Good Neighbor Podcast: Milton & More
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Milton, Crabapple, and Hickory Flat
Good Neighbor Podcast: Milton & More
Expert Episode: Breaking Free from Stress: Understanding the Connection to Weight Gain and How to Reclaim Your Well-Being with Nancy Masoud of LockedIn Wellness
Stress affects virtually every aspect of our health, from our waistlines to our sleep quality, but few of us truly understand the physiological mechanisms at work. Nancy Masoud from LockedIn Wellness takes us on a fascinating journey into the science of stress, explaining how the fight-or-flight response triggers cortisol release and creates what she calls "double trouble" for our bodies.
When cortisol levels rise, we experience increased appetite (particularly for comfort foods) while simultaneously storing more fat around our midsection. This explains why stress often leads to weight gain even when we're conscious about our eating habits. Rather than simply accepting this as inevitable, Nancy offers a refreshing approach focused on identifying and addressing the root causes of stress.
The conversation explores innovative testing methods like Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA), which reveals critical information about mineral imbalances that contribute to stress responses. These imbalances can manifest as anxiety, fatigue, emotional eating, and even addiction, as demonstrated in the powerful story of a 24-year-old client who overcame severe anxiety and alcohol dependency through targeted nutritional interventions.
Nancy also addresses the complex relationship between hormones and stress, particularly during perimenopause and menopause. From hot flashes triggered by food sensitivities to sleep disturbances that elevate morning cortisol levels, she offers practical insights for managing these challenges naturally. The holistic approach at Locked In Wellness—combining nutritional support, acupuncture laser therapy, and personalized protocols—provides hope for anyone struggling with stress-related health issues.
Want to transform your relationship with stress and reclaim your health? Contact LockedIn Wellness in Alpharetta at 404-809-4161 or visit their website to schedule a comprehensive assessment and discover personalized solutions for your unique needs.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Stacey Poehler.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody. We're excited today to be talking to Nancy from Locked In Wellness. Welcome, Nancy. Hi Stacey, how are you? I'm good. I know today we're going to do a deep dive into stress and a little bit with nutrition and hormones and how Locked In Wellness is really helping people address these issues in a very natural way. Maybe you can start by explaining some effects of stress on the body, like at the physiological level, and talking about that whole flight or fright response and how that all works.
Speaker 3:I'm super excited to talk about this subject because stress is stress. Who's not stressed right? It can be any form. Stress itself starts with the activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal, hpa and the sympathetic nervous system. So when the sympathetic nervous system kicks in, it plays a crucial role in the fight or flight response. So, because it is preparing the body for more action, which causes, of course, the adrenals to secrete the cortisol, the stress hormone, can you?
Speaker 2:talk about cortisol and what it does in your body and how that might contribute to things like weight gain and more stress.
Speaker 3:And how that might contribute to things like weight gain and more stress. When we're stressed, the body releases cortisol. When cortisol is secreted by the adrenals, it tends emotional eating to cope with stressors that they're dealing with. But also we know cortisol can also promote the storage of fat. So particularly around the midsection when people complain about thickness in the middle it's usually caused by cortisol in store because it does promote the storage of fat in that area. So we tend to see people gain weight during stress periods and we're not saying everybody gains weight during stress, but most people tend to have that issue and we see a lot of people with concerns about I was stressed, I had this situation. Now I realize I'm an emotional eater. I tend to see myself coping with certain situations through food. That's the only thing that makes me feel better. And of course, the side effects weight gain. That's when they see thickness in the middle of the body the scale starts to increase.
Speaker 2:So fight or flight goes back to prehistoric times, right, people having to hunt and gather their food, and cortisol was a way to give them that extra push. But what you're saying is it's a double whammy, because cortisol stimulates your appetite and makes you store more fat, causing weight gain in two ways. Absolutely, it is a double trouble.
Speaker 3:Cortisol is supposed to help us with the stress, but too much cortisol can lead to weight gain. People tend to complain of that.
