Adrenal Glands and Hormone Balance

The adrenal glands, otherwise known as the “stress glands” enable your body to cope with stress and survive. Shaped like two tiny pyramids, they sit atop the kidneys and from this central location mobilize your response to every possible change within your environment.

Whether coming from outside of ourselves in the form of a natural disaster, or from within, like the anxiety we experience before public speaking, it is the adrenals’ job to help us adapt to the situation. They accomplish this by secreting key hormones like adrenaline (epinephrine) to mobilize the body’s natural “fight or flight” response in an emergency, and cortisol, the primary stress hormone that fine-tunes our response to the stress and strains of everyday living.

Adrenals in balance

Produce adequate amounts of DHEA and cortisol to power us through the day, taking stress in stride. Together these hormones impact just about every process in the body, from energy production and immune activity to cellular maintenance and repair. They are key regulators of glucose, insulin and inflammation, and play a major role in bone and muscle building, mood and mental focus, stamina, sex drive and sleep cycles.

Adrenals out of balance

From consistently producing too much cortisol, to overworked and unable to produce enough essential hormone to keep us running on all cylinders, there are 5 stages of adrenal imbalance, in-between the two extremes of Cushing’s (an over production of cortisol often accompanied by adrenal tumors) and Addison’s (Adrenal Insufficiency, the adrenals can no longer make cortisol.) When a person is under constant physical or emotional stress, the adrenal glands are taxed to release elevated amounts of cortisol, the master stress hormone. When this happens other functions of the body can be affected negatively and may also become imbalanced. But over time, if stress levels remain high, adrenal output is diminished. When that happens, cortisol levels plummet, along with our energy. We start to run out of steam, sleep fitfully, get sick and pack on pounds through the middle. These are the hallmark signs of adrenal fatigue or HPA-Axis dysfunction.

HPA-Axis (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis)

Stress and HPA-Axis Dysfunction (Adrenal Fatigue)

More commonly known as Adrenal Fatigue, HPA-Axis Dysfunction happens when we live in a state of chronic unresolved stress. We all experience stress at some point in our life. It motivates us to not run in front of moving vehicles, meet our deadlines on-time, and push ourselves to be the best we can be. However, persistent stress can be detrimental to our physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

Chronic over activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis brought on by long-term stress can cause mood disorders such anxiety, depression, mood swings, and irritability. Numerous additional health concerns, including diabetes, heart disease, irritable bowel syndrome, infertility, and auto-immune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, and fibromyalgia, are influenced by long-term exposure to high stress hormones.

Long Term Stress Effects

When stress is prolonged, adrenal hormones start fluctuating up and down, triggering blood sugar and insulin imbalances, food cravings, weight gain and sleep disturbances. Adrenals under pressure create imbalances of other hormones, e.g., stealing progesterone away from its reproductive duties to make extra cortisol, or inhibiting thyroid function and metabolism.

If stress levels stay high, the adrenals remain in “survival mode” to keep us going: by increasing alertness (i.e., sleeplessness), appetite (i.e., overeating) and fat reserves (i.e., stored as belly fat), while health and immunity against illness and disease steadily weaken.