Successful Weight Loss, Part 1

Weight loss is often not as easy as following the old philosophy of "less calories and more exercise". 

Of course, you do have to eat healthfully and get regular exercise, but there are several other factors that can act as roadblocks to your weight loss success. This series of articles will educate you about what your roadblocks could be and give you some tools to deal with them. Today we'll address weight loss roadblock number one, over-stressing your adrenal glands. 

Here is a picture of what your adrenal glands look like. They're located atop each kidney. In fact, in Chinese medicine, the adrenal glands are not considered to be a separate organ from the kidneys. They call the kidney/adrenal gland unit the kidney.

Why are your adrenal glands important to your weight loss? To understand this, I want to give you a brief explanation of what the responsibilities of the adrenal glands are. Your adrenals secrete hormones when you are under stress. This is called a fight-or-flight response, and it's meant to help us in dangerous situations. "Here comes a bear... aaaugh!!" Your adrenal glands secrete hormones that enable you to fight the bear or give you the strength to run away. Then, when you are safe, you stop secreting these hormones and go back to normal. The problem is that our bodies react to all stress this way, even if the stress doesn't require physical activity, like fighting or running. Many of us feel long-term stress for various reasons (job stress, family illness, relationship stress, etc), and that causes our adrenal glands to secrete these stress hormones constantly. We spend days, weeks, and sometimes even years under the constant influence of stress, and our adrenals keep responding as if we need to fight or run away.

Hans Selye, who originally identified the stress response, defines 3 stages of "wear and tear" on the adrenals. In the alarm stage, you respond to stress with fight-or-flight hormones. If you have chronic stress, you reach the second stage, called the resistance stage. Here, your body gets the idea that you can deal with unlimited amounts of stress, so you "get used to" running in fight-or-flight mode, and this feels normal. You never calm back down, and are constantly are "running in high gear". This is caused by being exposed to chronic stress, as in the examples above. In the final stage, called the exhaustion stage, you've burnt out your adrenals and they just can't rise to the occasion any more. Not only are you tired all the time, but you are now much more vulnerable to chronic disease. I see so many people who are stuck in fight or flight mode! It's vital to take the necessary steps to break this cycle and avoid slipping into the exhaustion phase.

I want to mention here that the adrenal glands also produce hormones that control inflammation in your body, such as the pain of arthritis or allergic reactions. Finally, for women, when you begin to transition to and through menopause, your adrenal glands pick up some of the slack from the ovaries winding down and actually produce just enough female hormones to ease you through menopause without hot flashes, sweats, and other unpleasant symptoms. If you've worn down your adrenals with constant stress, they will not handle inflammation or ease you through menopause the way they should.

So, your adrenals are hard workers! Here's a simple test you can do at home to see if your adrenal glands are over-worked. Get close to a mirror and shine a flashlight (a bit from the side and not directly from the front) on one eye. You'll see your pupil, the black spot in the middle, get smaller from the light exposure. Count the number of seconds it takes until your pupil can't hold that contraction any more and begins to open and close. If it's less than 30 seconds, your adrenal glands are stressed and could be a factor in your inability to lose weight.

Next time, I'll address what you can do to strengthen your adrenals and take this potential roadblock out of your way! Feel free to forward these articles to anyone who might be interested. They are welcome to subscribe to our newsletters also, whether they are patients at Natural Health Solutions or not.

Wishing you the best, 

Debra MacIntyre, ND
Founder of Natural Health Solutions

Contact Natural Health Solutions today at 770-817-8028  or via email at merle@nature-heals.com to schedule a consultation and begin your path of healing! 

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