WHAT IS STRESS?

Considering the type of lifestyle we live, the word "stress" has become one of the most frequently used, literally a household expression. 
 

STRESS IS NOT SOMETHING NEW

Life is one stress after another.  Stress has been around for as long as we humans have been around.  A cold winter is stressful.  Very hot and dry summers are stressful.  The wind can be stressful.  Being confronted by a lion or stumbling upon a hairy mammoth while peacefully foraging for tasty berries must have been very stressful. 
 

ADRENAL GLAND - NATURE'S DESIGN TO DEAL WITH STRESS

Since stress seems to be our faithful companion from the very beginning it would, therefore, be strange if nature had not equipped us with an organ charged with the responsibility for responding to stress. And indeed we do possess not only one such organ, but two!  They are called the adrenal glands and they sit on top of the kidneys. 

 

ADRENALIN - THE LIFESAVER IN ACUTE STRESS

The lower part of the adrenal gland is called the adrenal "medulla".  This part makes the catecholamines: epinephrine and nor-epinephrine (also called "adrenalin" and "noradrenalin").  These hormones are released in response to acute stress, mostly an overwhelming fear and / or anger.  They supercharge the body for vicious fighting or a fast super run for safety.  They cause an immediate outpouring of ATP, the "energy molecule", which makes people extraordinarily strong for a short period of time.  This is the mechanism that explains the most superhuman strength seen sometimes in emergencies and in severe psychotic states.  We have heard the stories of the frenzied mother who, with superhuman power, lifted the car off her child who was knocked down as she was playing in the street. 

The same chain of reactions in the body would help us with the above mentioned mammoth.  We could, as a result of the adrenal rush also called a sympathetic mode, run away and possibly live to fight another day or stand and fight the beast.  Providing we won the battle we would go back to our cave and first of all calm down.  Our sympathetic mode (increase in blood pressure, faster heart rate and breathing, blood flow steered away from extremities to deeper muscles, suppressed production of digestive juices not really needed at that particular moment of deciding whether we will eat or be eaten)  that helped us to be stronger and faster facing the mammoth would switch off and we could go back to relaxation or parasympathetic mode.  The breathing slows down and digestion comes back so we can eat our well-deserved mammoth steak and doze off.
 

WHAT ABOUT CHRONIC STRESS?

Unfortunately the "tasty mammoth steak" seldom ends the stress.  There is always the uncertainty of the next day.  But nature thought of that as well. Fortunately for us there is more to the stress response than the adrenal medulla with its catecholamines (adrenalin, noradrenalin).   After the initial rush of fight or flight energy it is in the body's best interest that the catecholamines go away. For this purpose, nature has invented another part of the adrenal gland, the outer adrenal cortex, where aldosterone and cortisone are produced.  These two hormones are mainly responsible for neutralizing the effects of the acute "fight or flight" hormones, adrenalin and noradrenalin.  Cortisone(active form is called cortisol) and aldosterone are sometimes called "anti-stress" hormones.

Aldosterone is the so-called mineral corticoid and works together with the kidneys to regulate the balance of electrolytes in the body.  The proper balance of minerals is critically important in the normal stress response for modulating the delicate balance of minerals in the cells especially sodium and potassium.  It regulates the blood pressure.  Stress increases the release of aldosterone causing sodium retention (with resulting water retention and high blood pressure) and loss of potassium and magnesium. Magnesium alone is involved in virtually all enzymatic reactions in the body. So when the body lacks magnesium nothing works properly in the body.

Cortisol is the most important anti-stress hormone in the body.  When cortisol is lowered the body loses its ability to deal with stress.  That is the main reason why cortisol is sometimes called "the hormone of life and death".


 

SOME OF THE MAIN ROLES OF CORTISOL

Cortisol protects the body from excessive stress by:

 - Normalizing blood sugar--Cortisol increases blood sugar level in the body thus providing the energy to deal with stress.  Cortisol works together with insulin from the pancreas to provide needed glucose to the cells.  Cortisol is the main hormone that makes it possible. In later stages of adrenal exhaustion, when  cortisol output is reduced, blood sugar balance becomes a problem.

 - Anti-inflammatory response--Cortisol is a very powerful anti-inflammatory substance whose main role is to remove and prevent swelling and redness and control inflammation of virtually all tissues.

 - Immune system regulation--Cortisol influences most cells participating in the immune reaction, especially white blood cells.  In the presence of weak adrenals the immune system is seriously impaired. Under those conditions the way is opened for a variety of different infections which could never establish in the body with strong adrenals.  Anyone who is susceptible to infections most probably has weakened adrenals.  The incidence of autoimmune diseases also goes up in the presence of weak adrenals.