Keep your adrenals healthy while on your road to recovery!
A little bit on how all this panic and all this worry bullshit effects your physiology and where to start to get a good run at recovery.
I work with a lot of stressed out people and we approach things like this.
You can split stress comes in 3 categories
1.Mental/Emotional
2. Biomechanics/structural (trauma to the body, bad posture)
3. Chemical/BioChemical (toxins,food sensitivities,chemicals in products)
Your adrenal glands are to walnut shaped glands that sit on top of your kidneys. Their job is to produce the stress hormone Cortisol to handle the stress.
Cortisol plays many roles, mainly it regulates blood sugar and is the most powerful anti inflammatory in the body. Its also responsible for the flight or flight response we get when in danger.Cortisol gives us the instant energy we need in these situations so we can run away or fight. Thats pretty much all that is happening during a panic attack.
The autonomic system is confused with all the stress it feels and it flicks the switch for flight or fight mode.
The accumulation of stress from the 3 areas(M/E,Structural/Chemical) over time will take its toll on the adrenal glands.
If your not looking after the adrenals eventually they will slow down and struggle to produce the hormones.
Now, Cortisol comes from the same place our sex hormones come from, so if we are keeping our selves in stress mode, the body will burn in the cortisol pathway. This will now put the other hormones out of whack and you can’t be healthy without hormone balance
Bare with me.
The main hormone that is needed to make your sex hormones is DHEA.
DHEA and Cortisol need to have the right ratio for optimum health.
These two work together and your Adrenal health is important so the body can make these hormones.
DHEA promotes growth in every cell of the body, but if we have the Cortisol tap on for too long the body forgets about the DHEA and the Cortisol pathway gets burned in causing you to be in a catabolic state. Too much Cortisol does the opposite to DHEA. It breaks the system down.
Look at the chart and you can see how your hormones effect your WHOLE physiology. “You cannot be healthy without hormone balance”
In middle is DHEA/Cortisol ratio. If we have a handle of our stress levels with strong DHEA levels we will be promoting growth in all areas.
But if we are burning in that Cortisol pathway with worrying too much and taking in too many chemicals, all these areas begin to break down.
So in a nut shell look after your adrenals. These guys are responsible to create growth and wellbeing, if they get tired and can’t keep up with the stress, the whole physiology gets effected. This is whats known as Adrenal Fatigue and is very common with modern lifestyle.
What to do?
You need to build up your adrenals so they are in a better position to deal with stress.
Your body is the Vehicle that has to carry you through this journey we call life.
Look after it and repair it often.
People get caught up in the Mental/Emotional end of things but its a much bigger picture!!
While everyone is dealing with there own Mental/Emotional stress start looking into the other 2. Structural and Chemical too.
Starting with the most important….
1. Diet. As what Sean Croxton from Underground Wellness says “JERF” Just eat real food! and keep it simple. I will be posting a lot on nutrition for stress in the near future.
2.Rest. Get to bed at a reasonable time. Studies show that getting 8-9 hours sleep before starting before 11am as a more positive effect on your physiology than getting 8-9 hours after 11pm.
3.Exercise. Exercise is very important but you got to be careful here. Too much exercise or long duration cardio hammers your adrenals. So stay away from long runs and high intensity sessions. Pu more of a focus on strength training and structural balance, yoga too be a great choice.
4. Stress reduction what ever floats your boat breath work, yoga reading, walks in the park. Make sure you book in your down time into your busy schedule.
5. Supplements. few important ones are
Vit-D, Magnesium,Zinc,probiotics or fermented food, and a quality Adrenal support can do wonders.
Sign up to my email list today for some nuggets on how to hack your sleep and manage stress.
