Stress hormones and sex hormones, and the dangers of cortisol

The following is a transcript of an interview between Patrick Wanis, Human Behavior and Relationship Expert, PhD and Dr. Michael Bauerschmidt, Medical Director of Full Potential Health Care  revealing the links between stress, hormones and staying young. Patrick Wanis and Dr. Mike also reveal the differences between stress hormones and sex hormones as well as cortisol and its role and danger.  For previous part of this transcript (Part 3), click here: http://patrickwanis.com/blog/stress-years-no-period-progesterone/

Patrick:                      So to summarize what we’ve discussed so far, we’re saying that hormonal health is obviously critical to your overall health because the level and the quality of hormones determines the quality of your organs and thus, determines the quality and the function of your entire body.

You also talked about the fact that right now based on what science knows, our body can live, depending on the kind of stress we present it with, can live to about 120 years of age. As we get older, it’s harder for us to maintain the levels of hormones that we had in our 20s. The earlier we start, the healthier we can be and we can stay because we can maintain those levels as much as possible.

You also talked about the four main stressors, which you abbreviate to an acronym, DEEP – diet, emotions, environment and physical state. You gave us an example of a patient who experiences extraordinary pain leading up to her period and that that’s not natural – that’s an imbalance and usually that’s an imbalance of hormones that might be connected either to her diet, her emotions, her environment, or her physical state.

Now, let’s talk for a moment about the difference between the hormones that are stress hormones and the hormones that are sex hormones. You started talking about how pregnenolone can break down into progesterone and then 17-hydroxyprogesterone that then breaks off into the sex hormones or the adrenal corticosteroid hormones. Explain how that works briefly.

Dr. Mike:                    It’s really quite simple. Your body is kind of like the ultimate triage officer. It sends the things to where they’re needed the most.

If your body is under particular stress and you had a lot of stress hormones, that progesterone is going to be hanging on down and shooting right down that cortisol pathway and there’s going to be precious little left over for the sex hormone support.

[0:30:16]

Here’s the deal, when you’re dealing with the body, we can look to economics as a thing. One of the economic principles is all resources are scarce. That is, there isn’t an infinite supply of everything for anybody. We may experience individually plenty of food, water and air; but collectively, there really isn’t enough going around, otherwise there wouldn’t be any starvation in the world.

As this principle works in the human body is that if your body is under constant stress and you need a lot of the stress hormones, it’s going to start shutting down other organ systems that are not immediately involved with your survival. So the hormones tend to take a big whack when you’re under stress, particularly your thyroid will begin to down regulate as you demand more out of your adrenals for adrenal support.

Your ovaries may start to shut down because your neurochemistry in your brain or your neurotransmitters are now all in fight-or-flight mode and there isn’t the normal levels of your feel good hormones, like serotonin, dopamine and prolactin, which your body needs in order to keep your hormones balanced. This is why women under stress, whether it’s physical or emotional stress, will start having irregular periods or quit having periods altogether.

Continue reading “Stress and sex hormones and dangers of cortisol” »

Stay hungry – Stay Foolish – Steve Jobs’ Stanford speech transcript

‘You’ve got to find what you love.’

This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting. Continue reading “Stay hungry – Stay Foolish – Steve Jobs’ Stanford speech transcript” »

The Life Events Inventory as a predictor for injury and illness
– The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale – take the test below

Stress: The link between life changes and illness & injury

It may seem almost blatantly obvious that major life changes contribute to stress but it may not be as obvious that multiple major life changes within one year correlate with a higher risk of injury or illness.

We too often take it for granted that life changes alter a person’s social roles and relationships, such as mar­riage, divorce, job change, serious illness, or the death of a loved one, and thus, they increase a person’s suscepti­bility to stress, and in turn contribute if not directly cause a host of physical, mental and emotional ailments and illnesses. The ripples of stress will often last for a year or even longer.

Continue reading “Stress: The link between life changes and illness & injury” »

Mass killer, George Sodini’s full blog entry

Full text of L.A. Fitness shooter George Sodini’s blog link / online diary from his website is further below. George Sodini’s blog link was removed, and it’s unknown, but the text on his website was published and is below.

George Sodini briefly considered calling off his murderous rampage at a Pennsylvania health club, which left three women dead and nine injured. (Listen to the radio interview by Patrick Wanis PhD explaining the causes and pyschological profile of gym killer George Sodini – click here.)

George Sodini’s home movies and online diary reveal his darkest emotions. In a written but unpublished post to his blog, the 48-year-old gunman wrote that if a particular woman he admired from afar would be his girlfriend, he would “cancel this plan or put [it] on hold, at least for a while,” ABC News has learned through an analysis of his blog’s hidden source code.

For the causes, psychological factors and motivations behind the mass killing of women at an aerobic’s class by George Sodini and for a profile of mass murderers and killers, click here.

