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Why are women over 30 years old?
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Often we are accustomed to blaming excessive weight for the wrong food. But what to do to women after 30, who lead a healthy lifestyle, carefully calculate the number of calories, go in for sports and still get better? Consider other reasons
Stress is the cause of excess weight
Scientific studies prove that women are gaining extra pounds from stress. Why and what can you do about it? Stress, as hormonal analysis shows, can provoke a hormonal imbalance that can bring us a whole list of diseases.
And in women, these negative changes are much faster than in men. Especially in those women who have crossed the line of 35-40 years. On men, age does not affect so much: hormonal changes in their body provoke excess weight much more slowly - this takes years.
What provokes excess weight in women?
- Increased production of cortisol - a stress hormone
- Appetite disorders caused by hormonal imbalance
- Abuse of medicines
- Gene predisposition
- Metabolic inhibition
- Insufficiency of vitamins in the body
- Lack of calories in diets
- Stressful situations that constantly recur
Seven most common stressful situations
We will introduce you to situations in which a woman, under stress, tends to gain excess weight.
Situation # 1
We have a habit of eating stress. Thus, we violate our own diet, which provokes obesity. And how not to gain extra pounds when we run to the refrigerator at night?
When we eat a lot and irregularly, the body produces a stress hormone cortisol and an insulin substance, which further exacerbate fat deposits.
Situation number 2
When we are experiencing, we eat heavy food. This is potatoes, bread, pasta, noodles, sweet confectionery. Of course, during times of stress, we do not control the amount of food, and its excess is deposited in the form of fat deposits.
Situation # 3
Low-carb and low-calorie diets. A woman, tormenting herself with such a menu, lacks useful substances in the form of fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, proteins. Then the body begins to believe that there is a famine, and stores useful substances in the form of fat deposits.
In addition, in this situation, the ovaries that produce sex hormones, and the thyroid gland, which also produces hormones, begin to work much worse. Hormonal imbalance leads to obesity.
Situation # 4
When we take tranquilizers or hormones without the advice of a doctor, they can aggravate the state of stress and lead to excess fat in the body. In particular, the DHEA hormones (used for tonus) or the melatonin substance used to relieve the symptoms of insomnia can play a bad role.
Both of these drugs have the property to increase the feeling of hunger and lead to excessive weight.
Situation No. 5
Soy and soy additives, recommended for weight loss. In fact, these products, with regular use can provoke obesity, irregular cycle, inability to conceive and endure the child.
The same effect can have and herbal infusions, which advertise for weight loss. Isoflavone substances in soy and some herbal supplements inhibit the production of thyroid hormones and ovaries (estrogens), thereby provoking obesity.
Situation No. 6
Hypodinamia, or lack of movement, can provoke obesity. In addition, lack of physical activity exacerbates the effect of stress, and therefore, increases the body's level of cortisol - a stress hormone. This hormone has the property of inhibiting the production of other hormones, provoking obesity.
Situation No. 7
Relaxation substances that we use block the work of sex hormones - testosterone, estradiol, and thyroid hormones - T3 and T4. So, they do not allow these hormones to perform their work on enhancing metabolism. When the metabolism slows down, we become stale.
How does stress affect the functioning of the brain?
What are stressors? These are the circumstances that cause a woman to react to them and adapt to them. What can be stressors?
This is either external circumstances (you are naham in the store), or internal (you are unhappy with your appearance). The brain perceives this information and gives commands to the body: what and how much is there, how much fat to accumulate, whether to slow down or speed up the metabolism.
Stress is considered very important in order to survive. Whatever the stress - positive (the daughter graduated from the institute with a red diploma) or negative (you were fired from work), the chain of reactions in the brain is the same.
The commands of the brain pass through special chains - neurological transmitters. These are the receptors that help regulate weight. They affect the speed with which food will pass through the gastrointestinal tract, what products we want at this moment, which is unpleasant even to watch how quickly this food is processed in the body and absorbed by it.
On how quickly the metabolic processes in our body go, it depends whether we get better or lose weight.
If the stress lasts a long time
Stress is different - for the body or for the soul. Doctors share stress on psychological, physiological and spiritual. But you should know that for any of them, homeostasis - the hormonal balance of the body - is disrupted.
How does the body respond to "fast" and severe stress? The body starts to work in a very active, force-majeure mode, the stress hormone adrenaline is actively allocated.
How does the body react to prolonged stress? In the body, the stress hormone cortisol is intensively produced, which inhibits the production of other hormones and provokes obesity.
