Page 3 - Saliva Cortisol Testing

Health problems begin to develop when you’re stuck in stress mode because the body is
spending so much time managing stress it can’t fix those health issues itself. To the body, the
stress is now the most important factor, but it’s becoming destructive.

“When you get a cut and you don’t have an open wound for the rest of your life, that’s because
the body fixes it,” Dr. Bilstrom says. “The body would be happy to fix all of these things itself,
but we have to get rid of the bear first. And you can only run from the bear for so long.
Eventually, you’ll get really tired and really sore and not able to do the things you need to do and
you crash. People don’t feel well at constant, high levels of the stress hormone, but they feel
even worse once the crash starts.”

In many cases, people whose bodies are managing at high levels of stress all of the time, they
write off symptoms as:

• Well that’s life.
• My work is stressful.
• Raising kids is stressful.
• I don’t sleep so well anymore.
• Maybe it’s my age.
• Maybe its genetics.
• This is how it’s supposed to feel given what my life is like.

“No,” Dr. Bilstrom says. “You should feel great no matter what.”

How can you tell if someone is stuck in the stress mode?
In children, one thing that can happen is they have a hard time falling asleep and tend to stay up
late. They may have nightmares. Other times this is characterized as a concentration problem or
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). In adults, they will get a “second wind” late in the evenings
and become night people, only getting their most restorative sleep in the morning between 7 a.m.
and 10 a.m.

“This is what makes it difficult for these folks because they get their only restorative sleep when
the world says they have to get up and go to school, they have to get up and get a job,” Dr.
Bilstrom says. “They do not get the chance to get the only restorative sleep they might get all
night long.”

When the “bear” first jumps out, and they are now stuck in the stress mode, it is understandable
that concentration would be very high, but after a while there will ultimately be a loss of focus.
With ADD and ADHD, we are seeing that loss of concentration and focus.

“That’s why many of the medicines children and adults are prescribed can be problematic. For
example, Ritalin is basically an amphetamine (a stimulant) that just produces another bear to
create yet another stress response,” Dr. Bilstrom says. “Yes, you concentrate better because
there’s another bear chasing you, initially, but basically you’re just recreating the problem that
got you there in the first place.”