Unhealthy Stress – How your Adrenal Glands Can Affect Your Health

I realized last week that I may have been burning the candle at both ends. After a restful weekend, my body wanted to crash at about 4pm on Monday afternoon. I had went to the gym that day – well actually went to two gyms that day – and by late afternoon I felt extremely fatigued and achy. I didn’t have the symptoms of any type of flu but surely felt like I had the onset of some sort of flu virus coming on. It dawned on me that I had been pushing myself too hard and I was under a great amount of mental, emotional and physical stress for the past few months. My adrenal glands were not happy!

Looking back over the past few weeks and maybe even months, I realized the significant amount of stress that I was under left my cortisol levels too high. This can lead to disruptive sleep and days filled with caffeine cravings. In my case, this past week the added stress left me with lower cortisol levels, leaving my immune system exposed and overreacting to pathogens.

Support your Glands!

What Are Adrenal Glands Anyway?

The adrenal glands are a key organ system for managing fluid balance, managing inflammation and providing sustained energy throughout the day. The adrenals help you sail through the negative effects of stress, including emotional, mental and physical stress, and they fight fatigue and muscular weakness.

Today’s stressful lifestyles and poor “fast-food” dietary habits have a cumulative stressful effect on the adrenal glands. You may even find that your cravings for salty foods stem from your adrenals losing the ability to balance minerals like sodium, potassium and magnesium in your blood. In turn, this leads to cravings for foods which will replace the sodium that we have lost. Your ability to respond to stress well is directly affected by adrenal function. It directly affects your level of muscular strength, blood sugar levels, energy levels and sense of well being.

Symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue

• Asthma
• Dark Circles under the eyes
• Dizziness
• Dry Skin
• Extreme Tiredness an hour after exercise
• Frequent urination
• Joint pain
• Loss of muscle tone
• Joint pain
• Low blood pressure
• Low sex drive
• Lower back pain
• Numbness in your fingers /Poor circulation
• Weight gain

Stress Hormones

Stress hormones such as cortisol are produced and regulated by the adrenal glands. They are created to help the body to deal with stressful situations by increasing the heart rate and the force of contraction and blood flow to the heart, liver, skeletal and adipose tissue. They also dilate airways to the lungs and increase blood levels of glucose and fatty acids. Stress hormones and their effects are linked to virtually every body system. Thus, many physiological processes and bodily functions, including cardiovascular health, sex drive, pH balance, skin conditions, energy levels, mood and overall psychological outlook often correlate to adrenal gland function.

In my ebook Secrets of Weight Loss, Diet and Staying Lean Forever (which is also part of my Health & Beauty Bundle) I discuss foods to eat and avoid for healthy adrenal function.