Stress has become probably the greatest adversary to wellness.  Most of us experience it every day of our lives, finding it unavoidable.  Primitive cultures experienced it while hunting or facing life-threatening situations, like running from a bear.  In the modern age, even though we rarely find ourselves hunting for our meals or running from bears, we still experience stress.  It is a part of our jobs, our home lives and our relationships.  We experience it when watching the news, when driving in heavy traffic or even when reading a frightening book.  Stress is the natural way in which the body deals with demanding situations.  It is the way the body rebalances itself when the world around us places obstacles in our path.  The body was designed to deal with stress on an infrequent basis.  But, the demands of our modern society place us in stressful situations continually and this stress can reap havoc on an otherwise healthy body.  Stress has become the catalyst to many diseases.  It is the main cause of premature aging and a major factor contributing to weight gain.   

Stress causes the release of certain hormones (called adrenalin – also referred to as epinephrine and norepinephrine) into the blood stream.  Adrenalin enhances the bodies’ performance; increasing heart rate and breathing, elevating blood pressure, improving eyesight, directing more blood to the muscles and releasing stored sugar into the blood for quick energy.  Adrenalin prepares the body for the “fight or flight response”.  In addition to adrenalin, the body releases cortisol into the blood.  Cortisol is a hormone that is released from the adrenal glands on a daily basis, even when there is no “fight or flight response”.  However, in times of excess stress, the adrenal glands release additional cortisol.  Like adrenalin, cortisol helps the body deal with stress, but more on a long-term basis.  Adrenalin only lasts for a short period of time.  These hormones are often referred to as the “stress hormones”. 

Cortisol, the stress hormone

Cortisol is a steroid hormone very similar to cortisone.  It is different than the anabolic steroids that many bodybuilders use.  It is essential to the normal function and development of the body.  Cortisol is one of the hormones that help to wake you up in the morning.  It assists in regulating the blood pressure.   It is responsible for maintaining the glucose (sugar) level in the blood so you have the necessary energy between meals and during exercise.  In times of injury or disease, cortisol helps to control inflammation and immunity – keeping the body from over-reacting.  It is a normal and necessary hormone that without it, we could not survive.

During the continual stress that most people deal with on a daily basis, the adrenals are hard at work, pumping out excessive amounts of cortisol.  While this cortisol helps the body deal with the stress, the long-term effects are detrimental, causing or leading to a multitude of physical and psychological disorders including:

Aging

I find it disheartening that so many people see aging as a natural transition of a healthy body into a deteriorating body; one that is wrinkled, overweight, with weak bones and muscles and plagued with aches and pains, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.  This process is not aging; it is simply the poor management of health.  And, much of it is attributed to long-term high stress resulting in high cortisol.  Cortisol is a catabolic hormone that breaks down the body.  High amounts of it in the blood over long periods of time deplete muscles and bones, thin the skin, and weaken the linings of the lungs and gut.  High cortisol robs and steals from virtually every part of the body leaving it in a diminished and fragile state.  Additionally, because cortisol suppresses the immune system, the weakened body is now a prime target for an infectious and/or life-threatening disease.  It is not aging that makes us look and feel old, it is the long term result of too much stress in our lives.

Lose the stress and lose the fat

It was mentioned above that cortisol helps maintain the glucose (sugar) level in the blood for a constant source of energy to the cells of the body.  Sugar is stored primarily in three places; the liver (as glycogen), the muscles (as amino acids) and the fat (as triglycerides).  Normally the liver supplies a sufficient amount of sugar to maintain blood levels.  However, under excess stress, more than the usual amount of cortisol is pumped into the blood causing blood sugar to rise.  In this case, cortisol is forcing the body to produce so much sugar that the liver is not able to keep up with this demand for sugar.  Therefore, the body is forced to breakdown muscle and fat to be converted to sugar.  This sounds really good – breaking down fat.  However, unlike our ancestors who used all that newly converted blood sugar hunting for food or running from a bear, we stay sitting at our desks, in our cars or on the couch.  All of this inactivity means our bodies have no need for the sugar in the blood.  As a result, much of it is converted back to triglycerides to be stored as body fat.  So, even though stress does cause the breakdown of fat, it produces even more in the end – leaving most people with more fat and less muscle.

In an attempt to lose body fat, some people do aerobic exercises (like running, biking, swimming, aerobics, etc.) after getting home from a stressful day at work.  For many, this type of exercise does not decrease body fat, especially if the diet remains unchanged.  Exercise is a form of stress.  And, as with all other types of stress, cortisol is pumped into the blood in an effort to increase blood sugar for energy.  The only problem is that after that long day at work, the blood already has high quantities of cortisol and sugar.  Exercising aerobically only further increases the amount of cortisol and sugar in the blood without creating enough demand by the muscles for the circulating blood sugar.  So, again, that excess sugar is converted into fat and it’s back to square one.  The better exercise for a high stress, over weight individual would be to engage in an activity that would lower cortisol output and raise the demand by the muscles for sugar.  Weight lifting (anaerobic exercise) and some forms of yoga are two activities that accomplish both – reducing cortisol output and utilizing a greater amount of blood sugar.  The end result is less fat storage and more muscle production.  The ultimate goal, however, is relaxation.  Relaxation substantially reduces cortisol levels and that alone can have a profound effect on weight loss.

Adrenal deficiency

There is a point when the adrenals can no longer sustain the output of cortisol under conditions of long-term excess stress.  As with every organ that is subjected to long periods of overwork, the adrenals begin to fail and cortisol levels drop below the normal.  Excessive cortisol causes a series of symptoms and diseases (listed above) that can dramatically decrease the quality of life.  But, adrenal failure or the lack of cortisol can be life threatening.  Fortunately, for most, the adrenal glands are very hardy organs and will usually show signs of deficiency long before they fail entirely.  A person experiencing adrenal deficiency will usually experience at least one or more of the following: 

There are lab tests available that can test cortisol levels to determine the degree of adrenal deficiency.  Be leery although, there are many tests available that do a poor job evaluating cortisol.  Typically, the better tests will require urine or saliva samples over an extended period, around 12 to 24 hours.