Do you have a little bit of a spare tire around the belly? Do you have trouble sleeping? Your mind won’t settle down, and when it does and you do fall asleep, it is only fleeting, waking again in a few hours. Are you feeling anxious and stressed out? All of these symptoms, and many more may be a sign of poorly functioning adrenal glands. The medical community mostly ignores the adrenal glands, until it becomes an emergency. The adrenal glands regulate our body’s response to stress.
The modern world brings a host of stressors to the human body that it has never before experienced. It is a concert of stimulus to which your body must constantly adapt. The adrenal glands regulate our body’s response to stress. Although small, they are powerful. They regulate blood sugar, blood pressure, sex hormone production, mineral balance, thyroid function, digestion, stress hormones, urine production and your immune system. With such important roles in the body, it is important that these glands stay healthy.
With all the stressors of today’s society is important that we offer our adrenals something extra for support. The biggest area of concern with the adrenal glands is their very important role in producing and regulating a variety of hormones. It is these hormones that are often out of balance when symptoms of adrenal dysfunction are present. There are two levels of adrenal gland problems – adrenal insufficiency, which is a medical emergency, and what many people refer to as adrenal fatigue, which is a significant but non urgent problem. Adrenal fatigue is used by some to summarize a variety of symptoms related to errors in the regulation of the adrenal glands response to stress. The works of the famous Hungarian-Canadian Hans Selye, helped us to better understand the workings of the stress response. Initially, your body will go into an alarm state when first encountering a stressor (imagine falling off a cruise ship). This response is incredibly taxing on your body’s nutritional resources and cannot be maintained for long, so your body transitions into a more manageable resistance state (this is when you have panicked back to the surface of the water and now must tread water until help arrives). If the resistance phase lasts too long, you will enter the phase of exhaustion (you are no longer able to tread water).
Fear not, there are tools to help your adrenals operate optimally. A single amino acid becomes very important during times of stress. L Tyrosine can help you alleviate the fatigue and cognitive impairments that happen during acute stress episodes. Tyrosine is used by the body to produce three very important compounds – dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine (aka noradrenaline and adrenaline). During times of stress a ready supply of tyrosine makes sure your body won’t be short on these important signals that regulate mood, energy, attention, memory and cognition.
The conversion of tyrosine into these important compounds requires a lot of chemistry. Most of these reactions involve at least one B vitamin. Not all B vitamins are created equal, some versions of a B vitamin are more metabolically active. This is why it is important to look for the activated forms in your adrenal support formula.
As it is important to select active vitamins, active herbal ingredients is equally important in adrenal repair. There are many options available in the realm of plants that can aid the stress response, but it is important to pay attention to dose and standardization. Rhodiola rosea has been used for years in herbal medicine to address stress. The best part about this herb is it is active at reducing fatigue in doses as low as 50mg. Many herbs require much higher doses, and therefore a much higher pill count in order to get effect.
One of the most interesting things you can use in adrenal recovery is an adrenal glandular. These are extracts of adrenal glands from animals that provide all of the functional enzymes within the gland. They have had any hormones removed, but still retain their enzymatic functions. Historically the consumption of glands and organs was considered just a normal part of eating, but in modern times that has fallen out of practice. The majority of the effect comes from an organ sparing effect. Basically if your gland is fatigued, it needs rest. The problem we encounter in daily life, is that the stress doesn’t stop, your gland is never given the opportunity. Enter glandular medicines, providing the functional enzymes found in the active organ, allows the organ a chance to rest. The enzyme assistance reduces the load on the organ, giving it a chance to repair and regenerate damaged areas. These glandular ingredients may be the most important factor in restoring your body’s ability to respond to stress by restoring the organ itself.
Prairie Naturals Stress-Force is a glandular-based product designed to alleviate the symptoms of chronic stress and mental fatigue. Fortified with Rhodiola Extract, L-Tyrosine and a high potency Activated B Complex, Stress-Force is an ideal formula for people who experience chronic stress or mental fatigue as it delivers the necessary nutritional support for healthy adrenal function.
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