And the one and the other hormones of stress, accumulating in the body, provoke the accumulation of fatty deposits - instead of splitting and removing fats, as happens with normal metabolism. The majority of body fat accumulates around the waist and abdomen.
How do we eat under stress?
In stressful situations or in situations where the stress lasts for a long time, the brain reacts to it instantly. He responds instantly with the regulation of food intake: much or little we now need to eat and what exactly - the brain dictates the body.
When we are in the clutches of stress, no matter, instant or prolonged, the body produces a lot of hormone cortisol (we know it). Cortisol is able to influence weight, provoking its increase, and other hormones help it, increasing our appetite and degree of anxiety, why we eat even more.
Few people associate anxiety and heightened anxiety with the level of sugar in the blood. But it is so. If the blood glucose level is lost, we may be psychologically ill. Do you remember that if we are in a bad mood, we are attracted to the sweet? Thus, we try to replenish the blood sugar level and thereby raise our spirits.
Symptoms of acute stress
- Brutal appetite
- Strong desire to eat sweet
- Thirst for alcohol
- Increased anxiety, irritability
- Sleep Disorders
- Interruptions in the work of the heart
- Increased fatigue, weakness, mood swings
- Puffiness
- Allergy to food or odors
- Propensity to infections and colds
- Fungal diseases
- Reducing traction to the opposite sex
If you have identified these symptoms, contact your endocrinologist for hormonal analysis
How does cortisol work in the body?
Cortisol - a hormone that produces the adrenal glands. This hormone is produced during pre-stress conditions.
It has the property of regulating the metabolism, slowing or activating it. Thus, the weight increases or decreases. More often the first, of course.
Cortisol has a working time. It starts at 4 in the morning. Most of all cortisol is produced starting at 8 o'clock in the morning. This is done in order to adjust the body to a working mood.
During the day, cortisol is becoming less and by the evening its level is reduced to a minimum. This is so that the body, calming down, preparing for sleep. This is the normal mode. And when a person's stress, the regime is violated, and then the development of cortisol is also violated.
That is, in the morning it can be produced less, and a person feels sluggish and broken, and at night cortisol can be produced more, and then a person is disturbed by insomnia.
Such differences are especially characteristic for women after the age of 35. Therefore, they especially need to monitor the hormonal balance in the body.
Brain and cortisol
Cortisol is produced by monitoring two brain centers - the pituitary and hypothalamus. The hypothalamus produces the hormone vasopressin, which stimulates the production of the pituitary hormone ACTH. This hormone stimulates the production of the hormone cortisol by the adrenal glands. Here's what the chain turns out.
When cortisol with blood is transferred to the brain, its hypothalamus and pituitary parts receive a signal about the production of cortisol and its quantity.
Then the levels of other hormones can fall to the lowest values. During stress, the production of all these hormones increases, the rhythm of a person's life changes, which means that it is necessary to adjust these processes with the help of an endocrinologist.
[What happens in the body with an increase in the level of cortisol?
- Pressure rises or it jumps from low to high
- The level of bad cholesterol rises
- Increases glucose and insulin levels in the body
- Immunity to insulin
- Vulnerability to infections
- Too dry skin
- Increased vulnerability of the skin (bruises and abrasions quickly form on it)
- Muscle weakness and muscle pain
- Broken bone tissue
- Interruptions in the work of the heart
- Swelling of the face
These symptoms are called Cushing's syndrome.
This means that in the body of cortisol is much more than normal. And cortisol can be obtained naturally (that is, produced by the body) or from pharmacy drugs to combat arthritis, asthma, allergies.
Elevated levels of cortisol provoke the risk of increased fat deposits on the sides, waist, in the thoracic glands, as well as the back (upper part).
What is dangerous for long-term stress?
If the stressful state lasts a long time - for months or even years - the adrenal glands adjust and cease to produce the necessary hormones. They no longer respond to the stress hormone cortisol, and doctors can diagnose kidney failure or, in other words - kidney depletion.
Symptoms of kidney failure
- Reduced cortisol level
- Decrease in sodium production
- Very low sodium level
- A very high level of potassium
When renal failure occurs not on the background of stress, but for other reasons, this condition is called Adison's disease. With this disease, a person can lose weight sharply, have low blood pressure, fatigue, muscle weakness, muscle pain, hair loss.
With these symptoms, you should always examine the body for hormones, so that the doctor can prescribe hormone replacement therapy and prescribe other methods of treatment.