There should never be a statement made like that. If you ever hear your doctor say those words then you need to run away screaming and never go back to them! It shows they know NOTHING about what stress really does.
BUT, let’s be clear. You should ALSO run away from the practitioner who solely tries to sell you a bunch of supplements because of a cortisol/adrenal test without them telling you have to have personal responsibility in your stress management. A pure waste of your money!
Why, you ask?
Because you CANNOT supplement your adrenals back to health without ACTIVELY working on reducing your over-exaggerated, physiological and biochemical response to stress. PERIOD!
The thing is WE ARE ALL STRESSED! How can we not be, right? So forget the idea of doing away with a stressful life. And a certain amount of stress is actually healthy and normal and is partially responsible for homeostasis/balance within our bodies. It’s when it gets out of control and chronic – then it’s bad news for our health!
Now you should ALWAYS take note where you can reduce your stress. One big way is to live in the present – not the past or certainly not the future. So many live in a place of fear about the future. You can only do so much to prepare for the future and you SHOULD be doing everything you can – everything in YOUR power. But you need to realize that so many things are completely and utterly outside of your power to change. Those are the things that you have to let go of and know that as long as you do your best with things within your own power then the chips will fall where they may regardless of how much you worry.
This is first and foremost because there isn’t an herb or supplement in the world that can correct that imbalance while you still exert and enormous amount of stress and worry.
Herbs and supplements can be very helpful once you are not living in a state of constant stress and are doing your best – understanding your limits of what you can change.
What does stress/elevated cortisol actually do to us?
1. Atrophy of the brain – shrinking the brain
2. Decrease in cognition and memory long-term due to decreased brain size
3. Impaired or weakened immune system so more frequent illnesses
4. Dysfunctional thyroid gland
5. Decreased growth hormone – responsible for cell regeneration
6. Increased chance of cancer due to suppression of immune system cells that fight cancer
7. Damage to endothelium leading to narrowing of blood vessels and heart disease
8. Increased oxidative stress that leads to just about every disease out there
9. Abnormal increase in cholesterol
10. Increased risk for heart attacks and strokes
11. Decreased production of progesterone which destroys the balance between estrogen and progesterone leading to estrogen dominance
12. Decreased absorption of nutrients in gut
13. Increased risk for intestinal permeability/leaky gut
14. Increased inflammatory molecules in gut triggering chronic gut conditions
15. Decreased stomach emptying
16. And many, many more!
What’s the bottom line here?
You MUST MUST MUST get a handle on your stress and don’t flush your money down the toilet thinking supplements will save you from yourself. You need to figure out what works best for you and then you must consciously CHOOSE not to stress. Yes you heard that right…you must CHOOSE not to stress.
I say this and it triggers people. “But, But, But you don’t understand what stress I’M under!”
Hear me clearly – we are ALL under various stressors. You can choose to succumb to your stressors or you can CHOOSE to take a step back and really tease apart what stressors you can remove from your life and which ones you can not. Then you can do your best to handle your stressors differently.
If you do not take the initiative and personal responsibility to change your perception of stress and your reaction to stress then don’t bother to take adrenal support or stress supplements.
Sometimes it’s gotta be tough love, Y’all!
Some techniques that people find helpful in dealing with stress:
1. Awareness instead of reaction – assess what is stressing you and understanding if you have the ability to change it. If you CAN change it then change it. If you cannot change it then work on an approach to help you deal with the stressor better.
2. Positive self-talk – can you talk yourself through it?
3. Meditation – get ahead of the day by starting with relaxing meditation and also stop yourself when you start to spin out of control!
4. Tapping/Emotional Freedom Technique – super helpful but you MUST commit to this one and don’t think doing it once will give you results. 2x/day for AT LEAST 30 days before you decide if it’s helping or not. https://www.thetappingsolution.com/
5. Daily Exercise
6. Eat properly
7. Avoid inflammatory foods
8. And the list goes on…but you need to find an approach/approaches that work for YOU!
Point is that you need to take stress seriously – it’s a BIG factor in having good or poor health. But you must take ownership and realize how powerful you truly are!!
Hugs!
Dr. K
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