Stress: The Invisible Saboteur - Brenna May Wellness

I’ve never thought of stress as “just in my head.” I’ve always felt it in my body — the racing heart, the tight chest, the way it steals my sleep. Maybe I’m just a sensitive soul despite being a Cadbury egg (hard shell, gooey center). Either way, my body made it clear: stress is physical.

And it turns out, science agrees. Stress doesn’t just mess with your mood. It hijacks every other foundation.

Here’s the truth: stress isn’t just an emotion. It’s a full-body biochemical event. Your brain perceives a threat, your adrenals fire, and your whole physiology shifts into survival mode. For a short burst, that system keeps you alive. But when stress gets stuck “on,” every other foundation — digestion, blood sugar, sleep, hormones — takes a hit.

Stress is the foundation under all the others. If it cracks, the rest of your healing house crumbles.

1. Stress hijacks your digestion

When you’re in fight-or-flight, blood is shunted away from your stomach and intestines. Stomach acid drops, enzymes stall, and bile flow slows to a trickle. That means bloating, constipation, reflux — and most importantly, nutrient starvation, even if you’re eating grass-fed steak and wild-caught salmon. You can’t heal if you can’t digest, and you can’t digest if your nervous system thinks you’re running from a tiger.

2. Stress + blood sugar = survival loop

Your stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) are designed to raise blood sugar fast so you can run or fight. That’s great if you need to escape danger — but not if you’re just stuck in traffic or staring at a messy kitchen. Chronically elevated stress means chronically unstable blood sugar, leading to crashes, cravings, hanger, and fatigue.

Over time, this survival loop wears out your adrenals, burns through minerals, and creates the kind of exhaustion that sleep or supplements alone can’t fix.

3. Stress steals from your hormones

Your body has a priority system: survival first, reproduction later. Under chronic stress, your system will literally “borrow” hormone precursors (like pregnenolone) to make more cortisol instead of progesterone. That’s why stress so often shows up as PMS, cycle irregularities, low libido, or perimenopausal symptoms gone haywire.

If you’ve ever felt like your hormones are “against you,” stress may be the real thief.

4. The simple reset: safety signals

The opposite of stress isn’t “calm thoughts” — it’s safety signals to your body. A long exhale. A walk outside. Singing in the car. Prayer. Laughter. These aren’t indulgences; they’re literal biochemical resets. They shift your nervous system back into parasympathetic (rest-and-digest), where healing finally has permission to happen.

Stress is the foundation under all the others. It isn’t just mental. It’s metabolic, hormonal, and digestive. You can eat the best food, take the best supplements, and build the best habits — but if your body is stuck in survival mode, the rest can’t land. Healing begins when your nervous system believes you are safe. Build in calm the same way you build in meals or sleep — non-negotiable.

🌿 Brenna May, NTP
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Next Up: 👉 Fatty Acids: The Building Blocks of Hormones & Brain