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hey there everyone and welcome to this video that answers the question what is the HPA axis and why should I care I'm your host Dr Donnelly Snipes
the HPA axis is the clinical way of referring to the stress response
the HPA axis is the master control center of that stress response system now if you've watched some
of my other videos you know that the HPA axis has a couple of buddies the hpg axis which is
the hypothalamic pituitary gonadal and the HPT axis the hypothalamic pituitary thyroid
axes and all three of those axes work together in tandem in order to modulate your stress response
but the HPA axis is the Master Control Center and it helps regulate your adrenal glands your
cortisol levels your thyroid hormones your gonadal or your sex hormones like estrogen
progesterone testosterone and oxytocin your blood sugar levels your immune system your
neurotransmitters and more your HPA axis has its Grammy little mitts in just about everything
so how does it work well the nervous system your sensory organs your eyes your ears your nose are
is regularly taking in information from the environment and comparing it to what it thinks
it knows so it Compares it to schema based on prior learning and if the prior experience with
whatever that is was not good then it triggers the stress response if it searches for a
schema for prior learning and there's nothing there that also triggers the stress response
however you know it is possible that the sensory information is taken in like you see a bunny
rabbit and your brain consults the schema and goes oh bunny rabbits not a threat no problem ignore it
so the brain is regularly sorting the information that comes in into what I kind of refer to as
three piles the no threat the mild to moderate threat that's going to make you a little bit
edgy or irritated and then the extreme threat that's when you're going to have your you know
flood of emotions when the information indicates a possible threat the HPA axis is triggered and in
all my other videos I've talked about how the HPA axis is akin to a smoke alarm when a smoke alarm
goes off it does not mean that there is a fire it means that there might be a fire your HPA axis is
the same way when it is triggered it means based on prior learning based on other experiences there
might be a threat in the present but it's not saying there is a threat in the present
however when that HPA axis is triggered the smart your little body's smoke alarm goes off
chemicals called glutamate norepinephrine adrenaline and thyroxine are released all of
these are excitatory neurochemicals they're designed to help you have energy and focus
your body also releases a bunch of blood sugar so you have a quick source of
energy in order to assess if there's a threat and if there is to respond to it
endorphins your body's natural painkillers are released to suppress pain in the event that
there's a threat you don't want to be hampered by being in pain so during that initial stress
response endorphins are released your sex hormones your gonadal hormones are altered because if
there's a threat it's not the time to procreate okay it's time to fight or flee now estrogen
and testosterone have a lot more functions than just libido which is why I say they're
altered they they aren't completely suppressed and your immune system is suppressed now that's
important to recognize that under stress when the HPA axis is activated your body is saying we need
to fight or flee we'll work on repairing later right now Focus all your energy on fight or flea
when the person determines that the threat is no longer there the vagus nerve
and the HPA axis work together to sort of shut down the stress response and Trigger the
relaxation response repair response the rest and digest response there's lots of
R's they get triggered in a healthy system this is when the immune system jumps into
action and assesses and repairs the damage so when cortisol goes down unfortunately
inflammation may go up your inflammatory cytokines are released to go on patrol and see if there's
anything that needs to be repaired if not then all of the repair guys come back to station
when there is HPA axis dysregulation which means the HPA axis stays activated for too
long then cortisol loses its ability to suppress inflammation your body says okay we have been on
this fight for too long and we need to send out the crews to find out if there's damage because we
can't keep incurring injuries without repairing them so no longer is cortisol able to suppress
inflammation no longer are you not feeling pain so you start experiencing systemic inflammation the
libido stays down sleep is disrupted if the threat response system is on just like if you had a smoke
alarm that was going off right outside your bedroom door all night long you're not probably
going to sleep very well the immune system is an Overdrive all of your inflammatory cytokines
are going around looking for damage but because cortisol can't suppress inflammation you've got
random systemic inflammation that is happening mood becomes dysregulated the brain says okay we
can't be this stressed out all the time we can't run this hot for this long so I'm going to make it
less um I'm going to make the nervous system less sensitive so things that normally would have gone
into that mildly irritating pile don't really bother you that much anymore you just ain't got
the energy to deal with it you ain't got the energy to care however when there is something
that goes into that extreme threat pile guess what you have a tsunami of stress hormones that
are dumped on it because your body is already operating from a vulnerable state if you're
already vulnerable if you're already kind of edgy then it doesn't take much to trigger that extreme
reaction the nervous system stays on high alert is becomes hyper Vigilant your gut microbiome is
altered and it's important to recognize that the microbiome those are the bacteria the microbes
in the gut that break down your food into the component parts and then help reassemble them
into things like neurotransmitters and tissues and hormones so when you're under stress a different
crew of workers is called in because you're making different neurochemicals and different hormones in
different amounts the most simplified way that I can put it and neurotransmitter and hormone
balances are altered as a result you're not going to be making Gaba and serotonin and some of those
field good chemicals right now you're going to be making glutamate and adrenaline and thyroxine
for a more in-depth look at the HPA axis and mood watch all ceus.com HPA Dash axis
all ceus.com HPA those will give you some long-form videos that really go
in depth to explain everything that we've just talked about
if you need CEUs you can find CEUs for this topic at all ceus.com HPA Dash ceu