Written and Contributed by Oliver Samson
Business Mirror Health and Fitness Section
http://www.healthandfitness.businessmirror.com.ph/index.php/health-news/314-adrenal-fatigue
Business Mirror Health and Fitness Section
http://www.healthandfitness.businessmirror.com.ph/index.php/health-news/314-adrenal-fatigue
WHAT makes you fight, run or freeze, sit on top of your kidneys, said Mary Jean Netario Cruz, an integrative-health consultant. They are the adrenal glands, the size of a large grape, that contain the medulla, which produces hormones responsible for the body’s reaction to perceived risk.
These physical reactions originate from amygdala, stated Cruz who studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York. Amygdala is small gland in the brain, which triggers a neural response in the hypothalamus when something bad is sensed, prompting the pituitary glands in turn to release adrenocorticotropic hormone.
“Almost at the same time, the adrenal glands release the neurotransmitter epinephrine which activates production of cortisol,” she said. “Cortisol increases blood pressure, blood sugar and suppresses immune system.”
According to Cruz, a member of the American Association of Drugless Practitioners, when the body is in this physical state, the heart pumps faster, directing blood toward upper and lower limbs, and gluconeogenesis is prompted to provide the body with energy for fight or flight situation.
Anger is another emotion that initiates the body release cortisol and epinephrine, she said. Accelerated heartbeat and breathing, shaking, surge of energy and other changes in the body are experienced during fight or flight situation.
“If this kind of reaction becomes chronic, your adrenal will be at risk,” the wellness coach stated.
Adrenal Fatigue (AF) is not a health condition to allopathic medicine, Cruz noted. What allopathic doctors have as counterpart is the health condition called Adrenal Insufficiency (AI).
But to doctors practicing integrative medicine, AF should not be mistaken for AI, she said. The latter is a condition where adrenal glands cannot produce enough hormones due to damage, or the pituitary glands are not communicating well with adrenal glands to produce cortisol.
As stated by Cruz, integrative medical doctors take AF as health condition, which resulted from accumulated physical, emotional and mental chronic stressors.
She said that integrative medical doctors look at the interconnection of ovary (testes), thyroid and adrenal glands together with a host of other illnesses, traumatic experience, stressful working condition, environmental chemical hazards and extreme temperature exposure to pinpoint the roots of stress so that they can address it properly.
According to Cruz, Hans Helye, an endocrinologist, identified three stages of stress reactions. The first is the alarm reaction or the Fight-or-Flight stage.
Second is the Resistance Stage, she said. Here, the body adapts to the ongoing negative situation or the continuing release of cortisol. During this time, the body produces less DHEA, another adrenal hormone.
DHEA is the anti-aging hormone responsible in building tissues (anabolic), explained Cruz.
In contrast, cortisol eats up tissues (catabolic), she noted.
“The last stage is Adrenal Exhaustion,” Cruz said. “The body breaks down. Every system in the body is affected when adrenal function is impaired.”
Cruz listed down people who are likely to suffer from AF. They are the following: type A personality, call center agents, seafarers, soldiers, physicians, teachers, police officers, executives, graveyard shift workers, artists, musicians, writers, drug abusers, victims of calamities, abused individuals and many others.
According to Cruz, people who suffer from AF experience tiredness (even after sleep), difficulty in getting up, low energy between 2 pm and 5 pm, second wind (usually around 10 pm to 11 pm), obesity, Syndrome X and Type 2 diabetes, poor libido, PMS and menstrual problems, memory loss, insomnia, mental fog, back pains, digestive problems, irritability, anxiety and panic attack, and many more.
Can AF be fixed? Cruz answered.“The body has the ability to heal itself,” she said. “But we have to re-create the supportive environment to make it happen.”
As stated by the wellness consultant, every 35 days the epidermis replaces itself. The body has a new liver in every six weeks, and it can regenerate itself even if only 25 percent of it is left. Every four days the stomach lining is replaced. Every 5 minutes stomach cells in contact with food digestion are replaced. Every three months skeletal structures are regenerated. Every 2 months the brain is entirely new. And every five to seven years is new a body model.
“Given this amazing body rejuvenations, health conditions can be corrected,” she said. “Yes, AF can be fixed.”
The natural nutrients magnesium and organic sulfur that have amazing power to heal can address AF, stated Cruz who is known in the league of magnesium advocates as Magnesium Maven.
According to Dr. Sandra Cabot, in the chapter Adrenal Glands Exhaustion of her book Magnesium: The Miracle Mineral, the function of adrenal glands is highly dependent on magnesium. It enables cells in the adrenal glands produce the energy they need to manufacture steroid hormones such as cortisol, sex hormones and adrenalin.
Cabot found out that most of her patients with adrenal gland dysfunction are very deficient in magnesium and antioxidants.
It is easy to test the function of the adrenal glands with blood and urine tests, she said. But more subtle problems are often missed with conventional tests.
