Few organs are as crucial to quality-of-life as the adrenal glands. They balance blood sugar, provide potent anti-inflammatory hormones, help to regulate blood volume and pressure, and produce sex hormones. And when the going gets really tough - say you round a corner on the hiking trail and come face to face with a bear - the adrenals provide the hormonal juice for "fight or flight." You can't live without your adrenals The most serious form of low adrenal function - Addison's disease - is life-threatening, and relatively common thanks to our reliance on prescribed corticosteroids (prednisone, hydrocortisone.) President Kennedy suffered from Addison's disease after taking prednisone longterm for back injuries he sustained in war. Yet, as essential as these little hat-shaped glands sitting on top of your kidneys are, they are rarely considered or discussed at all at a conventional doctor's visit.
As it turns out, the "fight or flight" reaction works very well for those surprise appearances of bears on the trail, but not so well when people are under the kind of constant, low-grade stress that most of us are exposed to every day of our lives. Getting little bursts of stress hormones on a regular basis leads to all sorts of health problems, if the adrenals are not well nurtured.
The incidence of Addison's disease - adrenal failure - is 4:100,000, with equal distribution between the sexes. Yet many, many more people suffer with varying degrees of adrenal stress and exhaustion. Hans Selye famously developed a theory of physiological adaptation to chronic stress which he called "General Adaptation Syndrome," consisting of 3 stages:
1.) Alarm reaction - characterized by weight loss, stomach ulcers, and deterioration of the thymus gland and lymph nodes (key organs of the immune system.)
2.) Stage of Resistance (or suppression) - where the effects of the alarm reaction apparently reverse and health appears to return toward normal. However, this apparent balance is an illusion. The immune system and inflammatory response are suppressed and, without changing the stress level or supporting the adrenals, it's only a matter of time before the final stage is reached.
3.) Stage of Exhaustion - decreased stress resistance, premature aging, exhausion and without attention, eventually death.
94% of people with low adrenal function suffer with excessive fatigue. Other symptoms include nervousness and irritability, PMS, salt craving, depression, allergies, alcohol intolerance, pain in the neck and shoulders, confusion, poor memory, heart palpitations and heart attacks, faintness (especially when going from lying to standing,) sparse body hair, scanty perspiration, dry thin skin and weight loss.
Adrenal HYPER function, a medical condition called Cushing's Syndrome, is not nearly as common. High amounts of cortisol and cortisone cause a round "moon face" obesity that's all concentrated on the trunk, with thin legs and arms, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, kidney stones, reduced resistance to infection (particularly fungal,) psychiatric disturbances, muscle wasting, male pattern balding, and menstrual irregularities and inappropriate hair growth in women. Hyperadrenalism affects women 8X more than men. Cushing's syndrome, which is diagnosed by a high 24-hr. urine cortisol test, is often caused nowadays by the over-prescribing of prednisone (although it's a mystery to me why women are prescribed so much more prednisone than men - perhaps it's because the incidence of autoimmune diseases - which are usually treated with prednisone - are generally higher in women than men. One should be careful to always wean off of prednisone very slowly to avoid throwing the body the opposite direction - into Addison's disease.
So, in today's world, where practically everyone is under increased stress, what can we do to protect and strengthen our adrenal glands? The most fundamental behavior is to eat a blood-sugar-balancing diet of frequent meals (including some protein and good fat in every meal and snack,) avoidance of processed sugars, and regular exercise. Adequate rest and relaxation and stress management techniques such as meditation are essential for both low and high adrenal imbalances. For low adrenal function, a good multivitamin is recommended with high doses of the B-vitamins. Also, omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants such as CoQ10, alpha lipoic acid, or N-acetylcysteine (NAC) are helpful. DHEA should be avoided if cortisol is low, because it will further lower it. Other stimulants such as caffeine should also be avoided, even though the first instinct with low energy is to reach for a stimulant. In the case of caffiene, it causes fluctuating blood sugar levels that further stress the adrenals. Some good herbs to support adrenal function are: Eleutherococcus root (Siberian ginseng,) Astragalus root, Dioscorea (wild yam) root, Schizandra fruit, and Borage.
In addition to good dietary habits, sleep is incredibly important for the adrenals. The latest research indicates 5-1/2 to 7-1/2 hours is adequate, and maybe even ideal, for many people. If sleep is a problem, try melatonin (or cannabis, which naturally increases the production of melatonin by the pineal gland.) first.
No comments:
Post a Comment