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Leisure
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
Leisure - poem by Welsh poet W.H. Davies
I endeavor every day to spend some quiet time in nature and in prayer and meditation. As a "recovering perfectionist"
self care and stress reduction techniques are an integral part of my daily practice.
I really have to monitor and manage myself so that I don't take on too much;
sometimes that means I have to say "no."
Breathe,
Liesha
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Superwoman and Superman Syndrome
Liberated from the confinement of traditional female roles, with increasing opportunities to explore areas once exclusively for men, modern women frequently end up leading chronically stressful lives as they struggle to balance all their options. They want to be successful in business, have a great marriage, beautiful children, a nice figure complete with a flat belly, and involve themselves in the arts and charitable works. And they want to do this on an ongoing basis. I admire those who mange to accomplish this heroic feat but sooner or later anyone who maintains such a high powered lifestyle is bound to see an intelligent selection of priorities is required.
Men today have enormous pressure to be strong, to provide for their families, and to be open, but not too sensitive. The drive to be a success often causes men to ignore their health and their bodies. They don't listen to that inner voice that says "slow down." Males are often expected to lay it all on the line, to sacrifice their health to toxic jobs and/or to the military, to push themselves with pride and take injuries "like a man." Many men want to nourish themselves and be caring around their own health. They need encouragement and permission, not only from the women around them but also from their fellow men.
Institute for Integrative Nutrition - Joshua Rosenthal
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What is the cost of this fast paced lifestyle and our inability to unplug?
Could it be adrenal fatigue?
To understand how adrenal fatigue occurs, let's take a look at the history. The adrenal glands were designed for a lifestyle that existed thousands of years ago and changed very little until the twentieth century. The adrenal glands' main function was to help the body deal with imminent danger and stress. The adrenals are responsible for the fight-or-flight mechanism, which simply means that they give the body a short burst of adrenaline needed to either fight or run away from a dangerous or stressful situation. By design, they are for short bursts of energy and long periods of rest. They are definitely not constructed for today's chronic and continuous physical and mental stress levels. Over two decades ago adrenal fatigue was a rarity. Today it is a major diagnosis growing to pandemic proportions due to many contributing lifestyle factors, including high stress levels, poor diets and lack of downtime all compounded by the fact that adrenal fatigue symptoms vary greatly and many sufferers have been misdiagnosed.
Excerpted from the book
Misdiagnosed: The Adrenal Fatigue Link
Steven M. Zodkoy, DC, CNS, DACBN, DCBCN
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Daily living causes much stress, which is not easy on the adrenal glands.
The adrenal glands (also known as suprarenal glands) are the triangle-shaped endocrine glands that sit atop the kidneys. They are chiefly responsible for regulating the stress response through the synthesis of corticosteroids and catecholamine, including cortisol and adrenaline.
When the adrenals are tired, the body may experience a number of different symptoms. The most common symptoms caused by tired or worn-out adrenal glands are:
- Excessive sweating or perspiration from little activity.
- Lower back pain and/or weakness or pain, especially on the side.
- Dark circles under the eyes
- Dizziness
- Muscle twitches
- Low blood sugar
- Heart palpitations
- Sensitivity to light, or difficulty seeing at night
- A craving for salt
- Low stamina for stress, and easily irritated
- Excessive mood responses after eating carbohydrates such as pasta, breads, and sugar
- Chronic infections (bacterial, viral, fungal, yeast)
- Low blood pressure
- Light-headedness on standing up
- Tired but wired feeling, poor sleep
- Cravings for sweets and carbs, intolerance to alcohol
- Premature aging
- Dry, unhealthy skin with excess pigmentation
- Lack of libido
- Cystic breasts
- Tendency to startle easily
- Negative response to thyroid hormone
If you suspect you might have tired adrenals, address it right away. Adrenal glands are extremely important to a healthy immune system. They are necessary for proper thyroid function.
Natural Ways to Support Your Adrenals
- Get some sleep. You must rest if you are going to help your adrenals get stronger. That means going to bed every night by 10 p.m. Make this a priority and stick with it. Your adrenals need their beauty sleep!
