Andrew Scarborough’s new update on his life with Brain Cancer inspired me to write a post about Stress. I want to point out this quote by Andrew Scarborough, “Stress raises blood glucose and I became very aware of that the hard way, but I successfully adapted strategies to deal with that.”
So many people do not understand the significance or the presence of stress in their lives because “stress” is their normal. They don’t know any other way. I was one of those people, stress was my normal my entire life.
It wasn’t until just a few years ago, after several years of over the top stress, and my health starting to suffer, even though I had been eating the healthiest diet I know of, Zero Carb, when I took a hormone test and found out I had 4th stage Adrenal fatigue. I believe my diet (5 years of Zero Carb at the time) probably saved me from further damage to my health and probably aided me in recovering so fast. (Ketogenic diets decrease oxidative stress.)
4th stage Adrenal Fatigue is what happens after years of chronic stress. My adrenals were so burnt out they could not do their job of producing necessary amounts of hormones. 4th stage is when cortisol production drops. At this point, if you don’t figure out how to change your life and learn how to relax, you are setting yourself up for serious illness or an early death. This is how stress kills.
” Cortisol, one of the primary hormones produced by the adrenal glands, is a strong anti-inflammatory (a substance that reduces inflammation). … This can set up a vicious cycle of reduced cortisol allowing histamine to inflame the tissues more, leading to deepening adrenal fatigue as well as to bigger allergic reactions.” – Dr James L. Wilson (https://adrenalfatigue.org/allergies/) (hint, hint to those of you with histamine issues)
When you don’t have enough cortisol, inflammation runs amuck. Old injuries can flare up or new ones won’t heal. For example, during this time I got severe poison oak on my face. I have lived in poison oak for almost 30 years. I was immune to it, until this happened. It took me well over 2 years to finally be free from the poison oak and flare ups because that’s how long it took to heal up my adrenals, so they could produce enough cortisol to deal with the poison oak inflammation. Not surprising, due to low cortisol, I also developed a histamine intolerance. Every time I ate dry aged meats, like salami or pepperoni the poison oak would flare up / come back on my face. It took me a while to make that connection, but when I did it became my healing monitor. If I could eat pepperoni and not have my eyes swell shut, my adrenals must be healing. lol
More on Adrenal Exhaustion here.
In today’s modern society we have so many stressors. Financial, work deadlines, work issues, politics, worry, traffic, body image issues, over thinking, pressure to look the best or be the best, the list goes on. It’s all unnecessary.
“A recent online poll by the American Psychological Association found that Americans are more anxious than ever before about finances, politics, health, safety, and relationships. (9) The chronic psychological stress with which many of our clients struggle doesn’t just reduce their quality of life; it also promotes oxidative damage through sustained activation of the HPA axis. (10)” (from – https://kresserinstitute.com/what-really-causes-oxidative-damage/)
There is a reason mediation apps, new age books, yoga and exercise are so popular right now, people are seeking relief from the overabundance of stress in their lives. It is important to practice self care and relaxation. We must take time to care for ourselves. This is very difficult for most people, I know it was for me, a workaholic. Take time and money out of your life for self care now, or be forced to face illness and medical expenses later.
I’m glad Andrew understands the damage stress causes in his health and I’m happy he pointed it out. It is so important to be aware of this and be able to catch yourself and mitigate it when you find yourself going down that road again. Stress raises glucose levels like carbohydrates do. We can eat a Zero Carb diet yet still suffer all the metabolic diseases of high blood sugar if we don’t learn how to mitigate stress.
For more information about Zero Carb Carnivore diets from people who have been on them for 10+ years, please join us in our Facebook Groups – Zero Carb Health (private group), Zeroing in on Health (public group)