Your Nervous System Is Listening — What Are You Telling It?
There's a lot of noise right now about nervous system health. Breathwork, cold water, meditation — all valid, all useful. But there's one piece of the conversation that I don't think gets enough attention, particularly for women.
And it starts the moment you wake up.
The morning cortisol spike
Here's something most of us don't know. Around 30 minutes after waking, cortisol — your primary stress hormone — naturally peaks. This is normal. It's your body's way of getting you up and ready to face the day.
But here's where it gets interesting, and where women's physiology differs significantly from men's.
Exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist Dr Stacy Sims has spent her career studying how female biology responds differently to stress, nutrition and training. Her research shows that when women wake up and don't eat, that cortisol peak is held — and the body interprets this as a baseline stress level. The hypothalamus — the brain's control centre — receives a signal that resources are scarce and the body is under duress. Cortisol triggers a sympathetic stress response in women, sometimes described as "tired but wired," and the body responds well to food and the sensing of nutrition coming in.
In other words, eating within 30 minutes of waking isn't just about fuelling your morning. It's a signal to your nervous system that you are safe.
For men, the biology works differently. Men tend to be more metabolically flexible in the fasted state and can generally extend their overnight fast without the same hormonal consequences. For women — particularly those already navigating high stress, poor sleep, perimenopause or menopause — holding a fast until late morning is counterproductive for increasing parasympathetic responses and keeping cortisol under control.
The best fasting protocol for women, if fasting is something they want to explore, is to avoid eating after dinner and eat something small within 30 minutes of waking. This keeps you in tune with your body's natural rhythm and hormone systems, activating the parasympathetic — rest and digest — state rather than deepening the sympathetic stress response.
Why this matters beyond the morning
Dr Rangan Chatterjee, one of the UK's most respected voices on stress and lifestyle medicine, has observed across two decades as a GP that studies suggest around 80 to 90 per cent of what a doctor sees on any given day is in some way related to stress. His view is that the stress response affects every single organ system in the body — digestion, hormones, immune function, sleep, mood, inflammation.
The problem isn't stress itself. It's chronic, unrelieved stress — a nervous system that rarely gets the opportunity to fully shift into recovery mode. And that state is increasingly the default for many of us, not the exception.
Where food fits in
This is where nutrition becomes more than fuel. Every time we eat — particularly first thing in the morning — we are sending information to our body. Nutrient-dense food early in the day communicates abundance, safety, and readiness. Skipping it, particularly for women, can do the opposite.
The gut-brain axis plays a central role here too. The gut and brain are in constant two-way communication via the vagus nerve, and the health of the gut microbiome directly influences mood, stress resilience, inflammation, and neurotransmitter production. A significant proportion of serotonin — the neurotransmitter most associated with calm and wellbeing — is produced in the gut, not the brain.
Fermented foods are particularly valuable in this context. Live fermented foods introduce beneficial bacteria directly into the gut environment, and the fermentation process itself produces bioactive compounds that support the gut lining and microbial diversity. This is not a quick fix — it is slow, background nourishment that accumulates over time.
What "working" actually looks like
This is something I come back to a lot with customers, because it matters.
We are conditioned to notice things. Caffeine gives you a lift. Painkillers remove pain. A green juice has a colour and a taste. But the most important biological processes are largely invisible.
Big Shot contains broccoli, Rambo radish, red cabbage, pea shoots and sunflower shoots — wild fermented together with apple, lemon, ginger and raw apple cider vinegar with the mother. This combination delivers a broad range of phytonutrients, antioxidants, glucosinolates and live fermented compounds to the gut. None of that has a sensation attached to it.
What it looks like, over time, is the absence of things getting worse. Energy that is more consistent. Digestion that ticks along. Resilience to stress that is slightly better than it used to be. The things you don't notice happening are often the point.
A small signal, every morning
I'm not suggesting that a 30ml shot of anything fixes a dysregulated nervous system. It doesn't. Sleep, movement, connection, rest — these all matter enormously.
But small daily signals accumulate. And choosing something nourishing within that first 30-minute window — something that communicates to your body that it is fed, that it is safe, that it has what it needs — is a genuine act of care for your nervous system, not just your digestion.
That's what I think about every morning when I take my Big Shot. Not as a supplement. As a signal.