Health Benefit of Stress Hormones
Stress is our body’s mechanism to adapt to an ever-changing environment. Cortisol, Epinephrine, and Norepinephrine are the unknown stress hormones that produce in the Adrenal Cortex and Adrenal Medullar. The expression of stress hormones is a healthy physiological response to the changes in our environment.
Cortisol, Epinephrine, and Nor-Epinephrine affect the body differently. Epinephrine and Nor-Epinephrine signal the nervous system to regulate blood flow to specific areas of the body, mainly the heart, lung, brain, and muscles while shunning blood flow to the digestive system. Cortisol, on the other hand, stimulates organ function to maintain the production of blood glucose in order to meet the demand of increasing cellular metabolism which provides the body with a burst of energy to adapt in response to the environment while suppressing some aspects of our immune system.
The adrenal hormone is a survival, physiological mechanism that allows us to function, respond, and adapt to the demands and changes in our environment. It insures our ability to survive in a harsh world.
Epinephrine and Norepinephrine when expressed in a healthy and steady state, help the brain to grow, thus, helping us to learn, develop a new outlook, and provides mental skills to survive. Epinephrine and Nor-epinephrine’s strategic physiological action is to increase brain power, thus sharpening our mind, and enhancing thinking processes so that we effectively manage and harmonize our body to the demands of our external environment. Epinephrine and Norepinephrine, when being excessively stimulated for a prolonged period of time, will lead to an imbalance in our behavioral patterns, emotional patterns, and physiological patterns.
Factors that lead to excessive stimulation of Epinephrine and norepinephrine include overworking, excessively high expectations of one’s self, history of mental and emotional abuse, PTSD, rigid thinking, excessive fear, mal-expression of the actual adrenal glands and nutritional deficiency.
Pathological patterns start to develop when excessive amounts of adrenal hormones in the bloodstream exist for a long period of time, usually in a span of more than a few years. These pathological patterns include excessive-compulsive disorder, over-controlling behavior, excessive fear, anxiety, insomnia, difficulty concentrating, restlessness (physically and mentally), attention deficit disorder, high blood pressure, digestive issue, IBS, excessive weight gain or excessive weight loss, emotional cravings, eating disorders, excessively high libido or excessive decreases in libido function depending on the individual.
On the other hand, a healthy amount of Epinephrine and Nor-epinephrine sharpens our mind and increases our brain capacity, thus, enhancing our intellectual propensity so that we can be fully functional, and fit for survival in the ever-changing environment.
When dealing with stress hormones, balance is the key. Some people’s physiology allows them to strive on high demand environment. These people are socially known as “Type A” personalities. Clinically, “type A” personalities are often associated with disorders such as over-controlling, excessive heightening of self-importance and expectations, restlessness, OCD, high blood pressure, headaches, migraines, digestive issues, insomnia, excessive libido function, and like engaging in activities that increase risks to oneself and to others.
Clinically, I manage stress hormones on an individual basis. Overall, balance is the key when treating Adrenal hormone imbalances. On top of using Acupuncture and herbal medicine to calm down their sympathetic-adrenal axial pathway and helping the liver to eliminate excessive Cortisol, Epinephrine, and Nor-Epinephrine in the bloodstream, I always, make sure that my patients live a balanced lifestyle that fits their physiological response to the ever-changing demand of the environment.