Can hormonal changes cause low blood pressure?

Yes. Hormonal changes can cause low blood pressure or hypotension. Amongst hormonal changes, thyroid conditions and low blood sugars are often cited as factors that cause low blood pressure. Thyroid gland produces and stores hormones, which help in managing various functions of the body, including heart rate and blood pressure. An imbalance in thyroid hormones can cause low blood pressure.

Diabetes can also damage the nerves supplying your blood vessels, which in turn can cause low blood pressure upon standing up or other sudden movements, when your blood vessels may find it hard to adjust leading to postural hypotension.

Adrenal glands regulate the stress response. Adrenal glands produce cortisol and aldosterone. The main function of aldosterone is regulation of salt and water in the body. The imbalance of these hormones can also cause low blood pressure.

 

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement

 

Scientists discover biological reason why stress makes your hair turn gray

Just a quick look at Barack Obama in 2008 and Barack Obama in 2016 illustrates one of the not-so-silver linings of stress — it can make your hair turn gray. Obama isn't alone. From John McCain to Marie Antoinette — lots of people have reported hair color changes after periods of intense stress. But nailing down exactly why stress seeps the color out of hair has proved challenging — until now.

In a new study on mice with black coats, researchers discovered that the reason hair loses color as a result of stress may be down to the body's sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system controls our body’s fight-or flight-response, triggering a chemical called norepinephrine to circulate throughout the body and making us alert and ready to meet a threat in our environment. But norepinephrine also sends certain cells — pigment-containing stem cells that live in hair follicles — into overdrive. These cells are what give hair its color — and norepinephrine kills them. As a result, with enough stress, hair can lose its pigment.

"When we started to study this, I expected that stress was bad for the body — but the detrimental impact of stress that we discovered was beyond what I imagined," Ya-Chieh Hsu, researcher at Harvard University and senior author of the study, said in a press release.

The change is irreversible, the study suggests. And the findings extend beyond people’s heads — they point out a dark side of fight-or-flight, a protective evolutionary mechanism.

"Acute stress, particularly the fight-or-flight response, has been traditionally viewed to be beneficial for an animal's survival. But in this case, acute stress causes permanent depletion of stem cells," Bing Zhang, an author of the study and researcher at Harvard University, said.

The study was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Down the rabbit hole
Originally, the team thought the immune system might be attacking hair color cells. But after removing immune cells from mice, their coats still turned gray under stress.

Next, the researchers turned to the stress hormone, cortisol. In a second experiment, the team removed the mice’s adrenal glands, which produce cortisol-like hormones. But even without cortisol, the mice’s coats still went gray with stress.

After knocking out these possibilities, the researchers focused on the sympathetic nervous system. Stress triggers sympathetic nerves, which branch out into hair follicles, to produce norepinephrine. Nearby stem cells take up the chemical, a process that can have irreversible consequences.

Each hair follicle contains a trove of stem cells, which convert into pigment-producing cells and give hair strands their color. But norepinephrine causes the stem cells to over-activate, making them all convert into pigment-producing cells. This prematurely depletes the “reservoir” of stem cells. As a result, the next time the hair grows, there aren’t any stem cells to give hair its color.

As humans age, these pigment-producing cells gradually die anyway — that's why many elderly folks have gray, silver, or white hair. But this study suggests that stress speeds up the process, aging the body prematurely.

"After just a few days, all of the pigment-regenerating stem cells were lost,” Hsu said. “Once they're gone, you can't regenerate pigment anymore. The damage is permanent."

Stress out, stress in

The affects of stress on hair and skin may be visible to the human eye, but scientists are only just beginning to understand how stress affects the body — both on the outside and the inside.

"By understanding precisely how stress affects stem cells that regenerate pigment, we've laid the groundwork for understanding how stress affects other tissues and organs in the body," Hsu said.

More studies, in humans, are needed to understand how stress — from acute or chronic stressors — gives people a head of gray hair. Further investigation may also reveal just how far reaching stress's physiological effects go in the body, contributing to disease and threatening longevity.

"Understanding how our tissues change under stress is the first critical step towards eventual treatment that can halt or revert the detrimental impact of stress. We still have a lot to learn in this area."