- Eliminate sugar and processed carbs. Sugar and simple carbs (junk!) put stress on the adrenals.
- Eat clean animal protein foods, organic vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, beans, and grains.
- Quit the coffee habit and drink plenty of fresh filtered water every day.
- Institute for Integrative Nutrition - Joshua Rosenthal
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Stage 1 of Adrenal Exhaustion
Here levels of your stress-coping king, cortisol, are abnormally high for part or all of the day and night. You may still have energy, perhaps too much of it, because your emergency stress response is over-amped. You may not be sleeping well or restfully if your cortisol levels are high at night (when they should be shutting down) or in the morning (when they should be just rising for the day, not left on all night). You may have lost your appetite and even be losing weight. High cortisol lowers your mood-elevating serotonin and sleep inducing melatonin, and it cannibalizes your own muscle and bone for emergency fuel. You may be getting sick a lot as your defense team drops its heavy immune protective responsibilities, because it literally can't cope anymore. You may be hypervigilant and/or unable to relax or rest. While cortisol will be too high in this stage, its backup, DHEA, will sometimes have become worn down to subnormal levels.
Stage 2 of Adrenal Exhaustion
Your stress-fighting cortisol supplies have finally run low, but they haven't run out yet. For a year or so, both cortisol and DHEA will hover in the low-normal range, leaving you tired and stressed, but functional.
Stage 3 of Adrenal Function
Now both your cortisol and DHEA levels are in the bottom of the low-normal range most or all of the day. Your energy is low. You can tolerate very little stress. This situation is far more common than you might suspect.
Here is one of Julia Ross's case studies:
Monique was a highly skilled nurse who worked in a hospital that required all of its nurses to work twelve-hour shifts. She became an alcoholic under the stress (she came from an alcoholic family that could not handle stress well). When she went to see Julia Ross, she was irritated, weepy, hopeless, and exhausted. She had a lovely family and had been going to AA for a year and loving it, but she could not keep from drinking on her way home from her long work shifts. She felt better on the supplements right away and quit drinking for a month with no problem - until she went back to work. She took another medical leave while waiting for the results of her cortisol and DHEA levels to come back. When they did, all her scores were very low.
Now she is doing fine, even after she gets off work. She takes her breaks regularly and has protein-carb snacks. She gets to sleep by ten o'clock most nights, exercises moderately, goes to her supportive AA meetings, meditates, and has fun with her young daughter. Without the testing and the specially targeted supplements, she would never have been able to stay sober, employed, or happy.
Note: Since more than 90 percent of alcoholics are hypoglycemic, blood sugar and adrenal stress evaluation and treatment are essential for recovery.
Excerpted from The Diet Cure - Julia Ross, M.A.
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Why am I so irritable and moody?
Do you have "raging witch syndrome"
If this is a question you find yourself asking, you may want to do some investigating and read the linked article below by Amy Myers, MD, a thyroid expert.
Thyroid Dysfunction and Adrenal Fatigue so often go hand in hand as they are both major players in your endocrine system, which regulates your hormones. You can think of your endocrine system a bit like an orchestra where each musical section plays different parts of the same piece of music at the same time, ideally in perfect harmony. If the string section gets off tempo or out of tune, however, then it's typically only a matter of time before the horns and woodwinds are out of sync too.
The same is true for your hormones. If your thyroid isn't functioning properly, it can lead to adrenal issues, and vice versa. In many patients it becomes a chicken or the egg question, which one came first? What we do know is that once you develop Hashimoto's and adrenal fatigue, you are more likely to become irritable and stressed, which leads to further adrenal fatigue and decreased thyroid function. That's why it's important to treat both underlying issues at the same time.
If you are looking to reverse autoimmune or thyroid condition I would encourage you to pick up a copy of Dr. Myer's
New York Times
bestselling books
The Thyroid Connection or
The Autoimmune Solution.
Both books give you a step-by-step 4-week plan to uncover the environmental triggers and restore your health.