Cabot is a medical doctor based in Australia, author of 21 books on health, including the famed Liver Cleansing Diet Book.
Cortisol is a steroid hormone similar to cholesterol synthesized from cholesterol itself in most instances, Cruz stated. It is lipid-soluble single structure combination of three cyclohexyl rings and one cyclopentyl ring.
A lipid-soluble hormone needs to bind with plasma protein, which cannot easily diffuse across capillaries, she said. The plasma protein inhibits them to access the target cells and is biologically inactive until disintegration.
When a lipid-soluble hormone is sulfated, it turns into water-soluble hormone, said Dr. Stephanie Seneff.
“I think Adrenal Fatigue is nothing more than a severe deficiency in cholesterol sulfate,” Seneff told the BusinessMirror. “I believe that cholesterol sulfate is an important precursor to the hormones that are synthesized by the adrenal glands.”
Stress requires that they work harder, and stress combined with cholesterol sulfate deficiency, which causes them to fail, she stated.
Seneff is a senior research scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
According to Cruz, magnesium and organic sulfur have successfully helped her clients suffering from AF.
Worrying contributes much to adrenal exhaustion, the wellness coach noted.
She took as an example the preconceived risk in a notorious place that when you go in something bad will happen to you.
“By simply walking along the area, your heart beats faster and your feet want to dash off,” Cruz said. “On the other hand, when you are in a safe place, you feel the opposite.”
Addressing AF with magnesium and organic sulfur should be reinforced by rewiring the thought so that one can effectively glide in the waves of cortisol, she said.
“One powerful tool to do mind rewiring is the practice of cognitive therapy of Byron Katie called The Work,” she said. “In practicing cognitive you need to answer questions that lead ultimately to turning off your worries and fears.”
Cruz emphasized the importance of optimistic outlook in life in addressing adrenal problem.
“Positive attitude is an effective stress buster,” she said. “Aside from extreme fight or flight stressors, stress occurs according to how the person perceives a certain condition.”
Cruz pointed out that people working in a BPO environment are highly vulnerable to adrenal problem.
Just recently, a client was found suffering from severe AF after taking Health History session, said Cruz.
Reading the health history, the client has worked in a BPO and now unemployed, she stated.
“She can no longer handle the consequences to her health that is further aggravated by emotional bout of stress,” she said. The lack of normal sleep is the most important factor in understanding BPO workplace stressors, related Cruz.
“The major role of sleep in the body is to restore neuronal natural balance,” she said. “Lack of sleep affects the function of the central nervous system as well as the other functional systems in the body.”
Years ago, Cruz was asked to look into the meals of hundreds of people in BPO operations in eight countries. She was told that the work forces in the industry are young people, wanting to explore life, eating unhealthy foods, drinking alcohol and smoking.
These physical reactions originate from amygdala, stated Cruz who studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York. Amygdala is small gland in the brain, which triggers a neural response in the hypothalamus when something bad is sensed, prompting the pituitary glands in turn to release adrenocorticotropic hormone.
“Almost at the same time, the adrenal glands release the neurotransmitter epinephrine which activates production of cortisol,” she said. “Cortisol increases blood pressure, blood sugar and suppresses immune system.”
According to Cruz, a member of the American Association of Drugless Practitioners, when the body is in this physical state, the heart pumps faster, directing blood toward upper and lower limbs, and gluconeogenesis is prompted to provide the body with energy for fight or flight situation.
Anger is another emotion that initiates the body release cortisol and epinephrine, she said. Accelerated heartbeat and breathing, shaking, surge of energy and other changes in the body are experienced during fight or flight situation.
“If this kind of reaction becomes chronic, your adrenal will be at risk,” the wellness coach stated.
Adrenal Fatigue (AF) is not a health condition to allopathic medicine, Cruz noted. What allopathic doctors have as counterpart is the health condition called Adrenal Insufficiency (AI).
But to doctors practicing integrative medicine, AF should not be mistaken for AI, she said. The latter is a condition where adrenal glands cannot produce enough hormones due to damage, or the pituitary glands are not communicating well with adrenal glands to produce cortisol.
As stated by Cruz, integrative medical doctors take AF as health condition, which resulted from accumulated physical, emotional and mental chronic stressors.
She said that integrative medical doctors look at the interconnection of ovary (testes), thyroid and adrenal glands together with a host of other illnesses, traumatic experience, stressful working condition, environmental chemical hazards and extreme temperature exposure to pinpoint the roots of stress so that they can address it properly.
According to Cruz, Hans Helye, an endocrinologist, identified three stages of stress reactions. The first is the alarm reaction or the Fight-or-Flight stage.
Second is the Resistance Stage, she said. Here, the body adapts to the ongoing negative situation or the continuing release of cortisol. During this time, the body produces less DHEA, another adrenal hormone.
DHEA is the anti-aging hormone responsible in building tissues (anabolic), explained Cruz.
