Image: Jomphong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It’s really no wonder that so many people feel bad. Americans eat factory food, which contains a lot of bad things including dyes, toxic metals, inflammatory fats, sugar, and the excitotoxins MSG and aspartame, all of which kill brain cells. Our minds, bodies, and spirits are stressed to the max by the ridiculous load of information our brains are forced to input every day. Our amygdalas, the primitive part of our brain, registers “danger!” every time our self-esteem gets dinged by exposure to images of beauty, and reports of power and prestige in the media. It’s all systems code red.

Chaos-makers

Millions of people are being diagnosed with depression and prescribed the “standard of care”: tranquilizers, painkillers, sleeping pills and of course the crown jewel, the antidepressant—those nifty little pills that deliver sexual dysfunction and insomnia right to your door. Our medical community plasters this Band-Aid on our brains even though the vast majority of people (borne out by studies) are not made any happier by taking these drugs. The truth is that you can’t pick up a bottle of happiness at your local pharmacy. The only way to rid your life of depression and attain contentment (and that occasional episode of delirious happiness) is to replace brain chaos with tranquility. Unlike standard of care, which generally isolates one problem and then hits it with a sledgehammer, going after tranquility is like tracking a skittish animal through the forest. You have to gently and tenaciously pursue peace in your mind, body, and spirit.

You might have to suck it up a little, too. This is the part where I like to remind people of the pilgrims who tossed around in leaky little boats, the warriors who fought barefoot in the snow with George Washington to win our freedom, and other barefooters like pioneers who walked across deserts and prairies so we could eventually have Hollywood movies Being strong and determined is in our American DNA. If you’re depressed, at one point you’re going to have to dust off your determination if you want to reclaim your life.  Here’s the roadmap:

Stimulants (sugar, alcohol, caffeine, tobacco, drugs) do a Pavlovian number on your head beginning with that first pleasurable blast of dopamine that quells emotional pain. When your brain crashes, you crave that head rush, indulge again, crash again, and thus begins a knee-jerk reaction cycle. You can quit addictions by rebuilding healthy brain cells, cell by cell by eating a diet of real food rich in protein, cholesterol and good fats (organic butter, the fat and red meat of grass-fed cows, cod liver oil, coconut oil, red palm oil, primrose, borage, black current oil, and olive oil). These therapeutic fats and meats will also provide building materials so your body can make and flood your brain with happy neurotransmitters.

Dieting is a time of famine to your body, which totally freaks out your brain. Trying to force it and beat the fat off with a stick is not going to get you anywhere but fatter. Focus on optimal health, not weight loss. Your body knows how to find its optimal body weight. And you’ll end up more stunning or hunky than you thought possible.

Stress and overwork. Let’s lump these together since they are such evil twins. Sometimes we have to endure the load. But we need to do everything possible to find time to clear our minds (see below). Mind-clearing will help ameliorate the damage done by those brats.

Really toxic input from movies, song lyrics and TV help define the freaked out imprint on your amygdala, the primitive part of your brain that’s programmed to protect you from danger. Harvard shrink Srini Pillay, author of Life Unlocked, texted me, “Fear and threat register in your brain in milliseconds. When we expose our brains to toxic song lyrics or TV and movies, we activate these brain circuits and shape not just our memories but our unconscious reactions to things. If you wonder why you suddenly feel sad, get angry or feel dissatisfied, ask yourself how many uplifting things you have heard or seen on that day.” It’s really important for mind, body, spirit health to think about what you’re putting into your brain.

Mind-clearing chaos-blasters

We need to calm way down. Negative emotions and fear create vigilance in your amygdala, which is more definition to that stamp of “OMG I’m in danger.” It’s not like you can just tell your amygdala to shut up. You have to be sneaky. Mother Nature has her wily ways of helping us do that. Of course you have to make an effort just like you make the effort to walk over to the nearest Starbucks Because the amygdala is programmed to first notice danger, you need to make sure that you put yourself into calming, relaxing, safe situations as often as possible. Only when there is enough positive input will your amygdala relax and calm down.

Buddhist Metta (loving-kindness) meditation was developed by the world’s first and greatest psychologist, the Buddha as an antidote to fear. My fave book on the subject is The Mindful Path to Self Compassion, by Christopher K. Germer. You can learn to meditate all on your own by reading this book, or download free mediations on: http://www.mindfulselfcompassion.org/meditations_downloads.php. In the meantime, go someplace quiet today for a few minutes and sit with your eyes closed, repeating four phrases: May I be safe; May I be happy; May I be healthy; May I live my life with ease. It’s so neat to all of a sudden feel clearheaded and centered with happy moments here and there.

