Mike Learns About the Wrath of Cortisol And Adrenal Fatigue On His Body- Part II

December 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Mike came in on his one month follow up for severe adrenal fatigue and related symptoms. This is where we got into some deeper discussions about what was happening inside of his body because he had been living with unchecked stress and damaging his adrenal glands for over three years.

“Mike, there are a few things that feed into the problems you are having with keeping your weight in check. First that central fat around your waist line is definitely telling me that your stress is causing insulin resistance in your body.”

The adrenal glands produce hormones that cause your body to raise your blood sugars in times of stress as this is the brain’s primary source of fuel to stay sharp and to think fast. The same mechanism that causes this also creates an increased demand on your body’s production of insulin. So the pancreas has to work overtime to create more and more insulin to keep up with these demands. Over time, this creates an extremely fatigued pancreas, and just like the adrenal system working overtime will eventually burn out, so too will the overburdened pancreas burn out creating a slow descent into adult onset diabetes.

“You see Mike, stress makes your body create lots and lots of cortisol- the hormone of stress which acts as an anti inflammatory helping your body heal rapidly from its wounds. Remember, man has been around for centuries, but early man had different stressors like running from the fangs of saber toothed tigers. The system was built for immediate stress responses to temporary and fleeting stress that was sure to pass quickly. You were either eaten, or escaped to hide away and recover from the immediate threat. Today, there are no such tigers yet we have not changed all that much in the way that we are built to cope with real or imagined stressors (and therefore real or imagined tigers).”

Mike was understanding that his adrenal response was locked and set to the ‘Always On’ position. thus spilling a constant and alarming amount of cortisol throughout his system which would eventually ravage his health over time.

The cascade of hormone production can be shifted to the exclusive production of cortisol at the expense of creating downstream hormones, and this is the source of so much grief for men and especially for women during the time of menopause. I told Mike, “Our country is a melting pot of constant stress and it is no wonder that so many American women are struggling with the symptoms of menopause and pre-menopause.”

Mike just smiled at me and said that he knew what I was talking about as he could already see these changes happening to his wife Judy.

When your body has too much cortisol in the bloodstream (and a declining levels of sex hormones that results) it turns off muscle production and bone mineral deposition which leads to osteoporosis, to muscle weakness and to frailty. The excess cortisol production also blocks the activity of Growth Hormone contributing to the accumulation of central fat- that dangerous fat surrounding your vital organs and filling out your midline, Mike.

Stress also causes something far more dangerous but way too silent to know that it is happening until it is too late. When you have insulin resistance like this for too long, it sets up inflammation within your body and especially inside of your blood vessels. Over time, this causes coronary artery disease and atherosclerosis (which is hardening of all the major arteries of the body). So stress IS a leading cause of heart disease and even strokes and heart attacks.

Another issue with stress is the way that it knocks out your body’s immune defenses and makes it harder to keep the outside offenders from breaking down your barriers to disease and allergic reactions to environmental pollutants.

Studies consistently show that patients with the lowest morning cortisol levels, have the worst quality of sleep and those that can not sleep well throughout the night are subject to have increased risk for all cause mortality including cancers. Studies proved that patients with metastatic breast cancer whose diurnal (daytime) cortisol rhythms showed flat line response or low levels all had earlier mortality rates.

“So Mike, it is important for us to treat these extremely low levels of daytime cortisol to reverse the trends that I see happening in your life. Are you ready to begin?”

Check out the next report to see how Mike was able to get a hold of his condition and begin reversing the grim statistics of his unhealthy lifestyle choices. Mike was getting the help he needed, including working with his psychologist to start developing much better coping mechanisms for dealing with his daily stressors.

We will continue with his story as it develops. Fatigued all of the time? Check Your Adrenal System and Your Hormone Levels!

Other Youthful Aging Center Pages:
Testosterone for Men
Basic Lab Testing To Assure Longevity and Youthful Aging
Food Allergies and Obesity
Physician Supervised hCG Weight Loss Program
Take The Functional Medicine Questionnaire

Recommended Reading:
The Youthful Aging Center Bookstore

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