In contrast, cortisol eats up tissues (catabolic), she noted.
“The last stage is Adrenal Exhaustion,” Cruz said. “The body breaks down. Every system in the body is affected when adrenal function is impaired.”
Cruz listed down people who are likely to suffer from AF. They are the following: type A personality, call center agents, seafarers, soldiers, physicians, teachers, police officers, executives, graveyard shift workers, artists, musicians, writers, drug abusers, victims of calamities, abused individuals and many others.
According to Cruz, people who suffer from AF experience tiredness (even after sleep), difficulty in getting up, low energy between 2 pm and 5 pm, second wind (usually around 10 pm to 11 pm), obesity, Syndrome X and Type 2 diabetes, poor libido, PMS and menstrual problems, memory loss, insomnia, mental fog, back pains, digestive problems, irritability, anxiety and panic attack, and many more.
Can AF be fixed? Cruz answered.“The body has the ability to heal itself,” she said. “But we have to re-create the supportive environment to make it happen.”
As stated by the wellness consultant, every 35 days the epidermis replaces itself. The body has a new liver in every six weeks, and it can regenerate itself even if only 25 percent of it is left. Every four days the stomach lining is replaced. Every 5 minutes stomach cells in contact with food digestion are replaced. Every three months skeletal structures are regenerated. Every 2 months the brain is entirely new. And every five to seven years is new a body model.
“Given this amazing body rejuvenations, health conditions can be corrected,” she said. “Yes, AF can be fixed.”
The natural nutrients magnesium and organic sulfur that have amazing power to heal can address AF, stated Cruz who is known in the league of magnesium advocates as Magnesium Maven.
According to Dr. Sandra Cabot, in the chapter Adrenal Glands Exhaustion of her book Magnesium: The Miracle Mineral, the function of adrenal glands is highly dependent on magnesium. It enables cells in the adrenal glands produce the energy they need to manufacture steroid hormones such as cortisol, sex hormones and adrenalin.
Cabot found out that most of her patients with adrenal gland dysfunction are very deficient in magnesium and antioxidants.
It is easy to test the function of the adrenal glands with blood and urine tests, she said. But more subtle problems are often missed with conventional tests.
Cabot is a medical doctor based in Australia, author of 21 books on health, including the famed Liver Cleansing Diet Book.
Cortisol is a steroid hormone similar to cholesterol synthesized from cholesterol itself in most instances, Cruz stated. It is lipid-soluble single structure combination of three cyclohexyl rings and one cyclopentyl ring.
A lipid-soluble hormone needs to bind with plasma protein, which cannot easily diffuse across capillaries, she said. The plasma protein inhibits them to access the target cells and is biologically inactive until disintegration.
When a lipid-soluble hormone is sulfated, it turns into water-soluble hormone, said Dr. Stephanie Seneff.
“I think Adrenal Fatigue is nothing more than a severe deficiency in cholesterol sulfate,” Seneff told the BusinessMirror. “I believe that cholesterol sulfate is an important precursor to the hormones that are synthesized by the adrenal glands.”
Stress requires that they work harder, and stress combined with cholesterol sulfate deficiency, which causes them to fail, she stated.
Seneff is a senior research scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
According to Cruz, magnesium and organic sulfur have successfully helped her clients suffering from AF.
Worrying contributes much to adrenal exhaustion, the wellness coach noted.
She took as an example the preconceived risk in a notorious place that when you go in something bad will happen to you.
“By simply walking along the area, your heart beats faster and your feet want to dash off,” Cruz said. “On the other hand, when you are in a safe place, you feel the opposite.”
Addressing AF with magnesium and organic sulfur should be reinforced by rewiring the thought so that one can effectively glide in the waves of cortisol, she said.
“One powerful tool to do mind rewiring is the practice of cognitive therapy of Byron Katie called The Work,” she said. “In practicing cognitive you need to answer questions that lead ultimately to turning off your worries and fears.”
Cruz emphasized the importance of optimistic outlook in life in addressing adrenal problem.
“Positive attitude is an effective stress buster,” she said. “Aside from extreme fight or flight stressors, stress occurs according to how the person perceives a certain condition.”
Cruz pointed out that people working in a BPO environment are highly vulnerable to adrenal problem.
Just recently, a client was found suffering from severe AF after taking Health History session, said Cruz.
Reading the health history, the client has worked in a BPO and now unemployed, she stated.
“She can no longer handle the consequences to her health that is further aggravated by emotional bout of stress,” she said. The lack of normal sleep is the most important factor in understanding BPO workplace stressors, related Cruz.
“The major role of sleep in the body is to restore neuronal natural balance,” she said. “Lack of sleep affects the function of the central nervous system as well as the other functional systems in the body.”
Years ago, Cruz was asked to look into the meals of hundreds of people in BPO operations in eight countries. She was told that the work forces in the industry are young people, wanting to explore life, eating unhealthy foods, drinking alcohol and smoking.
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