Ericksonian hypnotherapy also calms the amygdala by taking you by the hand into deep relaxation. You can download Carolyn Grothe’s sleep CD Meditation and Relaxation for Sleep on Amazon.

Yoga clears the mind to prepare the body for meditation. When I first started doing yoga I was all amped up because I had to stop running after 20 years of wrecking my knees. I thought yoga was a substitute for running and went into it as a way of further beating up my body. Little did I know that those ancient yogic scholars knew what they were talking about; there’s no way you can practice yoga and not have a spiritual experience.

Having sex clears the mind, which is one reason I’m a big fan of a healthy sex life.  A lot of people have given up on sex because they’re too burned out. Adrenal fatigue is the very unhappy companion to zero sex drive. If you’ve been driving yourself, and your sex drive is ancient history as a result, there is hope for you. Sex is fun, but it also calms the amygdala. It’s not possible to reach orgasm if you feel fear or anxiety. For women, having sex to reach orgasm also facilitates the release of endorphins, and oxytocin, which reduces anxiety, evokes feelings of contentment, calmness, and security. After orgasm, men’s brains release norepinephrine, serotonin, oxytocin, vasopressin, nitric oxide, and the hormone prolactin. Prolactin induces sleepiness, and the release of oxytocin and vasopressin accompanies melatonin, the hormone that regulates our body clocks.

The Mozart Effect is a term coined by musicologist Don Campbell to describe the transformation powers of listening to Mozart, including reducing stress, depression and anxiety. The Mozart Effect is relaxing so that you can fall asleep easier, or just chill in general.  Download some Mozart from ITunes, kick back and listen to help you tune out the Monkey Mind.

Mother Nature’s bag of tricks

Boidentical estrogen is what some women lack. Mia Lundin, nurse practitioner and author of Female Brain Gone Insane explained, “Estradiol, a bioidentical estrogen, calms down the brain by increasing the calming neurotransmitter serotonin,” (see L-Tryptophan below).

Taking hot baths with a few cups of magnesium sulfate better known as Epsom salts is yum yum. When magnesium sulfate is absorbed through the skin, it relaxes your muscles, sedates your nervous system, and reduces swelling. Epsom salt is dirt cheap at any pharmacy or Big Box.

Gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) is a neurotransmitter precursor that you can buy over the counter. It promotes a sense of calm.

L-Theanine is another neurotransmitter precursor, found almost exclusively in the leaves of green tea, but can be obtained as a supplement. It promotes a state of deep relaxation and calm, while increasing sensations of pleasure.

L-Tryptophan is an amino acid that converts to melatonin and serotonin in our bodies and brains. Serotonin affects several central nervous system functions, including sleep, mood, aggression, pain, anxiety, memory, eating behavior, temperature regulation, hormonal regulation, and motor behavior. L-Tryptophan can calm sleep disturbances and help lift depression.

5-Hydroxy Tryptophan (5-HTP) is a more usable form of L-Tryptophan and can be obtained over-the-counter. 5-HTP is five times more potent than L-Tryptophan—so you don’t need to take as much. NOTE: Don’t take L-Tryptophan or 5-HTP if you’re taking serotonin-reuptake inhibitors such as Prozac or Zoloft. Both are contraindicated in people with interstitial cystitis.

Magnesium citrate is a mineral that’s calming to the nervous system. It helps alleviate muscle spasms, the pain of fibromyalgia, the muscle spasms in the intestinal tract that cause constipation as well as the muscle spasms, cramps, and/or leg-twitching that may be causing insomnia.

Phosphatidylserine is a brain nutrient that helps rebalance pituitary-adrenal communication. If you wake up in the middle of the night wide awake with your heart pounding, your adrenals may be responding inappropriately. This happens a lot to workaholics. Just because phosphatidylserine influences your brain’s messages to your adrenals to halt the inappropriate release of adrenaline, cortisol, and DHEA, doesn’t give you permission to keep overworking.

Taurine is a neurotransmitter precursor, antioxidant amino acid that supports neurological development and helps regulate the level of water and mineral salts in the blood—i.e. it lowers blood pressure.

Herbal teas infusions are detoxifying and relaxing. Put one cup loosely packed herbs into a quart jar and fill with boiling water. You want to screw the lid on because the essential oils in the herbs will dissipate in the air. Steep for four to ten hours and strain. Drink immediately or refrigerate. Chamomile, lemongrass, linden flowers, valerian, passionflower, and hops are herbs known for their calming effects.

Doesn’t all of this sound so much more appealing than pouring drugs and chemicals into your brain and flat-lining on adrenal exhaustion? Thought so.

