To blessed to be stressed they say!
No matter how high I kept my spirits it was no match for the unhealthy foods, prescription meds, and lack of exercise.
That’s correct, what you consume feeds your mood. This means if your meals are alive you will feel alive & if your meals are dead well you may feel like a walking zombie.
What is adrenal fatigue?
Adrenal fatigue is something doctors brush off consistently. Our bodies were made to handle little amounts of stress on a daily basis. Our thyroid is now breaking down because it’s completely overworked from chronic stress.
What does the thyroid have to do with stress?
The thyroid’s main job is to regulate our mood which means controlling small amounts of stress on a daily basis. An example is “what am I going to eat today” when you have food you just need to make a small decision. Now if you had no food and could not find any the adrenal glands would handle that situation.
What could this mean?
This means like a good partner the adrenal glands have to take over when the thyroids overworked. Adrenals are not supposed to handle little bursts of stress consistently, they are meant to save your life! They are made to handle big stressful situations maybe twice every month.
What does this mean?
This means in small stress situations your body is flooding with stress hormones that begin to cause severe inflammation. Ever heard of too much of a good thing?
What are adrenal glands?
The adrenal glands produce hormones that help regulate your metabolism, immune system, blood pressure, response to stress, and other essential functions. The human body has two which sit on each kidney perfectly. Each gland weighs about 4-5 lbs in an adult and is first detected when a woman is 6 weeks pregnant.
Adrenal glands dissected
Adrenal glands are composed of two parts the cortex and the medulla, which are each responsible for producing different hormones to adequately keep up with the amount of trauma you are under. These hormones act as chemical body messengers traveling throughout the bloodstream giving orders. These hormones are produced from cholesterol so if your cholesterol numbers are high so are your stress levels!
Adrenal cortex hormones
- Mineralocorticoids which is the most important because it maintains the body’s salt and water levels which regulates blood pressure. Without this hormone we would dehydrate and our blood pressure would be low.
- Adrenocorticotropic hormone which primarily releases glucocorticoids which are powerful medicines that fight inflammation, work with your immune system to treat wide range of health problems, controlling how cells use sugar & fat, curbing appetite, & more.
- Adrenal androgens which help people enter puberty and mature physically. Females with high androgen levels may develop acne, facial hair and other issues. Males with too little androgen may have low sex drives and develop breasts.
- Stimulates aldosterone release which tells your colon and kidneys, to put more sodium into your bloodstream or release more potassium into your pee.
Adrenal medulla hormones are stress fighting hormones
- Adrenaline triggers the body’s fight-or-flight response. This reaction causes air passages to dilate which in turn provides the muscles with the oxygen they need to either fight danger or flee.
- Noradrenaline is a chemical substance that is released predominantly from the ends of sympathetic nerve fibres which in turn increases the force of skeletal muscle contraction and the rate and force of contraction of the heart.
- Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter. Your body makes it, and your nervous system uses it to send messages between nerve cells. That’s why it’s sometimes called a chemical messenger. Dopamine plays a role in how we feel pleasure. Even simple pleasures such as chocolate, yum!
What does adrenal fatigue feel like?
- Severe fatigue
- Body aches
- Unexplained weight loss
- Low blood pressure
- Lightheadedness
- Extreme sadness
- Loss of body hair
- Severe anxiety
- Low immune response
- Frequent UTI’s
- Skin discoloration (hyperpigmentation)
Adrenal insufficiency can be diagnosed by blood tests and special stimulation tests that show inadequate levels of adrenal hormones.
Do you need to detox your adrenal glands?
Fasting will reverse adrenal fatigue!
When we fast the body gives digestion a break to focus on healing. This will take loads of stress on the adrenal glands and instead heal the adrenal gland. Once the adrenal gland is detoxed your body will give the thyroid gland back its rightful job controlling daily stress.
Eventually, if you need to stress big time you will be able to handle it because your adrenal glands will have recuperated.