Episode 13: Stress, Adrenals and the Thyroid Gland

The Travelling Wellness Show

"Stress is an adaptive response to your environment.

Is what's happening in you life under control, or is it out of your control and you can no longer change or exert an influence on it?"

-Dr Elen

The topic of stress is usually met with two differing judgements; those that get it & have experienced its full wrath, and those who don't and are yet to receive a front row seat to the show.

There isn't a clinician in the world, across any modality, who won't agree that unregulated chronic stress complicates every disease or physiological dysfunction known to us at this time. And if it doesn't just exacerbate the symptoms, it can generally be traced to the very root cause that created the dis-ease to begin with. You literally won't find another single determinant capable of achieving so much, and as such, stress must be acknowledged, better understood and considered as a daily component of your life.

As a clinician, it's interesting to witness on a daily basis that most people don't identify with 'being stressed', despite the obvious signs of physiological deterioration. As adaptive creatures we literally accept stressors as normal components of life in the modern time, and push through the early warning signs that stress provides us with; the allergies, the fatigue, the brain fog, the menstrual dysfunctions and mood irregularities all provide the early framework for what should be acknowledged as an organism under load. And by the time autoimmunity & other inflammatory disease rears it's ugly head, opportunity has been lost, and the battle to control the acute phase response takes over. Regardless though, stress will & must be considered at some stage, so unless you choose to spend your life living between acute flairs, it's time to take stock.

"In it's primitive form, stress was an acute response for survival. It had a beginning and an end"

From my personal perspective, so many of us fail to acknowledge or accept that we are stressed due to the underlying subconscious aspects of failure. Accepting what is literally forces us to accept that we may not be where we initially expected to be at this time, or that we are actually out of control and not coping. Either way failure and shame is generally attached, & for most this is a hard reality to contemplate. And what do we do with this new enlightened state of acceptance? How big will the changes need to be to render the acute stressors inert? Will we have to face our unhappiness and make any of the massive changes staring us in the face in order to re-set ourselves and begin to live harmoniously once again?

On this episode of The Travelling Wellness Show, Dr Elen and I discuss stress at length, and the how it creates a cascade of neuroendocrine events that ultimately ends in chronic inflammation, thyroid disturbances and a person out of control.

We highlight the most up-to-date testing methods which best pinpoint how well your body is dealing with the daily loads placed against it, and discuss at length why patients just like you are feeling increasingly angry and frustrated with the current medical regime which refuses to evolve.

This episode is brought to you by the PSE Adrenal Awareness Campaign - click on the download below to learn more about stress and adrenal dysfunction, and how a simple test can highlight how stress is affecting you RIGHT NOW.