In the past year I've been dealing with a nightmare custody battle with my ex, then suddenly found out that my son was the victim of a serious crime that tore our family apart and led to legal process and lots of trauma and therapy appointments. I'm a single working mom, I own a small business, I workout, volunteer, and sit on an executive board, as well as try to maintain a social life, date, and juggle family time. As a result, I can't remember the last time (before this month) when I got 8 or more hours of sleep on any regular basis. I've really been feeling it lately, and I've decided to finally focus on this aspect of my health. Below, I'll give you a quick summary of how our bodies handle stress, and how I plan to get my mellow back!
Natural Stress Response
When the body or mind is stressed, our adrenals (glands that sit atop the kidneys) produce a surge of hormones, including cortisol and adrenalin to help us push through. This "fight or flight" response is the body's survival instinct. Typically, these instances are short term and not a chronic state, but when we subject ourselves to chronic daily stress and run our bodies down, the entire system starts to crash and misfire. The result can be the overproduction of hormones that signal immune system repression, high blood pressure and fat storage-particularly around the belly.
Cortisol
When cortisol is released into the bloodstream, the brain receives a charge in anticipation for some intense battle. The brain in turn signals the release of glucose into your bloodstream, increasing blood pressure. The immune system is suppressed in order to to save energy for physical activity. Cortisol consumes energy from the body’s muscle tissue to produce glucose for energy. Triglycerides are mobilized from fat tissues. It's all quite a beautiful symphony of stress management. During short term stress and cortisol release, you get a burst of energy, lessened pain sensitivity, and heightened memory functions. The problem with this, however, is the chain reaction these hormones cause- exhausting and damaging the body when overproduced over time.
Some symptoms of chronic stress and elevated cortisol levels are:
- Impaired cognitive performance
- Suppressed thyroid function
- Blood sugar imbalances such as hyperglycemia
- Decreased bone density
- Decrease in muscle tissue
- Higher blood pressure
- Lowered immunity and inflammatory responses in the body, slowed wound healing, and other health consequences
- Increased abdominal fat, which is associated with a greater amount of health problems than fat deposited in other areas of the body. Some of the health problems associated with increased stomach fat are heart attacks, strokes, the development of metabolic syndrome, higher levels of “bad” cholesterol (LDL) and lower levels of “good” cholesterol (HDL), which can lead to other health problems!
Although it's not widely recognized in the western medical community, Dr. James L. Wilson coined the term ‘adrenal fatigue’ in 1998 to identify a specific kind of chronic tiredness that many people experience. It can affect anyone who undergoes frequent, persistent or severe mental, emotional or physical stress. Adrenal function can also be an important factor in health issues ranging from allergies to obesity. This is the physical manifestation of misalignment of mental, physical and spiritual well being. Adrenal fatigue occurs when adrenal gland function becomes less than optimal—usually as a result of stress.
Some typical symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue include:
- Morning fatigue. You don’t really seem to wake up until 10 a.m., even if you’ve been awake since 7 a.m.
- Afternoon “low” (feelings of sleepiness or clouded thinking) from 2 to 4 p.m.
- A burst of energy at 6 p.m. when you finally feel better from your afternoon lull
- Sleepiness around 9p.m. to 10 p.m. However, you resist going to sleep
- A “second wind” at 11 p.m. that lasts until about 1 a.m., when you finally do go to sleep
- Cravings for foods high in salt and fats
- Chronic low blood pressure
- Sensitivity to cold and feeling chilled
- Increased PMS or menopausal symptoms
- Mild depression
- Mood swings
- Mental fog
- Memory problems
- Lack of energy and feeling rundown
- A decreased ability to handle stress
- A decreased ability to recover from illness
- Muscular weakness
- Increased food allergies
- Lightheadedness when getting up from a sitting or lying down position
- Decreased sex drive
- Frequent sighing
- Inability to handle foods high in potassium or carbohydrates unless they’re combined with fats and protein
- You crave sugar
- Not only are your energy levels affected. Your bodily organs and functions will also reflect diminished efficacy. Your heart and cardiovascular system will be compromised; so will your immune system in fighting off infections; and other systemic functions, as well. In all, adrenal fatigue is a systemic blow to your body. I have almost every symptom I've read about chronic high cortisol and moderate adrenal fatigue.
May goals
Here's my game plan to get my cortisol levels back on track, reduce the stress load on my body and form some new self care habits:
Diet
I'm eating a high protein breakfast within and hour of waking. In the past I've never been a fan of breakfast, and with my current paleo diet I could easily fast from dinner until lunch without ever feeling hungry. But certain foods (protein is one) signal the release of cortisol, and eating my biggest meals mid day and late evening were creating a backwards cortisol curve. Cortisol should be highest in the morning, giving us energy to get through the day, then tapering off as the day continues, allowing us to easily wind down and get rejuvenating sleep. A high protein breakfast is recommended to jump start cortisol levels in the morning.
I'm also replacing all coffee with a mild green tea, and no caffeine at all after noon.
Supplements
I'm really not a fan of popping pills, no matter how natural. But, I'm fortunate to have many friends in the naturopathic, nutrition and health fields, and after much research and consultation, I've decided to consistently take the following supplements: vitamin d, a good multivitamin, cod liver oil, calcium/magnesium and coconut water kefir for probiotics. I'm also going to try epsom salt foot baths. I've had some other recommendations that I'm still researching, so I won't post those yet. If you are following along at home, please see your naturopathic doctor or another professional to help you figure out what supplements are right for you. Mine are tailored to my symptoms, lifestyle and diet- yours should be to.
Sleep
This is the big one! All electronics and bright lights in my house will be off by 9pm, to signal my body it's time to shut down. I'm going to try to be in bed by 10pm most weeknights. This will be the hardest for me, and I'm not going to turn down social events because of my 9pm bedtime, but I'm sure going to try to get to bed sooner on weeknights! I've got a giant stack of books by my bed I'm looking forward to reading.
Exercise
I'm backing off of intense crossfit workouts to only 1-2 days per week, and focusing on more gentle exercise like walking or yoga for at least a month. Low impact, low intensity strength exercises might be included... depending on how I feel.
Meditation
I'll continue to meditate in the evenings. I've been incorporating some chakra balancing, which is feeling really great. I'm reading more, and trying some new practices. I've been so tired lately that I often fall asleep meditating, but as The Dalai Lama says "sleep is the best meditation"
So that's it. It feels monumental but it's been a week so far and I already feel more rested. When I eat a big protein breakfast I notice that I don't feel tired until the evening when it's time to start winding down. I'm still tired a lot, but getting to bed earlier is making a huge difference. I've already noticed an improvement in my skin tone and mental clarity. Can't wait to post results at the end of the month.
Cheers to our health, friends! Namaste.
Resources:
Here are a few of the sites that I've found helpful in my research:
The Cortisol Connection
http://cortisol.com/
Dr James Wilson's Adrenal Fatigue
http://www.adrenalfatigue.org/
Women to Women: Adrenal Health Library
http://www.womentowomen.com/healthtopics_adrenalhealth.aspx
And a HUGE shout out to Michael Roesslein over at Natural Evolution Health and Holistic Nutrition. He's been kind enough to share a domain name with me, answer my questions and be an awesome and inspiring friend. He's about to launch an amazing website for total health, and his new Amazon store is one stop shipping for all things healthy and holistic. Mad props to Michael, go show him some love on fb.
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