Stress on our body can break down our immune system…
Stressed Out? You are not alone!
Lately, too many people seem to be emotionally overburdened due to things like our political environment.
Stress on our body can break down our immune system leaving us susceptible to disease as well as cause an exaggeration of physical symptoms of pain, fatigue, anxiety, and depression.
Stress affects our body in 3 ways:
Chemically, from the environment and the foods we eat.
Physically, due to workloads and other traumas of life.
Emotionally, from the travails of the World around us.
Lately, too many of us seem to be preoccupied by our political environment, and perhaps rightly so, however, when this stress becomes overbearing, we become sick.
SOMETHING CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT!
Stress, in any form, will cause our “stress” or adrenal glands to put out the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol.
When stress is temporary, our adrenal glands do a great job of secreting these hormones into our bloodstream, which act in alerting us to environmental dangers which help ensure our survival.
When stress, whether chemical, physical or emotional is prolonged, the adrenal glands often become over-taxed and “burn out”. This can be very damaging to our health because our adrenal gland can no longer produce the hormones needed in enough quantity to handle the situation. So our body’s defense systems break down and we suffer.
Much like how oxygen in our environment causes the paint on our cars to “oxidize”, stress on our body causes our tissues to oxidize. Free Radical, is the term given to these harmful substances which travel throughout our body eating away our health, vitality, and life.
Keeping our bodies resilient to the harmful effects of ‘free radicals’ will help ensure our ultimate survival.
Understanding Adrenal Function
Our adrenal glands are almond-sized glands that sit on top of our kidneys or renal glands. Ad = on top of, kidney= renal. So the name adrenal just means on top of the kidney 🙂
These glands put out over 100 different hormones at any given time and are vital to our survival. These glands, in concert with our thyroid gland and brain, constantly monitor our body’s ability to survive in the physical elements called our environment. They constantly monitor information fed to them from our body’s senses. Similar to those cars that drive themselves and stop automatically when a pedestrian walks out in front of it, our adrenal glands automatically control our hormone levels to keep us safe and healthy.
What goes wrong to cause us to wear out prematurely or become sick with disease?
First of all, understand what is meant by disease. In 2014 there were 1426 named diseases in the annals of medicine, but that year the CDC (Center for Disease Control), changed this and creates new classifications of disease naming over 10,000 diseases! WOW, medicine just got more complicated.
Funny thing though, our body still operates the same, sickens the same, and heals the same.
A wise man once said K.I.S.S. or “Keep it, simple soldier”. Do you think complicating the field of diagnosis will make our healthcare system more effective and efficient? Or just make it cost more and do less? Me too.
Here is the thing, keeping our body healthy is easier than the world of medicine would have us believe.
Let’s discuss how to know if our adrenal glands are losing the battle with stress. Remember that even though our adrenal glands are operating poorly, we may not develop recognizable symptoms for some time. When symptoms begin to appear, they may not be recognizable for a while.
Fatigue, anxiety, mood swings, irritability, unwarranted anger, headaches, migraines, painful joints, resistance to bacteria, fungus, and viruses, organ dysfunction, weird pains, apathy, and more, may all be signs of weakened adrenal. These symptoms, oftentimes, are pushed off and not understood until frank disease appears which can threaten our survival.
There are four stages of adrenal function or health.
These range from great function to very poor function. Often time a person has no idea why they feel so terrible, fatigued, depressed, anxious, and can even feel hopeless. Below are the stages of Adrenal health which might help us understand some of our symptoms or reactions.
LEVELS OF ADRENAL HEALTH
LOTS OF ENERGY – Free and appropriate emotional response, general feeling of well-being! Excited about the day and about life in general. Sleep well and our glass is at least 1/2 full and getting fuller!
OKAY, ENERGY – sleep okay – get through the day alright, can’t get too excited about things. Don’t get sick easily. Cup 50-50 full.
TOTAL EXHAUSTION – can’t relax easily, the body is in “emergency” mode and everything seems to affect you adversely. Sleep is un-restful and you may lay awake at night worrying about life. The cup is more than half empty and has developed a leak.
BODY HAS FALSE SENSE OF ENERGY – can feel overly energetic followed by a feeling of overwhelm or grief. One can feel a sense of emergency, your body can feel hyper and have trouble relaxing, and may have trouble sleeping, can crave carbohydrates (sugar), caffeine, and chocolate. Don’t even own a cup.
Saving Our Adrenal Glands
Adrenal function tests can be done easily to find out if they are “burning out” and need help. Blood pressure is taken with the patient first laying down and then standing up. The blood pressure should rise 5-10 points on standing. If this doesn’t occur, or if you want us to do this test for you, call our office and ask for our “FREE ADRENAL STRESS TEST”!
We will set up a complimentary appointment for a consultation and an Adrenal Stress Test for you. Don’t wait, your Adrenals may need help.
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