MORE BLOG POSTS — Cortisol

Sleep Apnea: The Sneaky Saboteur Behind Unexplained Symptoms.

The symptoms of sleep apnea are sneaky—which is why common symptoms that make women over 40 miserable are often chalked up to the “usual suspects.” Besides fatigue, women may also complain of:

• Insomnia or frequent nighttime awakenings
• Morning headaches
• Brain fog or poor concentration
• Mood changes, anxiety, or depression
• Waking with a dry mouth or sore throat
• Getting up frequently to urinate during the night
• Feeling unrefreshed despite spending enough time in bed

Since sleep apnea can disrupt multiple hormones, increase inflammation, and keep your nervous system on high alert night after night, it’s easy to understand how your long-term health can be negatively impacted.

You can be the poster gal of healthy eating and take a multivitamin every morning, but thanks to the “usual suspects,” you can still come up short on nutrients your body needs. And after 40, things like hormonal shifts can change how your body uses certain nutrients. Chronic stress can increase demand. Gut problems can interfere with absorption. Medications can quietly deplete nutrients over time. And if you’re eating less in an attempt to lose weight—or taking a medication that dramatically reduces your appetite—you may simply not be getting enough in the first place. Unfortunately, nutrient deficiencies don't always announce...

Because “eat less and exercise more” is never going to cut it.   If losing weight after 40 were as simple as eating less and moving more, no one would need to write books about it, right? And most of us wouldn’t need to resort to fad diets and weight loss medications. But the truth is that no matter how clean your menu or how much cardio you clock in every week, your scale won’t blink an eye if other hidden factors are messing with your metabolism. After years of working with women who were eating well, exercising, counting calories,...

Many women don’t realize that prescription and over-the-counter medications can affect the levels and patterns of the stress hormone cortisol. I’ve worked with countless women who had many symptoms of stress system dysfunction—fatigue, weight gain, brain fog, sleep issues—but their system couldn’t course-correct because some of their medications were tying its hands behind its back. In some cases, medications are necessary. But it’s important to understand which ones can affect cortisol and the stress system—and how they do so.   Medications That Affect the Way You Perceive Stress Your brain constantly scans your environment looking for potential threats—whether that’s a...