Rushing Woman's Syndrome: The Impact Of A Never-Ending To-Do List And How To Stay Healthy In Today's Busy World

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One of the hormones driving this is adrenalin, which communicates to every cell in the body that your life is in danger. As I described in my TEDx talk, science suggests humans have been on the planet for between 100,000 and 150,000 years. For the entirety of that history "life or death situation" iswhat adrenalin has meant to the body. I’ve noticed a shift in women’s health and behaviour over the past 16 years. Never before in my work have I witnessed so many females in a rush to do everything. Tobe all things to all people. Never before have I seen as many reproductive system and sex hormone challenges as I see now. Do you constantly feel overwhelmed? Are you always looking for more time to get things done? Do you feel like you have no time for you anymore? Are you suffering from “Mum Stress” or Rushing Woman Syndrome? Why is it that so many mums are feeling increased levels of stress? Where is it coming from and, more importantly, what can we do about it? The Rushing Woman

The consequence? Rushing Woman’s Syndrome. Biochemically this is known as Sympathetic Nervous System Dominance… but as a scientist, I didn’t believe anyone would know what that meant.These days women are often in a permanent state of stress – juggling their family, career, finances as well as a chaotic lifestyle. There are biochemical consequences to this constant rush – resulting in imbalanced hormones, HPA axis dysfunction, sluggish thyroid glands and so on. We’ve made more progress in the workplace than we have in the home. Research shows that if a woman and man both work full time and have one child, she does twice the amount of housework and three times the amount of childcare he does. So essentially, she has three jobs and he has one. This isn’t fair, and it isn’t healthy. Yes, your husband knows how and where to take out the garbage. The only thing is that men function different to women. Give him a very clear instruction. Don’t nag. Chances are, you might be at risk of this. “A really common scenario I see is iron deficiency, because that is the most common nutrient deficiency in New Zealand, particularly amongst women of menstruation age, pregnant women and young children. It’s significant. And we don’t just need iron for the transportation of oxygen around the body, which is hugely tied up with energy and metabolism; we also need good iron levels for thyroid hormone production.” It is important to realise that the way we eat, drink, move, think, believe and perceive impacts our need to rush. As a scientist and health professional I aim to help people live their lives with more PNS activation because this alone can have the most profound effect on health. From that place sex hormones are far easier to balance, liver function (detoxification processes) and digestion work closer to optimal so there’s far less bloating, and the thyroid works better which is also important for metabolic rate and the ability to burn body fat.

There is suggestion that a lot of the stress that women experience is due to the expectations that we place upon ourselves – the expectation that we can and should be able to do it all…. There is absolutely no way that we are going to talk about New Year’s resolutions. For one, I already talked about it last year, and for the other, I think that if you want something to change (if you want to change something about yourself) you don’t need to have January 1 to come about to begin with your plans. Recently grabbing my attention was a book written by nutritional biochemist Dr. Libby Weaver. What grabbed my attention about this book was its title “Rushing Woman’s Syndrome – The impact of a never ending to-do list on your health”. It is an excellent book that examines how constantly rushing and having a never ending to-do list has a substantial cost to our physical and mental health. One of the biggest markers for how our hormonal system is handling our lives is our period shifting, and Libby says there are some clear things to look for. So where is this stress coming from? The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicates that two-thirds of women with dependent children are in the workplace – whether this be for career aspirations or for financial necessity (or both). Research from the Australian Psychological Society also indicates that regardless of the hours in paid employment, women continue to see themselves as the primary care giver for their children and primarily responsible for household duties. So it would seem that despite the fact that the majority of women with dependent children are working we are continuing to hold on to traditional roles. Our Struggle with Inner ExpectationFor this first edition of 2018 I thought we should discuss something I heard on the radio last week: The Rushing Woman Syndrome. Between deadlines and financial responsibilities, school runs and household duties, caring for loved ones of all ages and intimate relationships, our lives can be demanding. We’re often wound up, running ourselves ragged in a daily battle to get things done, feeling as though there’s so much to do, and yet never quite getting on top of things. From that place sex hormones are far easier to balance. Our liver function (detoxification processes) and digestion work better, so we experiencefar less bloating. The thyroid functions properly, which is also important for metabolic rate and ourability to burn body fat. This is why she’s now putting out Overcoming Rushing Woman’s Syndrome, a 30-day online course featuring video content and worksheets, to make the information easier to access for busy women. “I needed to find a way to reach those people and I feel like the past two years have only intensified things for a lot of people, with working from home and home-schooling.” Rushing Woman’s Syndrome Question 1: What Is Your Period Trying To Tell You?

It’s not just the physical health consequences that concern me for women. It’s that they live their lives so out of touch with their beautiful hearts, out of touch with how extraordinary they are and in the cloud of false belief that they aren’t enough. By consequence, at any point in time, you may break down. It can be a physical reaction, or an emotional reaction. Yournervous system doesn't know that the adrenalin pumping inside youis not from a physical threat to your life, but rather your body's response to the caffeine you drink, or your sense of everydaypressure. An excess of estrogen is what can be responsible for the heaviness and clottiness of periods and it becomes a bit of a vicious circle. A heavy period can mean a lot of blood loss, which means your body is losing a lot of iron – and iron is crucial to keeping the thyroid healthy.

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In this course I help you to get to the heart of why you rush, because it comes from the most beautiful place, yet the long term consequences are significant. There is much to be said about slowing down, and stopping with rushing through life. Once that you have come to the edge of life you will notice it. Whether you are a man or a woman doesn’t matter. You are an infinite soul experiencing the finite human experience. The moment you realise that it’s the Now that counts – then you have finally come to a turning point in Your Life, and I will congratulate you with all my heart.

Your mood changes before your period, everything annoys you and/or you feel like crying but for no reason. One of the biggest challenges facing women’s health today is the way stress hormone production is interfering with sex hormone balance. Too many women now suffer with premenstrual syndrome (PMS), PCOS, endometriosis and experience debilitating menopauses, which can have both physical and emotional health consequences.

That, in a nutshell, is Rushing Woman’s Syndrome. And if you’ve thought while reading this, “Boy, I bet that’s got worse in the past decade,” you are bang on the money. Libby says one of the things she hears most often – and particularly during the pandemic years – is “Oh yes, I bought that book – it’s sitting beside my bed, I just haven’t had time to read it yet.” (The Rushing Woman’s curse). There was a really big shift in the people who were walking through my door,” she says. “Before, people would normally turn up on time and the symptoms they were experiencing, for the majority, were less intense. And then I started to notice that the majority of people were running late for appointments – and that’s okay! – because they had tried to cram too much into the time before the appointment. So, then they ran late – because, if everything fell into place and they got a car park, it would be okay, but they had pushed it right to the edge of the time.” Not that long ago in human history women were given the opportunity to do what had traditionally been their father’s jobs, while maintaining what were traditionally their mother’s responsibilities and what has unfolded for too many women is a frantic double shift, of working day and night, with very little if any rest. The Rushing Woman Syndrome was coined by Australian author, speaker and nutritional biochemist Dr Libby Weaver – and it does sound like an excellent book to get my hands on soon. Whilst we can all feel a bit stressed at times, constant/ongoing/worsening symptoms should not be ignored. Most stress can be better managed and psychologists are trained to teach you effective coping strategies and skills.