From The Doctor’s Desk: Stress Is a Doorway to Disease

Seasons has hosted, on several occasions, Dr. Eldred Taylor, an international expert in bioidentical hormones. During his speaking engagements here in Ruston, he talked with men and women about lots of exciting ways to help manage their health. Dr. Taylor is a talented teacher, and I want to share the way he taught our patients about stress and hormones.

Stress elicits a hormonal response, he explained. In fact, 75%-90% of all primary care doctor related visits can be directly attributed to stress according to the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. It makes sense. When you are stressed, you are more prone to illness. That’s one effect of hormones, specifically cortisol.

Stress is a doorway to disease if it’s not treated and corrected.

Here’s what I mean by that. In nature, a zebra or horse running from a predator has acute stress response. Does the stress have a negative effect on the animal’s body? Sure. But the animal is running for its life. Either one of two things happen. The animal will get away, and the stress will end. Or the animal will die… and the stress will end. Either way, the animal is not going to suffer from constant stress.

But in contemporary society, many of us suffer from constant stress. When we experience stress, we too have a surge of hormones to help us fight or run away. You’ve heard of fight or flight. When we are running from a predator, everything works fine. The hormones activated by stress pump us full of energy, and we escape the predator. Or kill it.

But in contemporary society, sometimes we can’t kill our predators or run away from them. Sometimes our predators are coworkers or bosses. We don’t get along with these people, or perhaps we are intensely competitive, and it causes stress. Only we can’t escape these predators in the same way that a zebra can escape a lion. We have to fight with that coworker or boss every day. We experience the stress every day. Our bodies weren’t designed to handle this kind of chronic stress.

That’s why it’s so important to relax. Learn to control what you can. Learn to let go of the rest. I highly recommend things like aroma therapy and massages for relaxation. That’s why Seasons has developed a medical spa—because we want to do more than just help people who are not well. We want to help prevent people from getting sick in the first place.

Stress management is a good place to start.

Seasons Offers Massage Therapy

That’s right. We do massage therapy for relaxation and internal healing. It’s one of the many ways we seek to help our patients’ through total wellness.

So how does massage therapy contribute to internal healing and total wellness?

It relieves stress. And stress kills, you know?

But more than that, we believe there’s healing in touch. That’s a lot of why massage therapy is so powerful. I believe human touch helps to heal us.

That’s why Seasons offers different types of massages. Traditional Swedish massages for relaxation. Hot stone massages. Essential oil massages. Athletic or deep tissue massages to help repair damaged tissues and muscles from athletic injuries and other kinds of injuries.

We cover the gamut—from helping people who come to us with strained muscles to relaxing people who are just stressed out and need a relaxing Swedish massage.

What is Adrenal Fatigue?

Adrenal fatigue is a collection of signs and symptoms, which are a result of sub-optimal adrenal function. Basically, your adrenal glands get tired. The adrenal glands are small organs that sit directly on top of the kidneys.

Adrenal fatigue is caused by acute and/or chronic stress. This stress can be physical, emotional, psychological, or infectious. This stress results in adrenal over-stimulation. If your adrenal glands are under severe stress or prolonged stress, you will likely experience adrenal fatigue. This means that your adrenal gland loses the ability to adequately respond to further stress. It continues to function, but not at an adequate level.

When your adrenal glands get tired, you get tired. The predominate symptom is fatigue. This fatigue can be present for the entire day or wax/wane throughout the day. Other commonly expressed symptoms include:

• fatigue in the morning upon awakening
• feeling run down throughout the day
• difficulty in getting going in the morning
• inability to bounce back from stress
• salt/sweet cravings
• fatigue unrelieved by sleep
• increased effort to do every day tasks
• decreased libido
• decreased ability to handle stress
• increased time to recover from illness, injury, or trauma
• light-headed when standing up quickly
• mild depression
• increased PMS symptoms
• poor focus
• poor memory
• decreased tolerance
• decreased productivity

Most Americans will have some adrenal fatigue throughout their lives. Adrenal fatigue can be a mere nuisance and last from a few days to a few weeks. However, some bouts of adrenal fatigue can be severely debilitating and last for years. We test for adrenal fatigue with a four point saliva test throughout the day.

Your treatment will depend on the degree of adrenal fatigue. We’ll manage mild adrenal fatigue with adrenal rebuilder: an adrenal rich supplement. Adrenal rebuilder provides the building blocks necessary for improved adrenal health and function. Most treatments will last at least 3-6 months, with the more severe episodes of adrenal fatigue taking 6-12 months of treatment.

But don’t worry! With adequate time and treatment, nearly everyone can achieve a full recovery from adrenal fatigue. In fact, with cortisol replacement, most women will experience some improvement within 2 weeks. As your symptoms improve, it is important that you continue the treatment. Rebound adrenal fatigue is a common problem when people stop their treatment too soon.

Patients of Dr. Nathan Goodyear can start an adrenal evaluation by filling out the adrenal fatigue questionnaire. Then, call the nearest Seasons office and set up an appointment to discuss further treatment.