Updated: Nov. 17, 2024
- Stress is everywhere – and your adrenal glands feel it!
- Stress results in increased cortisol, adrenaline and glycogen – and too much of these hormones can wreak havoc on your body.
- Adrenal fatigue leads to symptoms such as weight gain, fatigue, insomnia, fuzzy thinking, depression, cravings and mood swings.
- Natural healing for adrenals is possible!
“I am stressed from the moment I wake up to the moment I close my eyes at night,” Marcy said on our consultation call.
She’s certainly not alone! As a society, we’ve experienced some incredibly stressful times in the past five years. I’m so glad that I had learned long ago how to care for myself in periods of sustained stress; I’m not sure I’d have survived otherwise.
Many women, like Marcy, are coming to me because they really feel like they won’t survive if something doesn’t change. And they just might be right. Stress is incredibly impactful on the body, and constant stress can cause considerable damage.
I’m sure you are familiar with stress — it’s a constant element in women’s busy lives. Pile on a global pandemic, political strife, and the difficulties that come with being sandwiched between children and aging parents, and it’s really tough to avoid.
Do you know the body’s response to stress? Or how the stress we face today goes far beyond the kind of stress we faced as we evolved? Or how stress can deplete your energy and health? If not, I’m glad you’re here.
Perceived Stress vs. Real Threat: Your Body Doesn’t Know the Difference
When faced with a stressful situation, our bodies rely on the adrenal glands sitting atop our kidneys to monitor our “fight or flight” response. For the most part, our stress response evolved from short-term events — crises that came and went. If we had to run from a predator, for example, our healthy adrenal glands responded by releasing adrenaline, which makes us more alert and focused; cortisol, which converts protein to energy and releases our stored sugar; and glycogen, so our bodies have the fuel needed to respond quickly. In concert, the adrenal response rapidly increases our heart and respiratory rates and blood pressure while releasing energy, tensing our muscles, sharpening our senses, and slowing our digestion so we are primed to escape or fight back, whichever is needed. When the threat is gone, the body returns to normal — quickly with respect to adrenaline levels, less quickly with respect to cortisol.
So what can we do about all this stress? It never lets up, and our adrenals can’t tell the difference between this kind of stress and a real threat to survival. When chronic stress repeatedly forces the adrenal glands to sustain high levels of cortisol, two things happen: first, the adrenals can’t attend to their broader role in hormonal regulation because the same resources they use to make hormones like estrogen are required to make cortisol; second, cortisol starts to damage healthy tissues. Eventually, adrenal fatigue sets in, and many women experience symptoms such as weight gain, fatigue, insomnia, fuzzy thinking, depression, cravings and mood swings. Once the adrenals become depleted, it’s a short path to adrenal exhaustion and, potentially, more serious health concerns.
Permission to nurture yourself – granted!
The best way to counteract the hormonal imbalance stress can create is to take care of yourself. If, like many women, you spend a lot of your time taking care of everyone else, it’s more important than ever to make time for yourself. Do something to care for your body, your mind and your soul — like getting a massage, a reiki treatment, even taking a nap or hot bath. But while those things will help, they aren’t enough on their own! You have to practice daily stress reduction to make a real difference.
The good news is, there are many ways to replenish adrenal health naturally. Eat, sleep and exercise all matter! In my health library, there are numerous articles on adrenal health that can help you get started.
I can’t remove stress from your life, but one thing I can promise you is that when you heal your adrenal glands, you’ll see results on every physical and emotional level. Marcy spent some time learning about her adrenals and how to keep them healthy, and when we talked again, she told me she actually had whole days where she didn’t feel stressed at all! You can do that too – and your whole body will thank you for it!