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement 

6 tips to beat stress with food

Stress is quite commonplace these days, and it can have a number of adverse effects on your body.  But if you understand, the way your body works and deals with stress, it can help manage stress more efficiently.  A metabolic balance coach and nutritionist, talks about dealing with stress to healthy eating. Here are her suggestions on eating right to stay stress-free.

How stress affects your body
After a stressful period, the human body goes into recovery mode. Marked by increased hunger and food cravings, there is a marked drop in your metabolic rate to conserve energy. So, if you regulate this process by eating right, it can help your body recover from a stressful event rapidly and with minimal ill effects, especially weight gain. 

Eat well throughout the day
Make sure you eat at least three portions of fruit and vegetables every day, especially foods that have Vitamins B, C and magnesium.

Vitamin B: Helps you feel less stressed and more energetic. Green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds and also meat, fish and dairy products contain essential B vitamins. 
   
Vitamin C: Your adrenal glands store vitamin C in large quantities (adrenal glands it plays an important role in the production of stress hormones) and vitamin C works as antioxidant which reducing the damage due to stress. Therefore, eating citrus fruit such as oranges, tomatoes, peppers, kiwi fruit, leafy green vegetables, broccoli and other foods rich in Vitamin C can help combat stress.

Magnesium: Can help relax muscles and reduce anxiety. Increasing the amount of magnesium-rich foods you eat like nuts — hazelnuts and peanuts — help beat that deficit caused due to stress. Green leafy vegetables, whole grains (especially oats), brown rice and beans are also good sources of magnesium too.

Include complex carbs into your diet
Eating carbs stimulates your brain to make more serotonin. For a steady supply of this feel-good chemical, it’s best to eat complex carbs, which take longer to digest. Good choices include whole-grain bread, barley, whole grain pasta and breakfast cereals, including oatmeal. Complex carbs can also help stabilise your blood sugar levels.

Load up on Omega- 3
Omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish, can prevent surges in stress hormones and protect you from suffering from heart disease and depression. For a steady supply of feel-good omega-3, include fatty fish, flax seeds and oils (flaxseed, canola, mustard or soybean) in your diet.

Gorge on nuts
Nuts and seeds are good sources of healthy fats. Eating a handful of pistachios, walnuts or almonds regularly helps lower your cholesterol levels, control inflammation in your arteries, beat diabetes and protects you against the ill effects of stress. But don’t overdo it as nuts are rich in calories as well. Another nut that is perfect to beat the effects of stress is almonds as it is full of vitamin E, which helps boost your immune system and helps cope with bouts of stress.

Stay hydrated
Stress can lead to dehydration, and dehydration can cause stress — it’s a vicious cycle. You can break it by consuming more water. Staying hydrated helps keep your cortisol (a stress hormone) levels low. Here’s why drinking water is essential for your health. 

Exercise regularly
Besides altering your diet, one of the best stress-busting strategies is to start exercising. Exercise boosts oxygen circulation and spurs your body to make feel-good chemicals called endorphins. 

But apart from eating healthy, there are a few things you should avoid.
Caffeine
Caffeine is a common substance found in coffee, tea, some soft drinks and chocolates. Caffeine tends to push your body into overdrive and can also keep you awake at night. Not only does it dehydrate you, but it also interferes with your sleep cycles that in turn can increase your stress levels. Therefore, it is a good idea to ditch caffeinated drinks like tea and coffee and opt for healthier options like green tea.

Alcohol, sugar, salt and nicotine
It’s best to reduce your intake of alcohol, sugar, salt and nicotine. Consumption of these substances decreases essential nutrients in your body and reverses the benefits of a healthy diet. Here are the 25 things that happen in your body when you smoke. 

 THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.    
 
PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO VIEW MY BLOG-                      

HTTP:GSEASYRECIPES.BLOGSPOT.COM/
FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                       

HTTP://KNEE REPLACEMENT-STICK CLUB.BLOGSPOT.COM/
FOR CROCHET DESIGNS
HTTP://MY CROCHET CREATIONS.BLOGSPOT.COM