The antidote to fatigue and weight gain
By Bob Livingston
If your body sometimes feels a little bit tired and “heavy”… if you’ve lost a little bit of hair or you have a few extra pounds… or if every now and then you forget why you went into that room…
Should you worry?
Yes, but maybe not for the reason you think.
These symptoms may mean your sympathetic nervous system is overloaded. And in these days of high stress and low nutrition, this should be expected and treated — but don’t expect your mainstream medical practitioner to treat this “adrenal fatigue.” They think it’s a fantasy and don’t acknowledge it even exists.
But our “fight or flight” systems are constantly stimulated in today’s world. Stress, pharmaceuticals, even coffee cause your adrenal glands (the glands that sit on top of your kidneys and are responsible for producing over 50 hormones, including cortisol, the stress hormone) to constantly overproduce in response to all the artificial stressors.
Over time, this causes your body to feel like it’s been in years of ongoing high-stress situations — always either running or fighting.
Cortisol is the main hormone released when you’re stressed. When you’ve gone through years of worrying about your 30-year mortgage, putting your kids through college, fighting to keep your job, 7-year car loans, the horrors we see in the news… well, we’re not built to constantly have our hackles up.
To top it off, most people suffer from adrenal fatigue because they don’t produce enough DHEA, the “parent hormone” responsible for making many of the vital hormones in your body.
One quick way to lower the demands on your adrenal glands is to keep some licorice root herb on hand. It has an aldosterone hormone effect on the tissues, so it is often used as an energizer. It is a preferred herb to balance blood sugar if one has low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). It is also a digestive aid. Since caffeine stimulates your adrenals and can put on extra pounds, all coffee drinkers should eat licorice root to strengthen the adrenals as well as turn them down from over-stimulation from coffee.
Some say licorice root is a mild aphrodisiac. That’s quite a natural bonus!
Other life-balancing nutrients you would be wise to use in the “fight” against adrenal fatigue are:
Adaptogenic herbs — An adaptogen is any herb that general increases your feeling of well-being. Ashwagandha, rhodiola rosea and holy basil help lower the levels of cortisol which is why they are ideal for helping the body deal with stress.
Vitamin D — Scientific studies indicate that low level of vitamin D can lead to adrenal disease. Now, unless you live somewhere that boast a lot of yearlong sunshine, and unless you go outside and take advantage of it which most people do no, you will need to supplement the sunshine vitamin.
Selenium — Deficiency of selenium, a trace mineral, has been associated with adrenal problems. Since there’s so little of it in our produce these days, you either need to eat at least two Brazil nuts each day or take a supplement.
L-Theanine — Here we find yet another reason to drink green tea. L-Theanine is a powerful amino acid found in tea which supports healthy sleep, relaxation and a calm mind.
You can get all four of these if you simply take the Peak Ultimate Vitality™ supplement, a fantastic antidote to modern malnutrition, and I recommend you do. But, to make all this work, you need to have muscle.
At any age, the natural substance your body releases in response to exercise training is a unique molecule called CRTC2. Researchers at Scripps Research Institute have shown that exercise taps into the sympathetic nervous system’s “fight or flight” reaction and uses CRTC2 to integrate nerve signals from the adrenal pathway and the calcium pathway to stimulate muscle growth.
If you’re tired, or you have a few extra pounds, tapping into the pathway that revitalizes your body’s adrenal system begins with building a bit of muscle.
