed" and "rest and relax" portion of our nervous system.
It can also help increase the pregnenolone piggy bank by aiding the secretion of bile into our digestive tract. This allows the absorption of more dietary cholesterol, and hence more pregnenolone. If you'd like to learn more about how acupuncture can improve fertility, reduce stress and anxiety, please call (615) 260-6944 or book an acupuncture appointment.
Serving Franklin, Brentwood, Thompson's Station, Spring Hill, Columbia, Nashville and Murfreesboro Tennessee.