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“Norepinephrine [also called adrenaline] is commonly thought of as the fight-or-flight hormone.  It’s produced when something is [or you think it is] threatening.  This hormone makes your heart pound, blood rush to your heart and large muscle groups, pupils widen, brain sharpen and tolerence for pain increase-basically, it prepares you for battle.  Modern-day battles are most likely things like pushing your body to keep it going when it’s fatigued, dealing with a stressful job, and reacting with quick reflexes to avoid a traffic accident.  Think of these adrenaline surges as whithdrawals from a bank, to help you get through life’s rough spots.  If you have gotten into the habit of withdrawing adrenaline from your account too often, you’ll eventually be overdrawn and your adrenal glands will be overwhelmed.  Then, you’ll have too little adrenaline when you really need it.”(Northrup) The adrenals are concerned with:

• Producing energy, converting carbohydrates, protein and fat to blood glucose for energy.

• Balancing fluid and electrolyte levels

• Regulating blood pressure

• Storing fats

• Optimizing the immune system by  the production of cortisol.  “Too much cortisol weakens the immune system, setting the motions for increases susceptibility to infections and cancer, while too little leads to an overactive immune system, allergies and autoimmune disease.” (Vendryes)

The adrenal glands are commonly referred to as the stress glands in that they are used by the body to react to stress by producing adrenaline.  Therefore, tha adrenals are easily taxed when excessive stress is present.  If not connstantly fed the right nutrition, they may fail or become exhauted.  Hence the term “adrenal exhaustion.”  Prolonged stress can create a chain of damaging events that lead to the compromise of overall health.  Some of these signs are:

• Nervous breakdown

• Chronic Fatigue

• Mental and Emotional Problems

• Sleep Problems

• Anxiety

• Sluggishness

• Depressed Immune System

• Increased Susceptibility to Illness

• Dizziness (sometimes feelings of “blackout”)

• Cravings for Salt, Fat and/or Sugar

Adrenal Fatigue

Adrenal fatigue isn’t usually diagnosed by medical doctors.  Instead, they look for more serious illnesses such as Addison’s Disease (stemming from a lack of production of cortisol) or Cushing’s Syndrome (from too much cortisol production).  Adrenal function is discovered through symptoms as well as blood tests.  Even with “normal” blood test results, adrenal fatigue may be developing.

 One way to test adrenal health is to take your blood pressure while sitting.  Then when you stand up and immediately take your blood pressure, your systolic value should raise from 8 to 10 mm.  If it drops, you may have adrenal fatigue.

Treating of Adrenal Fatigue

• Don’t overdo it.  Rest a lot.  Take Breaks.

• Get more sleep.

• Unwind through excercise (not strenuous at first), laughter, socializing and hobbies

• Rid yourself of people in your life who are causing your stress

• Eat foods that uplift the adrenal/energy system.

• Avoid junk food and carbohydrate foods and artificial ingredients

• Eat good fts

• Follow a good whole food supplement regimen that includes foods supporting adrenal health.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Nutriplex. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.