MAY 4, 2011 YOUR ADRENAL GLAND

"Relationships are laboratories in which we do our most important spiritual work."
-- Yehuda Berg

In a laboratory, tests are performed, repeated and perfected. In your life all relationships are being perfected, tested and re-tested for endurance. In this laboratory there is a controlled setting. In your meditation time or quiet time you are given the chance to do some self spiritual work. Some choose to do spiritual work within the framework of a religious order or in a place of worship. Religion does not matter in this case. In a relationship if you are able to do some spiritual work you are on a meaningful road for yourself and also for your partner. In this stressful world many people do not take time to do spiritual work. Yet it is so important. When I first got sober, three important aspects changed. I got my physical sense back first, then the psychological sense and third (which I feel is the most important) I regained my sense of spirit.

So let's discuss STRESS.

In integrative medicine, the term adrenal stress is used a lot. You will hardly ever hear a conventional allopathic physician refer to adrenal stress. Maybe an endocrinologist who is astute will do so. The adrenal glands which sit on top of the kidneys produce steroid hormones. The principle ones are cortisol, aldosterone and corticosterone.

The most important one is cortisol. Cortisol stimulates the production of glucose and the making of glycogen- two important body functions. The effects of cortisol are counterbalanced by the production of insulin. Insulin is produced as we ingest glucose. Cortisol is also important in suppressing inflammatory chemicals like prostaglandins, and decreasing circulating T4 lymphocytes.

This is all sounds technical and important. Well it is! But yet we hardly discuss this important gland.

The fight or flight sympathetic nervous system coined by Walter Cannon in 1929 has served some of us very well. It served the caveman when he came upon a saber tooth tiger, or a tourist running into a bear in Yellowstone National Park. The stressors for each of us are very different. Some involve relationship drama, death of a loved one, an examination, illness and even moving to a new residence (which I find very stressful). The adrenal glands get stimulated and secrete cortisol which then increases insulin production. Repeated stressor after stressor tends to 'burn out' these very important glands.

Do you have these symptoms?

1. Fatigue

2. Suppression of the immune system

3. Constipation

4. Low libido/difficulty in sexual performance

There is a difference in symptoms if the gland has hypo (reduced) secretion versus hyper (excessive) secretion. Some individuals have hyper secretion of cortisol with symptoms of irregular menses, nervous irritability, weight gain and sugar cravings.

Which person are you?

Until tomorrow...