Stress and Adrenal Burnout
Do you remember how you used to feel? You were happy and well, with steady energy and emotions. You slept soundly and woke up feeling rested. Your recovery from illness was fast.
Now your energy lags during the day, you feel emotionally unbalanced and you sleep poorly. You use caffeine or carbohydrates as pick-me-ups and "need" a coffee to get started in the morning. You wonder what happened to your libido. This is why your adrenals need help!
Fight or flight!
Our bodies have been programmed by evolution to send out chemical messengers to allow us to either fight off the stress or run away from it. The brain and adrenal glands secrete adrenaline and noradrenaline and the adrenal glands also secrete cortisol. These chemicals increase blood flow to the brain, heart, lungs and muscles so that you can run fast! Cortisol also increases the amount of sugar released into your blood so that you can feed those racing muscles. During this time, as reproductive and digestive functions are unimportant, they are suppressed. Once the stress is over these chemical messengers return back to normal and balance is restored.
This fight or flight response is not a problem unless it does not switch off, as in the case of chronic stress.
Stress: It's bad for your health
The stress response may have been a great adaptation for us hundreds of years ago but unfortunately the effects of chronic stress can impact our health significantly. Chronic ongoing stress can alter the delicate balance within our body. Stress especially affects the heart and cardiovascular system, weakens digestion, depletes energy levels, upsets blood sugar regulation and hormonal balance, and may disturb sleep and mental health. Therefore, we need to manage stress and our response to stressful situations to ensure balance and health.
Rebalance this natural process with natural medicine
Fortunately, this clinic has some excellent options to help you manage stress and its consequences. The most important consideration we take into account is that each person reacts to stress differently. This is why we individualise our approach by using different combinations of well researched nutritional and herbal medicines.
What is Your Stress Pattern?
Herbal medicine may help rebalance specific types of stress patterns and therefore help to support positive stress management. Here are some examples of herbal combinations that may enhance your ability to cope with stress:
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Top Six Stress Busters
As well as these natural medicines, here are some handy solutions to help you deal with stress:
- Practice mindfulness - first notice how many things you are trying to do at once, how many thoughts are going through your mind. Then deliberately focus only on the task at hand, what are you seeing, feeling, etc, pushing other thoughts out.
- Take time out - we all need time to ourselves to help our body recover from stress.
- Exercise - many studies suggest that regular exercise can help reduce stress levels.
- Indulge in a massage, reflexology or some other blissful treatment. After all, you deserve it!
- Use positive visualisation to help lower your stress response. Think of something that makes you feel stressed and visualise yourself in that situation feeling very calm and able to cope.
- Vaporise some essential oils such as lavender, geranium and chamomile. Not only do they smell great but they can assist with relaxation.
Foods to Combat Stress
Nourish your adrenal glands by first reducing your intake of caffeine, highly processed foods and food additives which can aggravate stress.
Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) is useful for breaking down fats and proteins to nourish the nervous system. Good sources of B5 are salmon, wholegrains and legumes (eg lentils).
Vitamin C is also useful for maintaining adrenal health. Good sources include bananas, strawberries, red and green capsicum, rockmelon, broccoli, cauliflower and snow peas.
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