The Best Intentions, Supplement Intake and Stress

This morning I met with a lovely couple, who have been patients of mine for many years. They are excellent at making the time to eat healthy most of the time and also at taking their personalised supplements for various health concerns. We met so that we could update any supplements they needed. In the course of the conversation, my client voiced that they are taking all of the right supplements and that their diets are pretty good most of the time, but that they are still getting symptoms like bloating, reflux, sleeplessness, weakened immune system and fatigue during the day and that some of their health issues had regressed. “My cholesterol has gone up and I am finding it hard to motivate myself to go to the gym”, “When I get sick it is harder to get over it these days”.

I asked if they are stressed at the moment. And the answer was yes. “We are very busy at work”.

I explained that when we are stressed our adrenals secrete cortisol. Stress comes in the form of work demands, personal demands and environmental demands on our bodies. We are designed to cope with stress in short bursts. So when stress is long term our adrenals become fatigued.

The main symptoms of fatigued adrenals are sleeplessness, feeling hot at night, tiredness, anxiety.

Cortisol robs energy so that we have energy to ‘run away’ (fight or flight response). It does this by slowing down the Gut function, reducing pH and reducing the production of digestive enzymes. Cortisol also lowers immune function and alters hormone production. This is because we do not need these functions in a short time frame, eg while someone is robbing your handbag and you need energy to fight or run away. Then everything goes back to normal.

But if this happens long term then we run into trouble. I explained to my clients that with lowered pH and reduced digestive enzymes you will start getting bloating symptoms and possibly reflux. Maybe even diarrhoea or constipation. Absorption of Vitamins and Minerals.

You become fatigued due to the lack of assimilation of your food because your pH is compromised and digestive enzymes are not working so well. Also those valuable vitamins, minerals and herbs are not being absorbed as you would like.

What was interesting for my clients, was that with a relatively simple addition of adrenal support to their already amazing regime, all of their symptoms will disappear and their individual health concerns will once again be resolved.