I Really Am Too Tired.Does your life include housework, shopping, families, traffic, perhaps a job, a spreading waist-line, insomnia, weariness, and too many evenings of “not tonight dear, I really am too tired”? After decades of equality the unfortunate reality is women are still doing 70% of housework - even if they are the main money maker in the family. And then, just when we’re sure we deserve a rest, along comes peri-menopause to bite us in the backside.
Stress levels run high in North American society, and our bodies don’t know the difference between “a lion is chasing me! run you fool, run!” or, ” I’m sad because my partner is a jerk today.” Stress is stress is stress; from our body’s point of view it’s all hungry lions; and it all causes a cascade of changes in the nervous, cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems. Things happen to us during times of stress that are vital when we’re running for our lives (or deciding to punch that feline in the nose). Digestion shuts off, adrenal glands flood us with stress hormones, blood pressure rises, blood sugar rises, and our immune system shifts itself around. There’s more, but you get the idea; and all of it's intended to free up energy to "run you fool, run!" For the five minutes it takes to run away from a slavering lion those things are perfect. However, when stress is prolonged, these life-saving changes start to mess up in some pretty unpleasant ways. When our bodies decide that our environment is just too full of too many hungry lions it starts to change our wiring to make us ever more 'efficient' at stress reactions; bless its heart, it wants to keep us running as fast and far as possible. We react ever faster to stress inducing moments, even minor ones. But oops, stress hormones can take up to two days to re-balance themselves into healthy, non-emergency levels. When was the last time you had two days without a single stress inducing moment? When you realize that adrenals and stress hormones have a direct impact on how your thyroid functions (or doesn't), on hormone production, blood pressure, blood sugar, fat and weight, our immune system, sleep, energy, and a host of other things you realize how important it is to stop abusing the things. |
Our poor adrenals flood us with too many hormones until they just give up, and then they can’t give us enough. Around the time in our lives when our ovaries are shutting down hormone production and our adrenal glands should be taking over much of that production they are often too exhausted to deal. And we wonder why menopausal symptoms are lasting decades instead of months? Not so much, really.
Giving our worn out adrenal glands some tender loving care is never a bad idea, but as much as I like the idea of buying a house on the beach, sleeping late every day (adrenals love late mornings in bed), and drinking salty drinks by the pool all afternoon (stressed adrenals thrive on healthy sea salts), I don’t think that’s going to happen in my life this week (but if it’s happening in your life and you have a spare room do send an email!) I’ve been writing these articles for about a year I’ve never talked about specific brand names or companies; for the most part I think lifestyle changes and eating more greens and fats cover so many issues, I don’t tend to think “product” first when dealing with most things. However, that house on the beach isn’t here yet, and there are products for adrenal function that I’ve used with great success. One I particularly like is AdrenaSense. In three weeks after I started using it I was sleeping better, had more energy, and was certainly dealing with an intense period of stress much better than I’d been able to without AdrenaSense. I like this stuff! I like the company making it too. Preferred Nutrition supports the Canadian Women’s Foundation and during March they are giving a portion of each sale of AdrenaSense and 3 other products (all of whom have their place in that cascade effect caused by stress) to the CWF. If your winter (or year) was less than relaxing and you’re wondering if your adrenal function is less than stellar you might want to consider trying AdrenaSense and/or its support products. You’ll be helping you, and helping other women in Canada dealing with the kinds of stresses we hope we never have to face ourselves. Here’s hoping we can all have a happier and healthier Spring. - Mona Sims CNPA BACK |