One of my favourite studies on this is where the researchers looked at men who went to football games and they measured their hormone, Testosterone, before and after the game.

For the men whose team had won, their Testosterone went up.  For the men whose team had lost, their Testosterone went down.  The effect of this was even more is if you had gambled on the outcome.  

This study demonstrates that your mental state has a huge effect on your hormones.  In other words, there is much we can do to be the master of our own biology.

If you are under a lot of stress coupled with not sleeping well, both of these factors are going to drive your Testosterone down.     If you’re interested to know how this works, here’s an explanation in a nutshell.

Taking stress and poor sleep as an example.  This creates an imbalance where you produce too much cortisol, which is our stress hormone, and cortisol production is going to demand the use of cholesterol because cortisol is made from cholesterol. 

We have a ‘sink’ of cholesterol that is used to produce our hormones, including our sex hormones.   If you’re in a situation where you’re primarily producing a lot of cortisol – because you’re stressed – that steals it away from making Testosterone and the other sex hormones.  All of them are vital for your self to be healthy and happy.

What happens for men in our society is that they’re working too hard, they’re stressed out and they don’t sleep well.  Then they eat in such a way that they’re going to gain weight.  All of these factors are impacting their testosterone levels and their ability to feel well, and feel good.  One of these factors is creating your stress hormone cortisol, which is stealing cholesterol away from making your sex hormones.

So what can you do about it?  You need to calm the body down – often.

How do we get calm quick?

1.    We can do that by exhaling.  When you exhale you activate the brain, the parasympathetic nervous system which is in charge of relaxation.  And when you breathe deeply you tend to calm your mind.  So that would be the first simple but effective practice when you are agitated.

2.    Take a power nap.  Power naps of only 6-15 minutes can give us performance benefits up to 3 hours.  A short nap refreshes your vagus nerve. That's the nerve that guides your heart and lungs, so you slow your heart rate and the body can relax. 

3.    Or use a technique Go to the Balcony, it's an invitation to stop what you're doing, close your eyes and observe you in the moment.   This counters the over stimulation we are experiencing, helping gain calm & clarity.

Our minds are exhausting, always in the future or the past and rarely in the present which is where we find calm and recovery.

From getting awareness around stress and knowing your triggers, there are no rules to changing your response to stress.   You can become the master to your own biology.

Drop me a line to book a call to talk about your health and performance. hello@deborahmctaggart.com