Why we built GEM for Womankind. 👧 👧🏻 👧🏽 👧🏿
Women are different than men in many, many ways.
For starters, women simply have different anatomies that require a different kind of TLC than their male counterparts. This is likely complicated by the 100% Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) you see on every nutritional panel. Think of the RDA as the government's best attempt to knit a sweater to fit 98-99% of adult Americans. The reality is that most of us need a smaller sweater. Besides men and women simply being, on average, different in body size, there are also a lot of other discrepancies that require us to fill our nutrient gaps differently. One of the biggest ones being the way we take on stress.
In 2017, Americans recorded the highest stress levels ever (1). And women were reportedly 2x more stressed out than men (2). This is a big gender problem. Rising stress leads to decreasing productivity which only amplifies our gender imbalance. But, there’s hope.
We’re not promising a GEM a day will keep you from having that crampy, moody, bloaty (because that’s life) but it is one step closer to ensuring your body & mind has everything it needs to properly regulate a balanced stress response.
How Stress Works: Man v. Woman 👫
When your body encounters stress it releases hormones like cortisol, which is notoriously known for its fat-hugging qualities. Cortisol impacts everything from your immune system to your brain. Studies have shown that men and women have different emotional reactions to stress (3). Men tend toward a “fight-or-flight” reactive system while women adopt a “tend-and-befriend” response. Consequently, these differing responses to stress affect the type and level of hormones that are released.
Stress & Women 💦
Women not only manifest different emotional reactions to men, but their body uniquely responds differently to the change in hormones which can lead to a handful of problems like:
- Decreased Libido: Constant exposure to stress interferes with the production of estrogen, which is integral in the keeping alive our reproductive system and sex drive.
- Weight Gain: Higher levels of cortisol due to stress correlate with a lower waist-to-hip ratio or more weight in women's mid-section (4).
- Irregular menstrual cycles: Women with a stressful job are at a 50% higher risk for short-cycle length, a cycle less than 24 days.
- Acne: A sex hormone called androgen is also released when your body is stressed. Too much androgen = acne.
- Digestion Issues: Stress increases stomach acid meaning indigestion, discomfort, and all those other funky gut things.
- Depression: Depression is two times more common in women than men (5).
- Insomnia: Up all night, tossing & turning, replaying your day’s events in your head. Yep, all related likely to stress hormones!
- Fertility issues: Increased levels of alpha-amylase, an enzyme associated with stress, can result in increased difficulty getting pregnant (6).
- Heart Disease: Women, who experience high amounts of stress are more likely to suffer a heart attack than men (7).
- Hair loss: The imbalance of hormones causes a lot of funky things to happen, including hair loss.
Who is Most at Risk 😷
Women 25-54 show higher levels of stress then their male colleagues. The peak of stress disparity is reached between the ages of 35-44. This is likely due to a lot of things that are outside of our hormonal reactions, like women's role in doing just about everything because women do a lot more things than men (it's a fact.)
What in GEM Works for Stress 💪
GEM isn't designed like your traditional multi-vitamin that includes unnecessary, and sometimes harmful, megadoses of everything for everyone. We designed GEM to fill the critical gaps women need most. This means providing the key nutrients women, on average, that women have a tough time getting purely from their diet (or that are commonly left out of our current food supply). This also means key nutrients that get depleted or overworked when your body is stressed out. And since stress afflicts women more than men, we need more nutrient-specific support.
Here are a few highlights of stress-free players in GEM:
Ashwagandha: The gem of gems when it comes to stress. It is an herb that has been around for more than 3,000 years and Americans are just now getting on to its balancing properties. Each GEM has a 130mg functional dose of this herb. One 2017 study showed a 44% reduction in stress-induced hormone levels when taking Ashwagandha (8).
B6 + Magnesium: Consider them as the power couple of GEM. Your ultimate wing-women for PMS. Separately, research shows that magnesium can help with symptoms of insomnia. Goodbye restless nights (9).
Chlorophyll: A blue-green algae that is full of vitamins, minerals enzymes and amino acids. It's the ultimate detoxifier of all things that stress our body like heavy metals and other daily toxins.
Spirulina: Another blue-green algae that is full of B vitamins, amino acids, and other important stress-reducing nutrients. It's known to help fight stress by reducing oxidative stress (10).
Vitamin Bs: GEM has all the whole complex from Thiamin (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Niacin, B6, Folate, B12, Biotin, Pantothenic Acid (B5). It’s common for high stress situations and wacky hormones to deplete a lot of these B levels. Not to mention, if you’re vegan or gluten free or drinking a lot then you’re probably not getting enough of these critical things. There are many vitamin b5 benefits, b12 benefits, b1 benefits, and so on.
Astaxanthin + Vit Bs: Astaxanthin is a red algae from the sea that helps repair the damage caused by oxidative stress (more than100x stronger than vitamin E + C). This powerful antioxidant works swimmingly with the B group vitamins helping with utilization of folate as well as boosting our metabolism (11).
Vitamin D: Unlike our ancestors who worked all day under nature’s source of Vitamin D, we now work in an office, often for weeks on end. We could all use a little extra sunshine to keep smiling through the grind.
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
