When stress happens, it affects your adrenal glands. Your adrenal glands are super important.
Adrenaline is that feeling that you get when you are in that situation when things are like BAM! and everything’s a jam, you feel awesome. That’s adrenaline.
But, if you’re getting that all the time, it causes some issues. So, adrenaline dominance is caused by increased stress.
Increased adrenaline changes things like:
- Heart rate
- Blood pressure
- Insulin levels
- How your body uses sugar. Whether it uses it for energy or stores it as fat.
- Digestion
- Kidneys
- Immune system.
Now, in certain situations like you’re in the car and you’re falling asleep, your body needs to wake you up, it’s a good thing that we increase adrenaline and wake you up.
Why Your Adrenal Gland Quits Working
If you’re trying to go to bed at night and you can’t, because your adrenaline is too high, that’s not a good thing. And the problem is if your adrenaline is high all the time, eventually, your body says, “I don’t know what to do with this,” and starts to ignore it.
At this point your adrenal glands starts to shut down. And so now, instead of not being able to go to bed, you can’t wake up. You’re tired all the time. You’re always sore. You feel like you’re not recovering because your adrenals aren’t working.
Now, what happens? Your adrenals require sugar. So, you’re going to get mad cravings for sugar. That’s kind of where the “cop donut” thing came from because cops is a profession where you’re under a lot more stress, all the time. And sometimes, your life is on the line.
What stressful living does is it creates adrenaline imbalance, adrenaline dominance and it causes cravings for sugars and other things like that.
The problem is, you get the sugars in and now, you’re creating an insulin problem. Now, cortisol is getting out of control, and now it’s storing fat. Cortisol is the fat around the middle storage.
I can’t tell you how many people say to me, “I got to get rid of this right here.” That’s the cortisol right there. And, it’s that cortisol that helps you go to bed. It’s that cortisol that helps you wake up. It’s that cortisol that helps your immune system function on a regular basis.
The importance of balancing the adrenal system
But, most people have so much cortisol in their body that it’s out of whack. So, the adrenal system is another thing you want to be able to balance on a regular basis. And, the good thing is, you don’t have to make a lot of new changes beyond what I’ve already told you.
I’m not going to go through a whole new protocol for adrenals because it’s the same. You make the same nutritional changes and you make the same exercise changes I am about to talk about. You make the same five essentials changes.
When you’re doing these things, you’re going to get effects pouring over to most of the different areas. What can you do to balance your adrenals?
- There are certain herbs that exist in the world that help you reduce stress. Things like ashwagandha reduces cortisol significantly by up to 25%.
- Taking a 20-minute nap drops cortisol by up to 50% sometimes.
- Laughing or watching a comedy or joking with your friends can drop it up to 40% to 50%.
If you find yourself saying any of the below your cortisol is out of control:
- “I’m stressed all the time”
- “I’m having trouble losing this across the middle”
- “I’m not recovering as fast as I should”
- “I’m waking up and I’m tired no matter how much I sleep”
Try one or more of the cortisol blockers we mentioned previously to naturally lower cortisol, and make you feel calmer. This will also help decrease your blood pressure, decrease your heart rate, improve your digestion, and strengthen your immune system
JOIN US AT OUR NEXT COMMUNITY EDUCATION EVENT IN ROCKLIN, CA
Have you had the opportunity to join us at one of our community education events yet? If not, we hope you enjoyed this short clip from our recent hormonal health event. At the full event, Dr. Tim Smith from New Life Chiropractic in Rocklin taught how to keep your hormones in check. The presentation included:
- Tips to manage your stress.
- How to rid yourself of hot flashes and night sweats.
- How to bring your testosterone levels up to par.
- How to keep your mood steady.
Dr. Tim sifted through all of the knowledge out there to bring you key information about how to get and keep your hormones in balance. Enjoy all 12 clips from the series and learn how to Discover the Power Within!