Speaker 2:Can you talk about some of the ways that you at Locked in Wellness approach, stress management, and what kinds of tools and supplements and things are you using to help people manage their cortisol levels and stress?
Speaker 3:At LockedIn Wellness we use a holistic approach to dealing with stress and recognizing that stress and the impact of that for the whole body and as a person, whether it's mind, body or spirit. So we do look at all of those aspects there. So the way we look at it, of course we do a lot of testing, different testing, specifically to pinpoint the cause of stress, because the stress can be emotional stress and can be physiological stress, so it can be both sides. Not necessarily all stress are linked to emotions, it can be other factors too. We dig deep into the root cause of stress and how is that impacting the body? So for us, instead of simply giving medication to cope with stress, we look at the core cause. We balance that with whether nutraceutical sorry, yeah, nutraceutical, sorry, nutraceutical products, or sometimes it's diet, controlled as well. So it depends on the person and the results of the testing that we do.
Speaker 2:Can you talk us through that testing, describe what it is, what it measures and how you use that to guide decisions in patient care?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. One of the tests that we commonly use is called HTMA, which is a hair tissue mineral analysis test, and this test can offer very valuable insights into how stress affects the body by analyzing mineral levels and ratios. Prolonged stress can disturb the body's delicate mineral balance, which then we can see imbalances in certain minerals. That causes the impact or the physical stress on the body. The adrenal glands are crucial for managing stress. Utilizing those minerals like magnesium. When we look at magnesium on the HDMI test, we know that magnesium is an essential element in that test. That helps with stress and helps you, helps the response of that stress, because that helps promote the stress produces the stress hormone. So this test will show us a lot of different factors there, but we look at all the different minerals in there and the ratios of these minerals. That can also give us more of an overall insight of how does that impact the body and the metabolism, insight of how does that impact the body and the metabolism. So because we know stress can impact your metabolism, as we talked before we that, we know cortisol can be a factor in storing fat and visceral fat in generally speaking. Now we know that also these when we people stress, we tend to see imbalance on those minerals and then we are when we look at the test. We are able to define those imbalances in balance through supplementation or detoxing, or sometimes also can be diet different eating, different kind of lifestyle, changing the lifestyle or eating habits.
Speaker 3:When we look at this HMA, we also are looking at I'll give an example calcium to phosphorus ratios on that test because that test also when we see those ratios, this is a major indicator for energy production and stress response. If calcium and phosphorus are not balanced well, then we know this person has issues with energy and also stress. We look at also sodium and potassium levels, crucial to adrenal activity. If not balanced, we'll see more anxiety. People have more anxiety, more emotional eating, more muscle tension, fatigue. That test is crucial to identifying the root causes of stress for each individual.
Speaker 2:You mentioned looking at people's diet. Are some symptoms of stress caused by food sensitivities? Is that something you look at to figure out what might be causing inflammation in that response?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. As we know, food sensitivity is not don't directly cure stress. We know if we eliminate those foods is not going to be the cure for stress, so that's not the way we look at it. But when we identify those foods that are trigger to inflammation, it would the reduction of inflammation. It does help the physical side of stress impact on the body, because we know food sensitivities can cause inflammation and disturb the gut microbiome linked to mood and anxiety. Removing the problem foods might reduce inflammation and improve, of course, the gut health, which potentially leading to calmer nervous system and it will decrease the stress response nervous system and it will decrease the stress response.
Speaker 2:What modalities or strategies do you use to help your clients deal with stress and to help them through this process of healing?
Speaker 3:We use a couple things. So we also do acupuncture laser to help support the adrenals as well. So we do that. But I also do just recently started doing this urine test and this test goes to the lab and it targets amino acids in the body that are actually helps us look at the catecholamine response in the brain, stress response, fat how the body deposits fats or store fat, and what the key essential minerals help offset issues or factors that could be linked to stress as well. But we do, like I said, that's a new test that we started doing for stress to test and make sure that the body is controlling stress properly. Negative impact what can stress cause in the body? The acupuncture laser is a huge factor here. We tend to see people feel better when we do those acupuncture lasers because they do help calm the body down. It is driven by frequencies and those frequencies help calm the central nervous system. That's the target here our central nervous system.
