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Stress and Adrenal Fatigue by Suzi McIntyre, UK
What is Stress?
Before the 1920s, the term ‘stress’ had none of its current connotations. It was more to do with physics, resulting in strain. Used in connection with biological systems, ‘stress’ refers to a disruption of homoeostatic equilibrium beyond the normal, everyday continual state of flux experienced by all organisms in response to their ever changing environment, both internal and external.
Some form of stress is necessary for an organism to develop and maintain strength, but excess stress becomes detrimental, as the organism can no longer respond appropriately, so resorts to various life saving attempts at relieving itself from the destructive effects of chronic and severe stress. An example of positive physical stress would be weight-bearing exercise, which stimulates the osteoblasts to lay down more bone, thus strengthening the bones. A negative nutritional stress could be the long term consumption of excess vitamin A as found in cod liver oil or liver. This slows down the activity of the osteoblasts, resulting in a gradual weakening of the bones as the osteoclasts continue their job of removing damaged bone, but the osteoblasts are unable to lay down
have actually seen end stage hyper-vitaminosis A in a 10-year-old cat fed on liver by a dear old lady. Its osteoporosis was so severe that all its joints had collapsed and ankylosed, so it had absolutely no flexibility at all.
The stressor could be any stimulus or event that challenges the organism to respond in order to maintain its equilibrium. Thinking about mammals, this could be environmental, nutritional, mental, emotional, physical, psychological, chemical or toxic, or combinations of these and also could be acute or chronic. The body is designed to respond to acute stress with a short sharp burst of activity to either deal with the stressor, or remove itself from the stressful situation. Since the industrial revolution, we have created an increasingly stressful environment for ourselves and our pets, domesticated animals and even the wild plants and animals, with which we share this wonderful planet. With no appropriate outlet for the surge of energy released by the natural stress response (like resisting road rage or punching your boss), the result is an epidemic of stress related conditions, many of which share the same underlying pathology, namely adrenal fatigue or ‘burnout’. In 2001, it was estimated that at least 60% of Americans were suffering some degree of adrenal fatigue. In our current war-torn world, I expect this percentage
new bone at the same rate, so osteopaenia and osteoporosis result. I
has increased everywhere.
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