Original air date, 04-20-2017
While we spent a whole four sessions on the real but “mysterious” effects stress can have on our health, it was such a popular topic Dr. A wanted to drill deeper into the exact families and sub-families of stress hormones, they effects on our health and how imbalances can cause us trouble. The role balance between the stress hormones as well as the role interaction with other hormones (such as thyroid, insulin and reproductive) can have.
- Who are the stress and adrenal hormone “players”?
- Corticoids: Aldosterone, Cortisol, DHEA
- Catecholamines: Epinephrine (Nor-epinephrine, Dopamine…)
- What are the connections between them?
- Acute stress versus chronic stress
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- CORTISOL: Under stressful conditions, cortisol provides the body with glucose by tapping into protein stores via gluconeogenesis in the liver. This energy can help an individual fight or flee a stressor. However, elevated cortisol over the long term consistently produces glucose, leading to increased blood sugar levels and increasingly irregular / excessive insulin production.
- Conclusions: Cortisol contributes to the reduction in insulin sensitivity at an early age in Latino children and adolescents. Specifically, cortisol is negatively associated with potential compensatory mechanisms for insulin resistance, such as increased β-cell function and increased insulin release to a glucose challenge, by exacerbating the progression toward insulin resistance in this population. The results underline the relevance of glucocorticoid reduction for the prevention of metabolic disease in Latino children and adolescents. [PMC3050109]
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- What triggers the various stress responses?
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- Surprise
- Fear
- Threat
- Rebound from the “acute” stress response
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- How do these hormones affect you?
- That “jolt” you feel
- Shakiness, agitation
- Biochemical release of glucose and fatty acids
- Slow steady increases in glucose and insulin
- Sleep wake disturbance
- How do these hormones affect other hormones?
- Brain: Initial improved focus / Stress chemistry / Sleep disturbance
- What kind of symptoms come from adrenal and stress hormone imbalances?
- What kind of testing can be done?
- What kind of therapies are available?
Listen to the episode here!
Originally aired, and hosted on Contact Talk Radio,
by Dr. Paul Anderson every week!