CORTISOL in Menopause
Meet Brandy who successfully regulated her cortisol levels in 11 weeks
Laura Lambe, Menopause Practitioner and Founder of Menopause Mastery
Brandy is in peri menopause and when she came to us she was showing many symptoms of HIGH cortisol
- Broken sleep (1am, 2am wakeups)
- Weight gain around core and in face
- Anxiety/stress
- Waking up feeling tired and unrested
- Bloating/constipation – general gut issues
- Energy slumps
- Feeling unedge/anxious a lot
- Struggle to focus
- Feeling more irritable
1.
Now, it’s important to note: Cortisol has many important functions in our body:
- Reduces inflammation
- Helps with the metabolism of glucose
- Controls our blood pressure
So we NEED cortisol in our body, too much cortisol is where we start to run into health issues.
(I done a FULL Cortisol Masterclass a couple months ago over inside our FREE community The Menopause Lab – I will link it HERE if you want more facts around cortisol)
The first thing we done with Brandy was to work on her SLEEP – our circadian rhythm or “sleep/wake cycle” as its also known is one of biggest functions cortisol plays in so if your cortisol levels are too high correcting this is the most effective place to start
For Brandy this meant
- BALANCING HER NUTRITION – like most women she was avoiding carbs etc. So we worked on balancing her nutrition, increasing her food intake and ensuring she was consuming enough protein, fats, fiber and carbs each day.
- Introducing a better night time routine – removed screens, placed better work boundaries so she wasn’t checking emails late at night etc.
- Improve her gut health. She was waking up each morning bloated which is typically a sign that your digestion is working overnight and is struggling. As she was also waking up tired this was also a sign her digestion was still fired up during night and preventing her to fall into a DEEP sleep and its in a DEEP sleep our hormones (cortisol included) regulate.
- Increased overall food intake and lower intensity of workouts. Brandy was in a constant state of stress because she was undereating and overexercising. We didn’t reduce the amount of days she was exercising, rather we simply changed a few workouts from very high intensity to a light jog or pilates while ensuring she was FUELLING her body with enough food. Encouraging her to LISTEN to her body and being ok when her body was telling her it was tired and needed some rest.
After working on her cortisol levels not only did Brandy reduce her overall inflammation levels and improve her sleep quality meaning her energy has skyrocketed she has also lost 10lbs in the process
One of the reasons Brandy wanted to take back control of her life was to be able to have more energy to play with her grandaughter and last week she sent us a photo of her and her granddaughter (which i have covered for privacy reasons) but to hear her say “I recognize myself in the mirror again” is AMAZING
We are doing a deep dive into the most common menopause symptoms every day for a week HERE – Join entirely for free and get a FULL plan for our menopausal symptoms
Joint pain, high cortisol, Brain Fog, Vaginal Drynes, Bloating, Weight Gain and MORE….