Our culture treats the body as separate parts and functions—or worse, as a series of symptoms. In fact, your body is a whole beautiful system. One in constant communication and cooperation. 

Even the idea of the mind-body connection in our Western culture, is a little off. The brain is quite simply part of the body. Of course there is a connection. Your brain runs many processes in the body and there is “crosstalk” between the body and brain, nerves and organs, and various endocrine glands. This allows dynamic fine-tuning to adjust to the moment’s demands.

The nervous system sends messages via neurotransmitters that also go to the brain. Think dopamine, the pleasure neurotransmitter and hormone. 

The endocrine system is all about hormones. Hormones act as messages and directives within the brain itself and between the brain and rest of the body. 

The brain is a hormonal sponge, packed with receptors for all types of hormones; insulin, growth factor, ghrelin (the “hungry” or craving” hormone) and leptin, which is in charge of fat storage and burning. 

These hormones sail along on our blood, tell the brain what’s up and the brain tells us what to do next.

Call and response. 

Usually, that’s good. 

But too many calls and too much response can exhaust the adrenals. 

What Are The Adrenals?

The adrenal glands are small glands on the top of each kidney. They produce hormones that help regulate our metabolism, blood pressure, immune system and stress response.

So when they are overstressed, guess what happens? That leads to changes in mood, metabolism, digestion, focus and more.

Translation: You can feel bad, gain weight, get an upset stomach, feel on edge or utter exhaustion. 

There are other messages coming down from the pituitary gland that tell the endocrine glands to increase or decrease other hormones. This is the crosstalk or feedback loop that is driving a lot of what we “feel” and do. It goes from brain to endocrine back to brain—opening up the loop for a rather vicious cycle when stress heats up. 

This feedback loop is the control center for all sorts of behavior; sex, emotion, stress response, eating, drinking, energy use, metabolism.  

This may mean: grabbing the chocolate, slowing down the calorie burn or Costco aisle aggression.  

These or other “symptoms” are really calls for re-balance. A signal that something needs rebalancing. A message we can clue into and a system we can support before things go into overdrive. 

By including adaptogens, nervines and nutratives in our formulas, we seek to bring more regulation to the body’s natural processes and support the overproduction of hormones that can come from modern life. 

Let’s get fewer emergency signals within and more “all clear.”

Listen to your body. And start with Perimenopause Support. 

Photo credit: Bit Cloud via Unsplash