Speaker 2:People talk about stress and weight gain, aging and going into like perimenopause and menopause. We're hearing so much about this on the news. Everybody's talking about it. Can you talk about how stress relates to that and how you're helping women go through those processes? And a little bit less stressful yeah?
Speaker 3:Hormone imbalance at any age can cause physical or emotional stress.
Speaker 3:It doesn't have to be somebody who's going through perimenopause to menopause or postmenopause, but hormone imbalance is definitely contribute to increased appetite and decrease kind of wellbeing or health or energy or motivation to do other things like exercising, being outside. People tend to feel run down, heavy. I've had a lot of clients come in and heavy in themselves and they never felt that before. Now, of course, everybody's different, so we don't we can't say everybody looks the same but everyone is different and their body's response is different. So we don't. We can't say everybody looks the same, but everyone is different and their body's response is differently. But many individuals also turn into emotional eating as a coping mechanism, as we talked about consuming unhealthy comfort foods to help with temporary relief of hormone imbalances. Because we tend to go through a lot of mood swings through hormone changes and for females, some people, their whole body changes. Sometimes we lose stamina or motivation to do things we love.
Speaker 3:Hormone imbalance can cause physical and emotional stress. One person can be very active. Suddenly, with hormone changes, hot flashes comes in weight gain even though they're eating very healthy. They get thicker in the middle, cortisol is increasing. Their FSH level starts to increase. They're depressed, just don't understand what is happening in their body. They see a change but don't realize the differences, especially if it's perimenopause.
Speaker 3:And then when we get into menopause, with the hot flashes, night sweats, interruptive sleep, people get headaches, a lot of symptoms to menopause. Those symptoms can go from one side to another joint pain, hip pain, knee pains. We get lots of that with menopause. That leads to stress, because if this person is very active and they always play tennis, for example, and suddenly now they have these pains and aches and they're not able to play well, they will feel stress that impacts their activity level. Calories they're burning on a daily base, which can lead to a game. Even if they are conscious about their eating habits, they're not necessarily eating poorly. They may be very conscious about what they're eating, counting calories, macros, micros, doing all their homework. But because of menopause stages can lead to weight gain without understanding why. We analyze and figure out why they're gaining weight, what's the cause of that and if it is part of the menopause phase for females, we look at the stress impact on the body and help them balance it all.
Speaker 2:Can nutrition and supplements help manage?
Speaker 3:symptoms, especially hot flashes. I had a client today. She said I found out my hot flashes are linked to what I eat. I said okay, tell me more about that. She said every time I eat something in my food sensitivity test I get a hot flash. If I'm good, I don't have any symptoms. She was talking about that. She said wow, it's amazing how my body responds to food sensitivities.
Speaker 2:Any other client stories about how you help them work through stress?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Actually I have a client. It's a male. He was 24 years old, so I saw his mom previously for weight loss. One day she contacted me she said can you please give me a call? So I gave her a call and she said Nancy, I need your help. And I said what's going on? She said my son. We don't know what is going on with him. His anxiety is off the charts. He's always been a good kid, suddenly anxious, worried, heavy drinker. She's like I don't even recognize my son anymore. She's like he's depressed, he doesn't do anything. He's about to lose his job. He just graduated, got a job. She's like I don't know what's going on. So I said Okay, we need to do some testing.
Speaker 3:I spoke with the kid. There was a lot of stress. I did the testing and found a major mineral imbalance. Something shifted all his minerals. And when we started, of course I had to start him on a couple supplements. We I had him come off certain inflammatory foods. You would not believe the turnaround Within weeks back to the gym, lifting stamina off the charts. He's happy and not on any medications.
