Hormones: Cortisol, Adrenaline and Insulin
Hormones are the messengers of the body. They work together, and are interconnected to keep your body in balance. For hormones to keep your body in balance they must be in balance. Hormones control regeneration in the body and if they are not balanced your body’s ability to regenerate will be compromised. If your body does not regenerate efficiently you will age more quickly and be at greater risk for degenerative diseases. If your hormones are not delivering the right messages you will feel lousy and in time you will develop a degenerative disease of aging. Poor nutrition, stress, unhealthy lifestyle, exposure to toxic chemicals, excessive or insufficient exercise, aging and genetics can all cause your hormones to go out of balance, these are life style based. The hormones can also go out of balance due to glandular problems. It is more common however for the problems to be life style based. If one hormone is not secreted in the right amounts all of the hormones are affected.
Adrenaline is made in the adrenal glands, is secreted constantly and responsible for the “fight or flight” response. Adrenaline helps to keep your heart beating, and signals old cells to make room for new ones. When adrenaline is chronically over secreted, due to the reasons listed above, it can lead to a person to being addicted to that feeling of well being that you get from too much adrenaline. You may feel good but you are in effect using up too much of your resources and not rebuilding them and eventually will end up with adrenal burnout. When your adrenal glands are burned out and under secreting, you will feel fatigued, and possibly suffer from allergies, asthma, depression, and insomnia IBS, and many other symptoms. As I said this affects the other hormones of the body as well.
Insulin is another major hormone, and is secreted by the pancreas. It keeps you from using up too much of your resources, and is a major rebuilding hormone, that helps to rebuild enzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters, cells, muscles, and bones. Of coarse insulin is more well known for its relationship to blood sugar. If you stop producing insulin you have Type 1 diabetes, this is a glandular disorder. The life style based problems with insulin are becoming more prevalent today as our food becomes more refined and processed and altered with additives and chemicals. Obesity and Type 2 diabetes have become epidemic in this country and unfortunately children are now being affected too. Having either high or low levels of insulin can cause a low-level insulin effect. This eventually causes wasting. You can have low levels of insulin from under secretion by the pancreas, which causes low insulin effect, or you can have high adrenaline and high insulin levels, and still have a low insulin effect. Either way it eventually causes wasting. Insulin is also secreted to deal with sugar in the bloodstream. Too much sugar in your bloodstream over a long period of time and the level of insulin being secreted is high, will after time cause you to become insulin resistant. This eventually leads to Type 2 diabetes and other symptoms and disorders. High insulin levels can lead to blocked arteries. Too much sugar in the bloodstream also forms free radicals, oxidation occurs and tissues are damaged. Again life style and diet are the key to keeping your hormones in balance.
Cortisol is made and excreted by the adrenal glands, and it is a stress hormone. Cortisols functions include keeping blood pressure and blood sugar from going to low. Cortisol is excreted in times of physiological, hormonal, emotional, nutritional or chemical stress. It raises the blood pressure under stress and mobilizes energy for movement and warmth, and keeps your brain fed, along with inhibiting inflammation and helping your body to fight infection. Our lifestyles these days tend to lean toward high cortisol production. Like adrenaline, cortisol was to help the body survive in times of dire emergency and is over used today for every day stress. By overusing your cortisol you can weaken your immune system, become infertile, lose lean body mass, lose hair, and decrease concentration and memory. Too much cortisol also leads to a serotonin deficiency. This can make quite a difference in how you think and feel. High cortisol levels caused by poor nutrition and lifestyle choices can mimic other hormonal problems. Low cortisol levels can cause the same problems as low adrenaline. Furthermore a high cortisol lifestyle will lead to one or more degenerative diseases of aging.
The main factors to keeping your hormone levels in balance are to eat a nutritional, balanced diet, avoid stress, get plenty of sleep, avoid tobacco and excessive alcohol, drugs, chemicals and toxins. Enjoying a healthy life style with some exercise but not excessive burnout exercise is best. Chiropractic adjustments also benefit the hormones and the endocrine system. As we age our hormones do subside so keeping in touch with your doctor and having hormones levels checked from time to time can signal a time for hormone replacement therapy if needed. It’s never to late to change your diet and lifestyle and start to heal and live a full and healthy life, with less risk of the degenerative diseases of aging.