We’re going to go through an adrenal fatigue four-part series about the four stages of adrenal fatigue.
Today we’re going to talk about stage one of adrenal fatigue.
I’m Dr. Carrie Lam. This is Dr. Michael Lam.
The first stage is a fight or flight response.
Most people basically go into stage one every day of their lives.
They are having regular stress.
They are going to be putting out cortisol and little amounts of epinephrine and norepinephrine.
Stage one is called “alarm reaction.”
Our body receives stress signals from our eyes,
from our ears, from our nose.
We smell problems. We hear loud voices.
We see violence.
This sensory signal goes to the brain and is converted into chemical signals
and the chemical signals lead to the release of neurotransmitters and hormones
and these hormones— and specifically dopamine norepinephrine and epinephrine
that initiates the chain of cascades that lead us to respond physiologically.
So in the first stage, this response is being activated.
That’s why it’s called “alarm reaction.”
The body’s response to stress is by releasing these catecholamines that we mentioned,
and then they each have physiological constructs.
So, for example, norepinephrine circulates in the brain and causes alertness.
So you are now aware that “okay, an enemy is approaching me.”
Or, “I need to study harder for tomorrow’s test.”
It also goes to the heart and causes the heart to start a little pounding,
a little faster heartrate and it keeps us on alert.
It keeps us more in-tuned with our environment, and this is what street drugs do, amphetamines.
They are actually mimicking some of these neurotransmitters,
but this is called "alarm reaction" because it’s the first stage the body goes through.
Of course, the adrenals are starting to put out more cortisol as a suppressing mechanism,
as a cushioning mechanism.
It’s almost like the car starting to go on overdrive
then the body puts on the braking mechanism to soften it down to have a soft landing,
but in this process, we don’t know about it
and this is why it’s so dangerous.
Most of us go through these alarm reactions.
Let’s say we’re yelled at by our boss. We have to work overtime.
We have a test coming up and we have to study all-night,
and so the body’s just really tired. It’s not quite there.
We need some coffee, but there’s no clinical debilitation.
You’re not like couch bound.
You just kind of feel a little off,
and then you need donuts and you need sugar to kind of kick start yourself.
And some people, they can still go throughout their day.
Like you said, they don’t feel super fatigued.
Sometimes they might take a nap and they need that morning pick-me-up,
whether with the energy drink or coffee and the caffeine,
but then they go back to normal, but going through this every day
day in day out with the chronic stress is not good for you.
That’s how you can go from stage one onwards to stage two, three, and four.
Biochemically, there are six circuits in the body
and 12 systems that regulate this NeuroEndoMetabolic response to stress,
and in stage one, some of it is already working hard.
The biochemical pathways and the bioenergetics circuit are already off.
The pancreas may be secreting more insulin. The cortisol output is starting to rise in the adrenal system.
The ovarian system may be having more PMS as the estrogen level starts to rise.
So there’s a lot of connectivity, and multiple hormones are involved.
In fact, over 50 of them,
but the important thing to understand is that stage one the body is like a rubber band that’s being stretched,
but because it’s still pretty strong, it has the ability to rebound.
This rebounding process is automatic so you don’t even feel it.
You just kind of say “Oh, I’m little off today.
Let me rest for five hours, take a nap."
That’s how you see it,
but actually, the biochemical dysregulation is already well in place.
Those biochemicals that you were talking about, insulin,
those could lead to symptoms of just feeling like you’re low in sugar.
You have sugar cravings.
If your hormones are off then you might have some PMS symptoms like cramping
or just more bloating and things like that.
So, minor symptoms that come and go that is what our stage one is.
It’s the alarm reaction and the fight or flight response that your body has in a normal person.
So, today we talked about stage one adrenal fatigue.
Stay tuned for next week where we’ll talk about stage two adrenal fatigue.
All right, we hope you really liked this video.
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