Click
here for more information.
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For more information regarding Thyroid Dysfunction and Adrenal Fatigue, take a look at our webinar from Wednesday, March 25, 2015 presented by
Ben Briggs, R.Ph, IACP, CNC.
Ben discussed thyroid dysfunction and adrenal fatigue and the role of the thyroid and its impact on multiple body systems as a critical component of overall hormone balance
. Working in conjunction with the thyroid, the adrenal glands secrete hormones such as cortisol, cortisone, aldosterone adrenaline, noradrenalin, estrogen, and testosterone that are essential to health and vitality and significantly affect total body function. Ben offers treatment options for regulation of the thyroid and the adrenal glands for optimization of health.
Click
here to view the Thyroid Dysfunction and Adrenal Fatigue webinar
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Thank you, Kristin Wistar, for your informative April webinar presentation. You took a complex subject and simplified it, giving us some great takeaway
tips and tools.
Click here to watch the webinar!
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Please join us Wednesday, May 24, 2017 at 7 PM for our next webinar!
T
hermographic Diagnostic Imaging/Health Through Awareness presents
Jennifer Capozzi. Jen is a Plant Medicine Practitioner, Plant-Based Chef, Herbalist and owner of Barlume Apothecary in Philadelphia.
Jen will be discussing breast health and lymphatic support utilizing plant medicine and whole foods. The Lymphatic System is the key component of our immune system; it removes toxins, dead cells and unwelcome guests from the body, while maintaining the health of our blood and fluids within the body. It is a tremendously fascinating and complex system. The most important aspect of the Lymphatic System is that it regulates the quality and health of our blood; the life force that keep us going. So how can we care for, strengthen and support such a complex system especially when it's relative to overall health or to restore a compromised system? We will be discussing food adjustments, incorporating herbal medicine preparations and medicinal essential oils that support the Lymphatic System, promote breast health, tissue regeneration and immune support; it all works together!
Jen has been
working with plant medicine and whole foods for over ten years as a chef and herbalist. She began her journey into herbal medicine as a means to manage and in hopes of stopping the progression of her Rheumatoid Arthritis.
She
weaves together plant medicine, seasonal foods, medicinal herbs and essential oils into a daily self care practice tailored to the unique needs of her clients to bring them to a place of healing and restoration. Currently Jen is on a cross-country journey visiting farms that sustain the earth and their communities, while also sharing her own journey from sickness to health to
healer.
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Not everyone experiences stress the same, but everyone does feel the pressure that comes from not having enough time, energy or resources to get everything done. Yet, no one talks about it for fear of appearing disorganized or weak--but, there's hope! During this summit, renowned researchers and thought leaders will teach you about the "new" science of stress, which shows that you can be in control of your experience! Don't miss The Global Stress Summit from April 24 - May 1, 2017, free and online!
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The Microbiome Medicine Summit 2 will help you enhance brain function, mood, anxiety and depression; address gastrointestinal illnesses, including IBS, Crohn's and colitis; counter newly identified GI/brain syndromes; and address autoimmune diseases (at the root cause!). All reasons not to miss The Microbiome Medicine Summit 2, online and free from May 8-15, 2017!
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Disclaimer:
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The information in this newsletter is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. The contents of this newsletter are based upon the opinions and research of Liesha Getson and Health Through Awareness, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked. The information in this newsletter is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Liesha Getson and Health Through Awareness. You are encouraged to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional.
In the spirit of full disclosure, this page contains affiliate links. This means that we may get a small commission if you decide to purchase anything from any of the sites. We only recommend programs and services that we think would be highly beneficial to you or programs that we have listened to, participated in, and/or used and have found extremely helpful.
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If you are interested in an individual holistic health coaching session utilizing the First Line Therapy program, Reiki, or an infra-red sauna session in the "POD," please contact me to schedule an appointment.
Wishing you abundant health.
Liesha Getson, BCTT, HHC
TDI/Health Through Awareness
856-596-5834
856-596-0200
100 Brick Road, Suite 206
Marlton, NJ 08053
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