Stress can undermine your health. The connection between stress and high blood pressure, heart disease, and many digestive problems is well-established in the medical literature. Stress creates hormonal and blood sugar changes, causes the body to excrete nutrients and adversely affects the immune system.

Stress challenges the function of the adrenal gland. Traditional medicine does not usually recognize problems with the adrenal glands, unless it’s something like Addison’sdisease—which is frank failure of the adrenal glands. Either the adrenal glands are functioning or they are not. In natural health care, adrenal function is something that is of interest.

The adrenal glands are directly affected by stress. They are responsible for the "fight or flight" response. Hans Selye, MD, conducted some experiments creating stress in rats. The rats were made to tread water with their legs tied until they became exhausted and died.

Dr. Selye took the rats at various stages of their ordeal and examined their adrenal glands. He found that the adrenal glands responded to stress in three distinct stages. In the initial stage (the alarm reaction), the adrenal glands enlarge and the blood supply to them increases. As the stress continues (the resistance phase), the glands are large and functioning well. Eventually, if the stress continues, the glands reach the third stage, which is adrenal exhaustion.

Adrenal hyperfunction is when the adrenals are being challenged by stress, but are adequately responding. People who have adrenal hyperfunction may or may not have symptoms. They are in Selye’s “resistance phase”. They may be prone to sports injuries or tendonitis. They may have insomnia, GI symptoms, a tendency toward food cravings, a tendency to skip meals, have anxiety or heart palpitations. There may be other symptoms as well, stress can trigger almost any disease or set of symptoms, or at least make any health problem worse. Sometimes they feel like they are really “on” and don’t have any problems, but in reality they are a ticking time bomb.

Adrenal hypofunction is when the adrenals are not adequately responding to stress and could possibly begin to fail People who have adrenal hypofunction may suffer from allergies, asthma, back pain, knee pain, muscle tightness (sometimes so severe as to be called “fibromyalgia”), fatigue and depression. There may be other symptoms as well, stress can trigger almost any disease or set of symptoms, or at least make any health problem worse.

The adrenal glands produce their hormones in response to stress. They are responsible for the fight or flight response. In a stressful situation, they raise your blood pressure, transfer blood from your intestines to your extremities, increase your heart rate, suppress your immune system and increase your blood"s clotting ability.

This response is meant to be short-lived. When primitive man walked through the forest, he"d see a wild animal. His heart rate would increase, his pupils would dilate, his blood would go out of his digestive system and into his arms and legs, his blood clotting ability would improve, he would become more aware and his blood pressure would rise. At that point he"d either pick up a stick and try to fight the animal or run. The physiological changes brought on by the adrenal glands would make the body more efficient at doing either of those things. It is called the fight or flight response.

There is some new research that indicates that women respond differently to stress than men. For a woman, stress creates a change in brain chemistry that makes her want to bond with other women and tend to her children. This is new research, but look for new information from the scientific community on the difference between how men and women respond to stress.

Back to our cave man, if he survived the ordeal, chances are it would be a while before such a strain was put on the adrenal glands and the rest of his body. He would have an opportunity to relax, eat nuts and berries (and a little meat from the wild animal, if he was lucky.) His adrenal glands would have a chance to recover.

Many people in modern society do not have the luxury of a recovery period for their overworked adrenal glands. The changes caused by the overproduction of adrenal hormones stay with them. The stimulation of the adrenal glands causes a decrease in the immune system function, so an individual under constant stress will tend to catch colds and have other immune system problems, including allergies. Blood flow to the digestive tract is decreased. Stress causes many digestive problems such as indigestion, colitis and irritable bowel. Adrenal hormones cause an increase in the blood clotting ability, so prolonged stress can lead to formation of arterial plaque and heart disease.

Worrying makes your adrenal glands work. Relaxing and thinking peaceful thoughts enables them to rest and heal. That is why Yoga, meditation and hobbies are so good for you. You go a long way in preserving your health and energy if you do not fret about things over which you have no control. It"s the amount of worry and not necessarily the size of the problem that stresses your adrenal glands. If you worry a lot about little problems, you do as much damage to your adrenal glands as someone who really has a lot of stress. If you can control your worrying when under stress, you minimize the damage stress does to your health. A wise man once said that worry is interest paid in advance on money you haven"t even borrowed yet.

Selye described the progression of stress on the adrenal glands as the general adaptation syndrome. The first stage is called the alarm reaction. This is when someone (with healthy adrenal glands) can perform amazingly well when the need arises. In this stage, the adrenal hormones become depleted, initially. The primitive man, seeing the saber tooth tiger, was able to run faster than he ever dreamed possible during the alarm reaction.

If the stress continues, the body moves into the resistance stage, during which the adrenal glands become enlarged. The individual is responding to the stress and handling it. A rat kept in a very cold room adapts and begins to handle the cold. A rat who has had no previous cold stress will not tolerate the cold the same way that a rat in the resistance stage will. A person in the resistance stage may feel keyed up. The person may have cold, clammy hands; a rapid pulse or reduced appetite, but hasn"t begun to feel any of the more serious symptoms of the next stage. Like the rat, this person seems to be handling the stress very well. Unfortunately, this is not a healthy situation, because it stresses the entire body and will eventually lead to the third and final stage of adrenal stress—the exhaustion stage.

During the exhaustion stage the adrenal glands begin to fail to meet the demands placed upon them. During this stage, the individual begins to have a variety of symptoms including fatigue, digestive problems, obesity, depression, dizziness, fainting, allergies and many other problems.

People with weak adrenal glands frequently crave coffee and sugar, as well as salt. Sugar and caffeine stimulate the adrenal glands. It"s as if your adrenal glands are two horses towing a wagon load of bricks up a mountain. Sugar or caffeine is the whip you use to get the horses to keep trying. What they need to get to the top of the mountain is nourishment and a rest period.

Learn more about how natural medicine can effectively treat adrenal fatigue.