The Mood Cure: Take Charge of Your Emotions in 24 Hours Using Food and Supplements. Julia Ross

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СКАЧАТЬ out Cortisol, which helps subdue the adrenaline rush and infuses you with strength and stamina. Longer-acting Cortisol is extremely important for your sense of well-being, particularly in the face of ongoing stress. It’s a prolonged Cortisol surge, for example, that keeps concentration camp prisoners and anorexics alive through one of its more extraordinary capabilities—that of raiding the body’s own muscles, bones, and fat tissues to salvage the nutrients essential for survival. Cortisol is the “can do” hormone, the “bring it on” hormone. It’s the hormone that allows you to conquer, rather than succumb, to ongoing adversity.¹ Up to a point.

      If continual overtime or an endless lawsuit keep the pressure coming, the levels of adrenaline and Cortisol can pump too high, too often, and keep you feeling chronically wired and strained. Surprisingly, though, many of the modern-day stressors that trigger these excessive reactions have nothing to do with upsets, injuries, anger, or fear. For example, a high-sugar, low-protein diet can trigger stress reactions without our even realizing it, and so can any severe or chronic infection.² So can caffeine and environmental chemicals we’re exposed to on a daily basis. Whatever the cause, constant exposure to elevated stress hormones not only keeps us in an overamped emotional state, it can also lead to significant physical problems such as heart disease, osteoporosis, obesity, dampened immune function, and Alzheimer’s disease. It can destroy cells in the center of the brain responsible for the storage and transfer of memory as well. See why I take stress so seriously? And so should you.

      WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF YOUR STRESS-COPING HORMONES?

      There’s a limit to what your adrenal stress response system can take. Eventually, chronic stress can start to wear out your adrenals and diminish their ability to produce all of their precious hormones, notably courageous Cortisol. When you begin to feel that you just can’t take it anymore, it’s a sure sign that your adrenals are no longer producing enough of their stress-fighting gladiators.

      When your “A Team” gets too run-down, you no longer have the wherewithal (that is, the Cortisol) to deal with even the most pedestrian of stressors. You can be overwhelmed by the sound of the phone ringing or your child’s crying, thrown by a challenge, rattled by a crisis. Just when you should be mustering your resources, you get irritable and ineffectual. When your Cortisol levels sink so low that you can no longer rise to stressful occasions, you’ve literally “lost it.” The A Team has thrown in the towel—you are a victim of adrenal burnout.

      After years of testing day-long Cortisol levels in hundreds of people, our clinic has found fewer than ten reports showing excessively high levels and even fewer showing normal levels. The vast majority of the test results we’ve seen have shown abnormally low Cortisol levels. Far from showing an ability to meet unusual stress with strength, these test results reflect what may be an epidemic inability to meet even a normal day with anything but anxiety, irritability, and exhaustion. They reveal stress-coping resources that have been broken by overload.

      Many studies now confirm that low Cortisol is an increasingly common and potentially serious problem. Over 50 percent of those admitted to an intensive care unit in one recent study had below normal, rather than the expected abnormally high, levels of Cortisol.³ A study of 289 men found that low Cortisol was the overriding factor in the development of diabetes, stroke, and cardiovascular disease.⁴ A study of women with breast cancer found that those with low Cortisol had fewer natural immune system killer cells and died earlier.⁵ No reserves left to fight the really important stressors.

      Adrenaline reserves, too, can eventually deflate, as stress-induced exhaustion sets in. More than 70 percent of Americans may be affected.⁶

      WHERE ARE YOU ON THE ADRENAL BURNOUT CONTINUUM?

      How do you know if you’ve experienced too much stress? Your score on part 3 of the Mood-Type Questionnaire gave you one indication. For a much more complete picture, look at the following list of the common symptoms of adrenal exhaustion. Think about which of these symptoms in particular apply to you, how often you experience them, and how much they bother you.

      

      

Sensitivity to exhaust fumes, smoke, smog, petrochemicals

      

Inability to tolerate much exercise, or you feel worse after exercising

      

Depression or rapid mood swings

      

Dark circles under the eyes

      

Dizziness upon standing

      

Lack of mental alertness

      

Tendency to catch colds easily when weather changes

      

Headaches, particularly migraines, along with insomnia

      

Breathing difficulties

      

Edema (water retention)

      

Salt cravings

      

Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep

      

Feeling of not being rested upon awakening

      

Feeling of tiredness all the time

      

Feeling of being mentally and emotionally overstressed

      

Low blood sugar symptoms

      

Need for caffeine (coffee, tea, and others) to get you going in the morning

      

Low tolerance of loud noises and/or strong odors

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