Stress

STRESS THE 21st CENTURY DISEASE

There are 3 stages of stress:

1. The Alarm Stage or the Fight or Flight Response: It can be described as your bodies natural response to a threatening stimulus.  Your natural instinct in a case like this would be to fight or run.  Your adrenals would pump adrenalin into your blood dilating your pupils and blood vessels, directing power to your muscles and shutting down your digestion.  Adrenalin secretion increases.  This sort of response would be life saving if you was to face an attack by a wild animal but instead the modern day scenario to this would be facing your angry boss or getting stuck in a traffic jam on your way to an important meeting.  Your extra energy turns into anger or other negative emotions as you sit at your desk.  This sort of stress response is short-lived and eventually the body recovers from it. Problems start when you repeatedly put yourself through it every day.  Stimulant and foods you eat can put your body in a stressful roller coaster state.
2. The Resistance State:  Cortisol is continually elevated.  The prolonged presence of cortisol causes inflammatory reactions in the body contributing to disease.  The final stage of this state is Exhaustion.  Although the resistance stage can go on for years this is an individual thing and some people can become very poorly rather quickly when they are experiencing this stage of stress.
3. Adrenal Exhaustion:  The end stage of the stress.  The adrenals are exhausted.  Cortisol is depleted.  You feel tired and not energetic any more.  In this stage you try very hard to pick yourself up to perform even simple tasks.  Another problem with this phase is blood sugar levels drop because of low cortisol leading to frequent sugar and stimulant cravings to help raise blood sugar levels.  You may start to experience weight gain even though you are eating the same foods you used to.

As you can see the foods we eat are closely related with how we feel and function.  Following a healthy diet is immensely important to support your adrenals to stave off Adrenal Fatigue.