Stressed?
If your energy fluctuates regularly throughout the day, you have sleep problems, mood swings, weight issues (especially excess fat around your middle), or need to start the day with a coffee it might be a sign that your adrenals are struggling and that you are under stress! Most people live their lives with some degree of stress without even realising it. This can lead to all kinds of issues such as hormonal imbalances, infertility, digestive issues and a whole host of chronic illnesses.
Make a quick assessment of your risk here
What are the adrenals?
Your adrenals are two walnut-shaped glands that sit above your kidneys. They are responsible for producing hormones, including the sex hormones (ie estrogen and progesterone) and balancing fluids in your body but their main job is to produce stress hormones to help you cope when you are ‘stressed’
So what is stress?
The stress response is a physical, mental and emotional reaction to a real or imagined threat. The reaction to the demanding circumstance will vary from person to person.
In the past, the sympathetic nervous system would activate in response to a threat such as an animal attacking. This ‘fight or flight’ response would cause blood to move to the muscles, the pupils to dilate, heart to beat faster, breathing to increase and sugar to be dumped into the blood stream. Now these same physiological responses can occur in response to overwhelm at our to-do lists or anxiety over meeting someone new and so on.
When the stress response is activated with the release of adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol by the adrenals, the restorative and digestive as well as reproductive functions of the body are dialled down or put on hold to conserve energy for dealing with the ‘stress’.
This is why fertility can be affected by chronic stress and why when we’re stressed we might lose our appetite or struggle from digestive issues.
In small doses, stress can be a good thing. It can give you the push you need, motivating you to do your best. But when the stress becomes too much and life’s demands exceed your ability to cope, stress becomes a threat to both your physical and emotional well-being.
The role of stress hormones is to give us the impetus and energy to cope with stressors large and small but when constantly put under pressure to secrete them the adrenals can burn out.
Stress comes in many forms:
Emotional: Caused by relationship, work or financial issues. Low self esteem, perfectionism, strong inner critic, Past unresolved trauma and abuse.
Physical: Caused by food allergies or intolerances, infections (i.e Epstein Bar, Lyme) Over- exercise, sleep deprivation, malnourishment.
Chemical: Your toxic load is high and your liver is overwhelmed. This could be from prescription or recreational drugs, alcohol, dental amalgams, environmental toxins in health care and cleaning products, food, air, water and so forth.
Spiritual: You feel a lack of purpose or direction in life. Feeling of disconnect.
Dietary: Over consumption of caffeine, carbs, high sugar foods or other stimulants can lead to to blood sugar imbalances and the chronic secretion of cortisol. Chronic gut issues and unresolved food sensitivities can also be a source of inflammation and therefore stress.
Whatever the trigger, it must be addressed if you want to avoid adrenal collapse and impacting your health negatively.
What are the stages of adrenal fatigue?
Stage 1. On High Alert
This is where a stressful event causes a heightened release of stress hormones to give you the energy to get through it. This is usually for a specific period of time and once it passes your energy drops and you need a bit of time to recover but after a good night’s rest and some nourishing food your body can restore balance again.
Stage 2: Tired But Wired
This is where you have ongoing demands on you that put you in a state of chronic stress whereby your adrenals have to work hard to keep releasing stress hormones on demand. This can lead to unusual fluctuations of cortisol and energy leading you to become more and more reliant on stimulants like coffee and sugar. This makes the problem worse!
Stage 3: Burnout
This is where your chronic stress has been so relentless and you haven’t addressed it to the extent that your adrenals are no longer producing cortisol due to prolonged over secretion. This means there is no longer a rise in cortisol in the morning giving you the energy to start your day. The cortisol often doesn’t rise at all making you feel exhausted all day long.
Read this article on tips for dealing with stress