Speaker 3:He was admitted to the hospital because his kidney functions went crazy. Liver functions were high, so they had him admitted to the hospital for further testing and they couldn't find anything higher enzymes. When he got home, his mom called me and we connected. It was amazing the response his body had and he's doing amazing since then. It was just a few things we had to change and balance in his body. He had a low sodium, low potassium and very high calcium magnesium markers and a lot of some of the inflammatory markers was high on the test as well. But we also did the urine test to take him side by side to make sure to confirm what is what we're dealing with here. And, yeah, we were able to exactly give him the right product that his body needs to. That will give him the best benefits, and he sure did. And he feels amazing and he's very happy. Yeah, so now I he's speaking to the world about it, so that's, and he's very happy about how he feels.
Speaker 3:Right now he's not drinking anymore. So the stress caused him. He thought drinking was the coping mechanism to his stress. That's the only way for him to de-stress was a few glasses of alcohol at night. That turned into more, unfortunately, more drinks, more cocktails and things like that, because he thought he was helped. That was helping him cope with the stressors, and then, before he knew it, he couldn't stop drinking. So he doesn't drink, he doesn't crave alcohol anymore. His story is phenomenal. We're very happy and proud of him.
Speaker 2:I imagine if he was drinking that much he was probably dehydrated. Another thing I've heard you talk about causing a lot of stress on the body.
Speaker 3:Dehydration causes anxiety because the body's under attack, not hydrated. That also we have seen major link to anxiety and dehydration. Completely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I want to go back to one thing you mentioned. You talked about sleep disturbances. As people age, women and men don't sleep as well as they did when they were younger. What are some ways you have of helping people get some women and men don't sleep as well as they did when they were younger. What are some ways you have of helping people get some rest and prevent?
Speaker 3:additional stress. Stress can disturb sleep patterns. Some people sit there and toss and turn. They worry about life. Some of those worries can be controlled because they're like, oh, I'm worried, I have an exam tomorrow. I hope I do. Did I study enough?
Speaker 3:Or it could be something that is not controlled, okay. So, for example, I had a client that came in and she's like Nancy, I sit there, stare at the wall and worry about the neighbor's house, the color of their door. She's like who cares what their house door look like and what color is red? I can't control that. So I'm like, worrying about that paint he put on the door at his house. What is this? I can't do this. I have my own stress and now I'm worried about the neighbor's paint. It's funny, but it's true it's very agitating because she has no control over that.
Speaker 3:Stress can disturb sleep patterns. When we do testing, we look at root causes of sleep interruption worry, overthinking why the brain is not shutting down, why is it not slowing down? There's also a link that's linked to the liver as well, sometimes the over secretion of glucagon, and so resistance can be a factor there. So there's way more impact or root causes of sleep interruption. If you don't sleep well, you're not rested in the morning, cortisol is worse, you start off day high, which is not a good pattern.
Speaker 3:People should go into deep sleep. The people now use the aura ring to manage their sleep and how deep they sleep and they know they've had a good sleep so their day will be good If in three days they had only 30 minutes of deep sleep. They know they have to address that because you can't just go 30 minutes of deep sleep at night because you won't be refreshed and recover. This is where healing happens. If you don't sleep deep, it's hard to reset. We look at the causes of sleep interruption and the main causes of those interruptions and we look at the levels or how can we optimize the duration of deep sleep so that person can wake up feeling refreshed in the morning, which will help with the stress response people are going to want to get their personal assessment and solve their stress problems.
Speaker 2:Can you share the best way for folks to find you?
Speaker 3:You can give us a call. We are located in Alpharetta, Lockton Wellness. Our phone number is 404-809-4161. Again, that is 404-809-4161. You can also find us online at wwwblogtanwellnesscom, and we are also on all social medias Facebook, Instagram. You can also find us there, LinkedIn, and we love to see everyone. We look forward to helping everyone get their health and well-being to an optimized level, preventative to any issues or inflammatory response and risks for their health and well-being. We're excited to have everyone get the test, the baseline of what their body's doing, and optimize their health. Please call 404-809-4161. Thank you, Nancy. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast Milton and more. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured, go to gnpmiltoncom or call 470-664-4930. Bye.