What is Adrenal Stress Syndrome?

When the body goes through the stress response, which starts with alarm, goes to resistance and ultimately lands in exhaustion, it can ultimately cause an adrenal stress syndrome.  This is characterized by several signs and symptoms:

Fatigue
Headaches
Weak immune system
Gastric Ulcer
Bloated feeling
Blurred vision
Irritable before meals
Cannot fall asleep
Cannot stay asleep
Slow starter
Crave sweets, caffeine, nicotine

This list is not complete by any means but does illustrate just how common some of these are and how we likely are experiencing them right now.

So we have let the stress response go on unchecked, now we have created this syndrome, what does that affect?

Primarily, at least where we are concerned, blood sugar, it creates insulin resistance if the cortisol is elevated and it creates hyperinsulinemia, which creates a cascade effect with the blood sugar levels.  Also it can be decreased and impair the body’s ability to stabilize blood sugar levels and can create hypoglycemia.

It also has effects on the thyroid gland, pituitary gland, liver detoxification, intestinal tract, the immune system, gastric and duodenal disorders, bone density, depression, insomnia, neurodegenerative disease and cardiovascular disease.

The adrenals are just one area that we evaluate in our office, but as you can tell, they are very important to what is going on in the diabetic condition.

Dr. Charles Stafford

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Article by Dr. Charles Stafford, Type 2 Diabetes Professional, Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX