Stress. It isn’t all bad.
Our stress response gave us the ability to survive. It was designed to be a temporary state that was meant to save our butts in emergency ‘fight-or-flight’ situations, like say, to deal with that saber-toothed tiger that was growling outside of our cave entrance!
The Effects of Stress on Your Body
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From a physical stand point, chronic stress most directly impacts the adrenal glands. Under chronic stress, the adrenals will be constantly pumping out cortisol. They’ll keep this up for as long as they can, but eventually, they’ll get exhausted and burn out.
Adrenal exhaustion has numerous negative effects, including fatigue, feeling overwhelmed, problems with sleep, problems with stamina and concentration, depression, poor digestion, being sick often, increased allergy symptoms, PMS, and menopausal symptoms.
Dealing With Stress
Part of the issue is the stress itself, but another equally important part of the issue is how we handle stress. Managing stress is obviously critical for mental and emotional well-being, but it’s also critical for physical well-being—in fact, it’s impossible to separate the two.
Fortunately, there are many things we can do to strengthen our adrenal glands, both from a lifestyle and nutritional perspective.
The Reason for Stress
In dangerous situations like the sabre-tooth tiger example, stress hormones, such as cortisol, trigger a number of changes in our physiology, including increasing our blood glucose or sugar levels. This gives cells more glucose to use as fuel so that we can fight or run like mad to save ourselves! Once we’re out of danger, the adrenal glands stop producing stress hormones.
Or at least that’s what Mother Nature intended.
Stress in Today’s Hectic World
Fast forward to the 21st century lifestyle, with chronic levels of stress in so many areas of our lives. Even if you’re just experiencing stress sitting on your couch, thinking about stressful events or situations in your life, the stress response works the same way.
This is a real double whammy if you’re one of those people who responds to stress by eating a tub of ice cream or a bag of chocolate chip cookies.
You’re adding to the increased blood sugar situation that the stress hormones (namely cortisol) are already creating…even though your reality is that you’re just sitting there on the couch stressing about something and not running away from a saber-toothed tiger!
So, now you’ve spiked your blood sugar and that means that a load of insulin(the blood-sugar-reducing, fat-storing hormone) will be released…you can guess what that could lead to.
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