Description
Why Measure Chronic Stress?
We all experience stress. The effects of stress can be positive when motivating us to complete a task, preparing us for a dangerous or difficult situation, and supporting active recovery and immune function. While some stress is beneficial in our daily functioning, chronic activation of our “stress-response” system without proper recovery can lead to a host of negative health effects.
But other than following how you feel, how do you really know if the stress you experience is too much and how do you know if changes you make in your lifestyle to reduce stress are working?
Stress affects everyone differently, which is why a science-based, multi-day approach is essential for testing. You can’t get the full picture by placing a single puzzle piece, just like you can’t understand stress-levels from a single-time-point test. Stress is dynamic and constantly adapting to life’s changes. A multi-day assessment allows you to track your stress trajectory over time, providing a clearer understanding of your true stress levels. This helps develop a personalized strategy for managing chronic stress and improving your overall health and well-being.
Why Measure Cortisol in Saliva?
In healthy individuals, cortisol levels typically peak shortly after waking and gradually decline throughout the day, reaching their lowest point at bedtime. The signature of chronic stress is revealed through lower peak levels in the AM and higher levels in the PM. These changes can interfere with energy mobilization in the morning and relaxation and restorative behaviors in the evening. The science is clear, understanding the trajectory of your cortisol production over time will enable you to know more about the underlying factors that may be contributing to stress-related health issues, and provide objective information you can use on your journey to reduce stress in your life.
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Comparing You-To-You: What Do My Results Mean?
Comparing you-to-you is much more meaningful than comparing you to others. You are not the average of a group, you are unique. That’s the power of this assessment. Its simplicity enables you to observe how your cortisol levels change over days, months, and year, rather than just in a single day. Each time you repeat this assessment, the results are even more powerful.
Within a basic assessment, you will establish a baseline which will reveal how your cortisol levels change across the day. This will allow you to determine an overall stress score, which you can improve over time.
Your job now is to think about aspects of your choices, lifestyle, or habits as they relate to the healthy behaviors listed on your report. These suggestions are specific to your results, and provide you with a basis for changing one or more of those factors, after which future testing will reveal how that change worked to impact your chronic stress levels.
Each additional assessment allows you to compare your stress now to the last time. This helps you understand if the change you worked on resulted in an improvement and is worth your time. This determines how your trajectory changes and also what you might consider next.
If you need more help, our telehealth professionals are standing-by to also answer any questions you might have.
Click on the sample results below to learn more.
Overall HLC Index:
Our algorithm does all the number crunching for you to deliver an easy to understand Healthy Lifestyle Check Index or HLC Index. A good HLC Index in Chronic Stress health means your body appears to be managing stress well and your test values were within a healthy level throughout the assessment sampling profile. Over time, you can track and compare results to determine when you might consider additional lifestyle choices to keep your stress levels in the green!
If you see a lower HLC Index, don’t fret! Lower scores include an approved list of science-based healthy lifestyle recommendations to help support your body in managing chronic stress levels. The major benefit of this assessment is that you can now pick a single recommendation that easily fits with your unique lifestyle. Then you can determine precisely how effective this behavior is in improving your overall Stress Index through routine testing.
Individual Cortisol Scores:
On the flip-side you’ll gain access into each individual metric that is used to calculate your overall HLC Index. This way you can determine if there are any important areas that might be dragging down your overall stress scores. This enables you to focus on specific timing or behaviors that target this particular area of improvement.
Contact: Salimetrics (USA)