WARNING: The following contains EXPLICIT content. It is the text of a blog apparently kept by George Sodini, the man suspected of opening fire in a Pittsburgh-area gym, killing three and injuring nine others before apparently turning a gun on himself. The text is in full, except for some expletives which have been removed. The blog page had no pictures, other than a link to an apparent self-portrait of Sodini. Lines in boldface are as they appeared in the blog.

  Continue reading “Mass killer, George Sodini’s full blog entry” »

What are the real challenges faced by perfectionists?

Patrick,

I was trying to explain to a new friend of mine the real issues underlying perfectionists, which she claimed to be.  I did a fairly good job but could not put it in the eloquent succinct terms you would use.  For my benefit and the benefit of all of our readers could you outline the real meaning and challenges faced by perfectionists?

Chris Burres

Editor’s note: Read the article by Patrick Wanis “The poison of perfectionism and self-centredness”  http://patrickwanis.com/blog/the-poison-of-perfectionism-and-self-centeredness/ 

Controlling the Inner Chatterbox

In this week’s Success Newsletter, I would like to talk about “Self-talk” – the things that you say to yourself all day long – and how to control that Inner Chatterbox.

First a quick update:

**** “How Your Mind Prevents Success –and what to do about it” -Listen to the hour-long interview I gave to world-famous sales trainer Blair Singer http://www.patrickwanis.com/success

**** Listen to the interview I gave to the ladies of XM radio’s Broadminded show about celebrities who sabotage and destroy their lives & success because of their deep beliefs about a lack of self-worth: Michael Vick & The O.J Effect: http://patrickwanis.com/RadioInterviews.asp ·

Now let’s talk about Self-talk – the things that you say to yourself – and how to control that Inner Chatterbox.

Here is an excerpt from my book, “How to Hypnotize Anyone” http://patrickwanis.com/HypnotizeBook.asp

“We say that only mad people talk to themselves, but the truth is that we all talk to ourselves all day long, without even knowing it. In fact, we have around 60,000 thoughts a day. What are we thinking? What are we telling ourselves, and where does this inner voice come from?  

Self-talk is what we repeat to ourselves – our mental background music. Most of us are not even aware of our self-talk, yet it has a powerful influence on behavior, our stress, motivation and actions.  

This inner voice is often referred to as the chatterbox, because it practically never ceases talking. This inner chatterbox is the voice inside your head that says, “I can’t do it… I’ll fail… I am a loser… I am fat…” or “You can’t afford it… You will never be rich… You’re stupid… You’re ugly…”  

All those thoughts that make up the chatterbox are the result of everything you have ever been told and that you accepted as true. These thoughts and messages are the things you were told during your childhood by your parents, family, peers and the media. They can also be the result of events that occurred in your life or your personal thoughts and fears.  

You may find that many of the things your parents told you as a child are the very things you repeat to yourself all day long – often without even knowing it. Some of these things you accepted as true because you experienced them as a child, and children learn by imitating. For example, if your parents worked hard to make their money, you probably believe that only hard work leads to money, yet others around you may seem to come into money easily.

Reprogramming the Inner Voice

One of the keys to happiness, peace of mind and getting what we want is being able to change the messages we continually repeat to ourselves all day long.  

If you consistently and permanently change your self-talk and start saying, “I am thin and attractive” instead of “I am fat and ugly,” your mind would direct you toward activity to make you thinner. Your imagination starts to create images and pictures of you as a thin person. You start to exercise or eat less, and you become thinner.  

Hypnosis works the same way by changing permanently your thoughts, beliefs, self-talk and imagination – and thus, your reality.” 

Blair Singer is a world famous sales trainer and public speaker who was personally selected by Robert Kiyosaki- best-selling author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad” as part of his business team. Recently Blair Singer interviewed me to learn more about the link between the mind, human behavior and success – and specifically how our mind prevents us from success. I explained to Blair that one of the reasons affirmations so often fail is because we have 60,000 other negative affirmations throughout the day. And most of us are not even aware of what those thoughts or negative affirmations are. In the interview I share an exercise to help you to first become aware of those subconscious thoughts and then how to change them. Listen to the full interview at http://www.patrickwanis.com/success

When you do become aware of worry or negative self-talk, say “stop” or “cancel that” and proceed to replace the disempowering thought with something positive and supportive. Remember, in every moment, you can always choose happiness, “I choose happiness, I choose peace” and proceed  to visualize and imagine a positive outcome.

If you want to begin now to reprogram the inner voice so that it supports you, use my hypnosis CDs such as “Be Happy, Rich & Wealthy” http://patrickwanis.com/HappyRichWealthy.asp

Remember to check out my Blog on my website to read my past Success Newsletters, post your comments and take a few exciting quizzes. www.patrickwanis.com  If you have received this newsletter as a forward and would like to receive all of my newsletters please enter your email address on the home page at PatrickWanis.com.

I wish you the best and remind you “Believe in yourself -You deserve the best!”

Patrick Wanis
Celebrity Life Coach, Human Behavior & Relationship Expert & Clinical Hypnotherapist
www.patrickwanis.com