We’ve already talked about the effects that unstable blood sugar (dysglycemia) and poor digestive function (dysbiosis) have on your overall health and in particular your intestinal tract. Now we will talk about how your adrenal glands affect them as well.
The Adrenal Glands
The adrenal glands are two walnut shaped glands that sit atop the kidneys. Some factors affecting them are obvious such as having too much emotional stress in our lives such as:
• endless to-do lists
• family emergencies
• deadlines to make
• early wake up calls and
• rush hour traffic
Other factors affecting the adrenals, however, are not as obvious but we already addressed two of them, those being the stress caused on our bodies by unstable blood sugar and the other being the stress caused by poor digestion. Still, and with regards to the health of the adrenal glands, there are other factors that can affect them and ultimately your health.
One of them is chronic viruses like hepatitis that create ongoing stimulation of the immune system. Another is environmental toxins like pesticides, chlorine, lead and mercury that do the same.
And there can also be physical stresses caused by trauma or surgery that drain the adrenal glands.
Diet, Lifestyle, Medications
Now when you factor in the following:
- a diet loaded with synthetic sweeteners, artificial flavors and synthetic additives,
- a poor omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acid ratio (normal ratio is 2:1, omega6/omega3, but some studies show the American diet is upwards of 50:1)
- lifestyle habits such as smoking, drinking and lack of exercise, and
- side effects of medications that further alter human physiology…
…you can begin to see the tremendous amount of stress placed on the body.
The body interprets all of these stressors as alarm bells and directs the adrenal glands to pump out adrenal hormones. These hormones, cortisol in particular, trigger the liver to release extra glucose, or sugar, into the blood stream.
A Daily Occurrence
This additional sugar is used to increase the energy production needed for the body to adapt to the demands of the stress placed on it. Unfortunately for many, this is a daily and ongoing reaction.
Now the problem with this is that too much cortisol in the blood stream (for whatever reason) over too long a period of time will eventually interfere with the conversion of certain hormones that are needed to lose weight and properly digest your food.
Too much cortisol will also affect the detoxification pathways of the liver and gallbladder leaving you feeling:
• fatigued,
• with brain fog
• unable to concentrate,
• nausea,
• as well as abdominal pain and
• others.
Too much cortisol will also alter your sleep pattern and circadian rhythm. If you ever had trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep, chances are cortisol is the culprit.
Cortisol Weakens and Inflames the Digestive Tract
But perhaps the biggest threat to your health when it comes to constant cortisol production, is that just like unstable blood sugar and poor digestion, excess cortisol will also weaken the immune barriers of the digestive tract making it more susceptible to dysbiosis, inflammation and infection. Over time, this will eventually lead again to intestinal permeability or a leaky gut.
And once the guts immune barrier between the digesting food and neighboring blood vessels is breached, you become exposed to a countless number of other pathogens since the bacteria in your gut and any undigested food particles gets passed into your blood stream.
Foreign Invaders
Your body once again looks as this bacteria and undigested food as foreign invaders and mounts an attack. While this is a normal response if it were to happen every once in a great while, it can turn into a devastating sequence of events if it happens every time you eat or drink something, and for many of us, this is exactly the case.
Early symptoms of intestinal permeability might include heartburn, diarrhea, constipation, bloating and gas. You can also get symptoms that aren’t related to digestion such as eczema, hot flashes, anxiety, headaches, joint pain, muscle pain, fatigue, moodiness and irritability.
Food Sensitivities
Even the development of food sensitivities to wheat, eggs, dairy, gluten, yeast, soy, corn, nuts and shell fish are likely.
And of course, just like dysbiosis and dysglycemia, the long term effects of intestinal permeability due to excess cortisol might include autoimmune disorders such as Hashimotos thyroidits, Graves, Lupus and Multiple sclerosis to name a few.
Adrenal Health Is Very Important
So your adrenal health is very important and is one of the most common reasons why patients with health problems will visit a functional medicine practitioner.
Whenever I suspect that someone’s adrenal glands are contributing toward the decline in health for one of my patients, I always order an Adrenal Salivary Index test to get a better idea of the glands’ status since symptoms alone do not provide an accurate enough account.