The silly season has come and gone and now work is starting up again. However, sometimes the holiday season can seem more like a busy rush than a restful period.
Have you got that feeling like you haven’t had enough rest or your energy levels have not picked up as well as it should of over the Christmas break?
It can be difficult for our bodies trying to keep up with a busy lifestyle. The extra stressors such as deadlines for work, looking after the kids, social engagements, being stuck in traffic, and having energy to keep up at the gym or exercise can have a compounding effect on our health!
Our bodies can begin to get to a stage of consistent tiredness and it doesn’t matter what you do, you can’t shake it. This is your body giving you a sign that something is out of balance and not right.
Cortisol is a hormone that fluctuates throughout the day, maintaining homeostasis and it responds to these daily stressors. In cave man days, we only had to stress about survival. Cortisol would only need to kick in when we needed to run from a Saber-toothed tiger for instance (which hopefully wasn’t that often!).
But nowadays as society has evolved, there seems to be consistently a lot more worries and stressors in the modern day busy lifestyle.
When the body is under constant stress ( either mental or physical stress), your body does adapt, which is OK short term.
However, eventually as cortisol keeps pushing your adrenal glands, they begin to fatigue and not function as optimally as they should.
I understand how you feel. I have been there. You feel fatigued and not yourself and you might be worried that this has become your new way of living. You may lack the zest for life that you once had and it is difficult to get through your day. Don’t worry, there is another way.
So why can constant stress be a problem?
Your adrenal glands are two tiny organs (no bigger than a grape), which sit near the top of your kidneys. Contrary of their size, they are very important in modulating the functions of most organs including tissues, glands and controlling hormones such as cortisol. The flow on effect is that oestrogen and testosterone can be influenced and this may have an effect on the way you feel and think. So when these little guys begin to malfunction, you could begin to imagine what effects this could bring on the body. This is known as Adrenal Fatigue.
Common (but not all) symptoms include:
• Fatigue
• Impaired cognitive function
• Blood sugar imbalances/ food cravings
• Sleep disruptions
• Poor immunity
• Weight changes/ inability to loose weight
• Hormonal irregularities
• Mood changes such as stress, anxiety, lowered mood
• Poor digestive health
• Inflammatory conditions
How to combat this?
If you are constantly pushing yourself, or have a new year’s resolution to get your body and health back on track, then supporting your body is a key to having a great 2017. It’s time to wake refreshed in the morning, have your energy sitting at a 10/10 and going into a deep and restful sleep. Your naturopath can assist you in identifying through case analysis and pathology testing to help prioritising the different factors that may be contributing to the above symptoms.
By using a range of tools including herbal and nutritional medicine along with “do-able” lifestyle changes, naturopathic medicine can help support you through times of extra demand and need.
Have you got questions or do you need to know more? Call us today to find out how we can help you.
