Stress Relief Program
Posted on 02/03/2011 04:46 pm by admin
Learn the Crucial Steps Needed to go from feeling Stressed to feelings of relaxation! Stop suffering needlessly!
I have a confession to make. I failed my own stress test!
Running a small business is tough. It takes a lot of time and hours out of your life. Working on patient cases, managing insurances and the day to day details made me feel tired, exhausted, and I started to have sleeping problems as well. The worst part of it was being in the healing profession, I felt that I should not be having the very problems which I encounter daily with my patients. Because of that I ignored the feelings and suffered throughout that time. The scariest thing was that I didn’t even know that I had a problem.
So I started to do research into stress and adrenal gland weakness. I then took a test for my adrenal gland function which measures levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, throughout the day. Before I took my adrenal test, I felt really exhausted after work that it was difficult to even stop at the grocery store to buy food. I also didn’t have the stamina to work out as much as I had been used to. Soon I realized I wasn’t even socializing or going out with friends. I took my own adrenal test and found that I failed it!
After three months of changing my diet, acupuncture, and taking herbs and supplements for this condition, I started to sleep better, lose weight and felt way more energetic. I felt more and more optimistic too with less feelings of pessimism and there was more pep in my step. I wish I had acknowledged my stress and done something sooner and creating the “Stress Relief Program” to help others.
I learned that everyone, including myself, a health care practitioner, is not immune to stress. After my experience with high to extremely low stress levels, I want to help you as well, to save you from a fate similar to mine. You may be suffering from the same condition that I had called “adrenal gland weakness”.
If you suffer from 2 or more of the symptoms below, you could be suffering from a condition of known as adrenal gland weakness:
Emotional Stress:
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Cognitive issues?
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Memory problems
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Inability to concentrate
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Make poor judgments
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Seeing only the negative
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Racing Thoughts
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Constant worrying about one thing or another?
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Do you feel overwhelmed most of the time, even with small tasks?
Physical Stress:
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General aches & pains?
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Everything seems to hurt all over?
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Diarrhea, constipation, bloating, nausea, poor appetite or dizziness?
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Chest pain?
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Rapid heart beat?
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Lose energy during the day, especially in the afternoon?
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Over eating?
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Difficulty sleeping? If you are able to get to sleep do you awaken rested?
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Problems with procrastination or isolation ?
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Do you engage in nail biting?
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Do you crave sugar salt of alcohol?
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Do you have a low sex drive or do you lack the stamina for exercise or sex?
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Do you get more susceptible to colds, flu’s or allergies than you used to?
If you are like millions of Americans, you are over worked, over-extended, over tired, and have a lack of energy. Simply put you are “stressed”. Most people think that this is mainly a condition in your head and that with enough discipline you can over come anything. The truth of the matter is, this thinking couldn’t be farther from the truth. I know because I suffered needlessly because of this! I kept thinking that if I could eat better, cut out caffeine, exercise more, or take a vacation, I would be able to simply “pop” out of a constant stressed state, as though it were simply a matter of willpower. The answer is flawed since stress can and does affect you physically. Unless stress is dealt with on a physical level, you will experience fatigue, insomnia, lack of stamina, and weight issues. It also affects your risk for high blood pressure and diabetes. Enter the condition known as adrenal gland weakness.
What is adrenal gland weakness?
Periods of intense or lengthy physical or emotional stress can cause the adrenal glands to become exhausted and weak. You then have a condition known as adrenal exhaustion or adrenal fatigue. This is a condition where your adrenal glands become unable to regulate your body’s stress levels and as a result secrete too many stress hormones or in severe cases are unable to secrete the very stress hormones needed to handle stress. When you are under stress, your body reacts by secreting stress hormones to deal with the situation. This in and of itself is not bad, as that is what we are designed to do. The problem however, occurs when your body does not return to its normal state and continues to secrete stress hormones because your body interprets your day to day grind as stress, hence the word “grind”. There may be good reason for your body to do this such as difficult co-workers, demanding boss, deadlines, relationship issues or just being over-scheduled between work and family life and leading a hectic and quickly paced lifestyle. If left untreated, your body literally grinds you down as a result of imbalances to the stress hormones which are secreted from the adrenal gland, which is a structure that sits above the kidneys.
These glands secrete what is known as Stress Hormones in order to deal with stress. These hormones include cortisol which elevates blood sugar levels, norepineprine which takes blood flow away from the heart and sends it to the extremities for a “fight or flight” response, and ephinephrine which makes the heart race by increasing blood flow to the heart. The problem isn’t when the body reacts to perceived stress, it is a problem when the body “adapts” to the stress, meaning that the body doesn’t come down from dealing with a stress response and it keeps on going, mistakenly believing that the environment you are in is constantly hostile. When the body is chronically stuck in this hyperactive state you will start to feel the effects of this –weight gain, insomnia, increased fatigue along with anxiety, to name a few symptoms. Conversely, when this continues in a sustained fashion, the hormones themselves, fail to be produced anymore, as they are designed for short term use, and you become more and more chronically fatigued.
You not only need the right balance of stress hormones, you need to be able to come back to a state of rest soon after a stressed state or the body continues to rev up in response to stress. Ultimately, it is this process that weakens you.
Here are the tests that I did to see if I measured up with adrenal gland weakness:
Stress Test: So how do you measure up?