Adrenal fatigue, also known as adrenal stress, describes a set of symptoms related to the way your body handles stress. Stress is part of your daily life. Some stress is good, some stress is bad. Some people say that stress is a killer. Well, it’s not entirely correct. It is not stress that kills us, but our inability to adapt to it.

We live in a fast-paced world. We constantly push our minds and bodies to the limit by working long hours, fighting endless traffic on the highways, dealing with family related issues, dealing with financial issues, eating fast food on the run. The list goes on.

With the combined effects of a decline in the quality of our food sources, environmental pollution, and the emotional stress induced by our fast-paced lives, our bodies are finding it increasingly difficult to successfully adapt and maintain metabolic balance.

Cortisol is your body’s main stress-fighting hormone. This is how it is produced.

The hypothalamus in your brain, the pituitary gland below your brain, and the adrenal glands on top of your kidneys make up what’s known as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (or HPA axis). Your HPA axis is the most important part of your endocrine system and directly or indirectly controls most of the hormonal activities in your body.

When you’re under stress, your hypothalamus secretes corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), a hormone that puts your body in a state of readiness when a physical or emotional threat presents itself. CRH travels to the pituitary gland where it stimulates the secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which enters the bloodstream. When ACTH reaches the adrenal glands, it triggers the release of cortisol, the main stress-fighting hormone in the body.

The cortisol surge resulting from a stressful situation triggers a cascade of reactions in your body that can help you respond quickly to a threat. We refer to this as the “fight or flight” response.

In general, cortisol is high during periods of stress and low when you are relaxed. Under normal circumstances, a feedback loop allows your body to shut down these defenses when the threat passes, allowing your body to refocus on healing and growth.

In some cases, if the threat is prolonged or chronic, the floodgates never close properly. The result is that cortisol levels rise too often or remain high. When you are constantly under stress, the overproduction of adrenaline and cortisol interferes with the balance of hormones in your body. Clearly this is a problem because in order to achieve optimal health, your body should ideally be in a state of homeostasis.

These high cortisol levels can lead to irregular blood sugar periods that create fatigue, immune system deficiencies, panic attacks, asthma, and increased risk of other illnesses. Also, when your body is out of balance, not in a state of homeostasis, it also speeds up the aging process.

In more extreme cases, adrenal stress is known as adrenal exhaustion (also known as a “nervous breakdown”).

Adrenal stress will definitely disrupt your HPA axis, the key to your “life force” strength. Disruption of the HPA axis is often central to most health problems, syndromes, diseases, and aging. When the HPA axis is not working properly, a variety of neurological symptoms develop, including anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, clinical depression, stress intolerance, sleep disorders, and mood disorders. Furthermore, the HPA axis is also involved in exhaustion and irritable bowel syndrome.

The illnesses and diseases mentioned above are not due directly to adrenal stress, but rather to our inability to adapt to stress. These diseases and conditions have therefore been called “adjustment diseases.” One of the ways to deal with adrenal stress is to use a natural product called an adaptogen.

The word adaptogen is used to refer to a natural herbal product that increases the body’s resistance to stress such as trauma, anxiety, and body fatigue. Adaptogens normalize the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.

And this is the way to beat adrenal stress: through your HPA axis. You can use a powerful adaptogen to balance your HPA axis. Your hormonal balance will improve and this will help get your body’s organ systems back to working at optimal efficiency.