How to stay Healthy amidst the Stress in today’s world
We’re all familiar with stress; it’s a constant element in women’s busy
lives today. But what we aren’t so familiar with is the body’s response
to stress and the ways in which the stress we face today goes far
beyond the kind of stress we faced as we evolved. The stress we
encounter now in our fast paced and demanding world ends up depleting
our energy and health.
When faced with a stressful situation, our bodies rely on the
adrenal glands sitting atop our kidneys to monitor our “fight or
flight” response. For the most part, our stress response evolved from
short-term events crises that came and went. If we had to run from a
predator, for example, our healthy adrenal glands responded by
releasing adrenaline, which makes us more alert and focused, and
cortisol, which converts protein to energy and releases our stored
sugar, glycogen, so our bodies have the fuel needed to respond quickly.
In concert, the adrenal response rapidly increases our heart and
respiratory rates and blood pressure while releasing energy, tensing
our muscles, sharpening our senses, and slowing our digestion so we are
primed to escape or fight back, whichever is needed. When the threat is
gone, the body returns to normal.
But in today’s society, women are inundated with stress that
doesn’t let up. And when chronic stress repeatedly forces the adrenal
glands to sustain high levels of cortisol, two things happen first, the
adrenals can’t attend to their broader role in hormonal regulation
because the same resources they use to make hormones like estrogen are
required to make cortisol, and second, cortisol starts to damage
healthy tissues. Eventually, adrenal fatigue sets in and many women
experience symptoms such as weight gain, fatigue, insomnia, fuzzy
thinking, depression, cravings and mood swings. Once the adrenals
become depleted, it can lead to adrenal exhaustion and much more
serious health issues.
As the great balancer of more than 50 hormones in the body,
the adrenal glands have a broad impact on your health and energy. The
adrenals are primarily responsible for activating your stress response,
shifting energy away from restorative processes like digestion and
toward the organs of action, your heart and skeletal muscles by pumping
adrenaline and cortisol into your bloodstream. They also synthesize
numerous other hormones, including their precursors, such as
testosterone, DHEA, as well as estrogens and progesterone which is why
it becomes more important than ever to support our adrenal glands as we
approach menopause, a time when our bodies come to rely more heavily
upon the regulation of hormones.
Aside from the life critical job the adrenals play in
activating your stress response and supplementing healthy hormonal
balance as we age, the hormone cortisol itself has a powerful hand in
so many other regulatory processes across all your systems, protecting
the body from stress by regulating blood pressure, normalizing blood
sugar levels, helping to regulate the immune and inflammatory
responses, and influencing mood, memory, and clarity of thought.
Maybe this helps explain why, when your adrenal reserves are
depleted, you might feel a little crazy, and your sleeping and eating
habits seem a little crazy too! In Ayurvedic medicine, the adrenal
glands are connected to the “root” chakra and contribute to our
groundedness, nourishment and physical health. With persistent stress,
we become increasingly less grounded, which can exacerbate the stress
even more. The constant demand for stress hormones means the adrenals
become depleted and ultimately exhausted.
Think about the tires of a car. If you buy good quality tires
and routinely check their air pressure, balance and rotate them, and
patch any holes, the foundation for how your car moves on the road will
be safe, steady, and strong. You will get better gas mileage, the car
will respond better when road conditions are slippery or uneven, and
the car will last longer. The same goes for adrenal function. Selecting
high quality foods, building a strong nutrient base, and paying
attention to when and how you eat all make for more efficient and
healthy adrenal function and better health all around.
Functional Nutritional counseling, Adrenal and Hormonal Analysis and Biomarkers Analysis can show how the various crucial adrenal hormonal and bio-markers balances in your body are operating. Together the HealthWalk
team will then work with you to regain and maintain the optimal
equilibrium to sustain your health through supplementation, nutrition
and lifestyle adjustments.
Your overall health foundation rests on a well functioning
adrenal system. From developing new strategies to manage stress, to
learning which foods are best to eat and when, there are many ways to
replenish adrenal health naturally. At HealthWalk
we are here to help and support you in creating your own unique health
regime for your particular lifestyle, interests and needs. One thing
for sure is that when you heal your adrenal glands, you will see
results on every physical and emotional level, and your whole body will
thank you for it!
Contact us at HealthWalk we have the tools, support and information to empower you on your path to regaining and maintaining vibrant health.
Carolyn Schropp BS, NC, is a Functional Nutritional Consultant and Educator at HealthWalk™
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