A heavy workload or too much stress from work can lead to burnout, which can make you feel emotionally exhausted, fatigued, and weary. This emotional turmoil eventually affects your professional productivity and efficacy by changing your outlook towards the job you once worked hard to achieve. That being said, this is a reminder that burnout is real and can happen to anyone, even the most productive and exemplary employee or employer. Unfortunately, the diagnostic criteria that clinically distinguishes burnout from other physical and mental health disorders are yet to be established. This is not to be feared, however, because no matter what type of occupation, ethnicity, or culture you’re in, the characteristic features of burnout are universal!
Welcome to the first installment of our burnout series, where we delve into understanding what burnout is and why it happens. Together, we will explore holistic approaches to managing it, ensuring that your health is a priority and your concerns are heard. Join us on this holistic journey towards optimal health! Understanding Burnout
Burnout is a syndrome of emotional and physical symptoms that many of us may be very familiar with, especially with our fast-paced and constantly evolving lives. Burnout can affect anyone, regardless of your job or profession. It can be described as that feeling of being drained and stagnant, where every work day feels like another wave of stress and unfulfillment. This common yet silent epidemic is characterized by emotional exhaustion, detachment, and doubt about one’s abilities and capabilities.1 When burnout sets in, you may lose track of your job’s purpose or even question the values that built your company or workplace to the point that you just find yourself doing the bare minimum to accomplish each task. In the face of burnout, doing what you can to the best of your abilities, even when others consider it bare minimum, is proof of your commitment and responsibility to your job and the people that put their trust on you.
Understanding burnout is very important because it helps us recognize that our bodies also need time to pause and recharge. It is a reminder that no matter your profession, you are a human being whose body will only remain strong with proper balance and care. How Burnout Affects Your Brain
The core signs of burnout happen when our bodies respond maladaptively to stressors that have not been addressed and resolved for so long.2 When faced with stress, special structures in the brain, namely, the medial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex, help us adequately manage it by sending regulatory and calming signals to the amygdala, which is the part of your brain that helps process and control your emotions. Unfortunately, chronic stress or burnout breaks this regulatory mechanism apart by causing damage to the prefrontal cortex. Once damaged, the ability of the prefrontal cortex to soothe and control the amygdala is disrupted, causing it to become hyperactive and hypersensitive, eventually affecting your body’s response to stressors.2 This imbalance can also affect your thinking, emotions, and memory, ultimately causing symptoms such as exhaustion, anxiety, irritability, and fatigue.2
When you are experiencing burnout, you may need to exert more effort into solving problems and working on tasks, proving how an imbalance from external sources affects both your mind and body. 
How Burnout Affects Physical Health
Burnout can affect your physical health because prolonged stress can exhaust the body’s autonomic nervous system (ANS) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Once these essential systems become overstimulated in response to stress, their abilities to regulate vital functions become impaired, causing elevated blood pressure and heart rate, as well as impaired metabolism and immune defenses.3 Compounding these damaging effects is the possibility of picking up unhealthy habits when you’re experiencing burnout, such as poor coping mechanisms or vices, or unhealthy lifestyle routines. Over time, the combination of chronic stress and lifestyle practices can trigger the development of cardiovascular problems. In fact, heart-related problems are major causes of absenteeism in individuals experiencing burnout.3 Additionally, a weakened immune function due to burnout can increase your risks of getting infected with respiratory viruses and gastrointestinal pathogens.
The Naturopathic Approach
Managing burnout and preventing its consequences begin with recognizing that it is a reality for many people, no matter their profession, rank, or culture. At Natural Path to Wellness, your team of naturopathic medicine advisors will help you unlock the intricacies behind the burnout phenomenon and guide you in discovering holistic and natural solutions that are especially tailored to your unique case and preferences. Talk to us today!
This article is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your licensed naturopathic physician or other licensed healthcare provider before making changes to your medications or supplements. Disclosures & Policies: This and other blog posts may contain affiliate links. Please view our disclosures page for more information. REFERENCES:
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THE BLOG AT NATURAL PATH TO WELLNESSAuthorSNatural Path to Wellness values community education and welcomes contributions from writers with a background in Naturopathic Medicine, natural health and wellness, herbalism, homeopathy, Nature Cure, and more. Disclosures & Policies: This and other blog posts may contain affiliate links. Please view our disclosures page for more information.
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