Peace, Fun, Love.

Your girlfriend in health,

His quote, “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans,” is so true. Even though life does happen when you’re making plans, I still plan.

My best life decisions resulted from having plans and accompanying visions. I would venture to say that I’ve surprised quite a few people with what I’ve accomplished in my life through planning, determination, tenacity, and hard work.

I’m not bragging. I’m just telling you how I accomplished some of my dreams. As a matter of fact, I never want anyone to think that I think I’m great, because I am just like everyone else, struggling to make my way in a confusing and complicated world.

Even though I’m working extra hard right now being in editorial on two books, I’m reminded of my own need to balance my life so that I don’t crash and burn. One way to feel balanced is to make some plans.

My next life project is to write out where I want to be in five and ten years. Along with those goals I will list all the places I want to visit, the people I want to spend more time with—and people I want to meet—the activities I want to participate in like a few mountains I would like to climb, some yoga and meditation retreats, the things I want to learn more about like health and wellness, to be a better cook, to learn the piano, to finally learn another language (I did speak OK German when I lived in Switzerland but I’ve forgotten it all).

Aside from all of these pleasurable pursuits, I think that the most pleasure comes from helping others. I keep my goals of sharing to a few so that I’m not spread out too thin, and so I can better focus on making a difference.

The three goals I have to help others:

1. I would like to continue to establish my voice in the real food movement so that I can help people lead better lives by eating real food. That may sound crazy, like, “What does real food have to do with living better lives?” Well, actually everything! If you eat real food you will live a much happier life.

2. I would like to make a difference in how Americans are dying so that more people eat real food and are consequently healthy enough to stay at home to attend to business as usual until the very end and then die at home surrounded by loved ones in a celebratory experience. I believe that this is the way we are meant to leave this world, rather than tethered to machines in impersonal hospitals.

3. Help sex slaves. Living through the experience with my character Meredith Fitzgerald when I wrote my novel Karma, changed me forever. I can never forget the women and children who are enslaved. Just the other day, when cleaning out my closet (you know the end of summer beginning of winter thing), I thought, okay, I did this while people are being systematically raped. We live our lives, enjoy our joys, struggle with our woes (bills, cars being towed, getting sick) but nothing compares to what’s happening to these innocent people. I’m in awe of those who are actually in the trenches doing something to end slavery, and to help sex slaves be embraced and loved and cherished so that they can establish quality lives for themselves. I hope I can help at least educate and open eyes through Karma.

These are part of my life goals and visions. What are yours?

Om Shanti,
Your girlfriend in health,

Wednesday, June 30 at 5 p.m. PST, 8 p.m. EST
Blog talk radio interview with Jon Hansen

Wednesday, July 28 at 11 a.m. PST, 1 p.m. EST
Interview with Cheryl Benton and Debbie Zip
I will discuss Death by Supermarket and my upcoming book Survival Guide.

Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 1:30 p.m. PST, 4:30 p.m. EST
Radio interview with David Steinman
David is an environmentalist, consumer advocate, and author. I will discuss Death by Supermarket and my upcoming book Survival Guide.

Om Shanti,
Your girlfriend in health,

My primary goal every day is to begin the day with meditation. I find if I don’t meditate immediately then fires take control of my schedule. If I do meditate then I’m better able to extinguish fires during the workday. I don’t need coffee to wake up so I meditate before I leave the bedroom.

I schedule exercise (usually yoga) on my calendar. If it’s not on my calendar then when something comes up it might bump yoga off my day, and I don’t want that to happen. Because I’m a health and wellness writer I factor yoga into my work day with impunity!

I work every day, even on the weekends. I rarely skip a day. I may not work the entire day, but I get something done. I frequently work the entire weekend. Fortunately I’m in love with what I do. But I don’t always write. I would like to write every day, but I’m an industry of one so I have to do everything, including grocery shopping, bills, cooking. In the spirit of disclosure, I do have a housekeeper who comes once a week, an assistant who runs errands for me once a week, and now that one of our dogs is too old to give me a workout, a dog walker comes 5 days a week.

When I have time alone on the weekends I don’t “work,” I write. That is pleasure and those are wonderful stolen hours.

Every week begins with a To Do list. This list runs the gamut from personal to business. It’s all mixed up. The To Do list would take over my writing schedule if I didn’t create artificial deadlines. I know exactly what trajectory any given project is on and what state it needs to be in by a certain date. Then I set another deadline. This works well for airline travel because I have edited all of my manuscripts on airplanes. But you have to plan ahead and have the manuscript in a prepared state.

Because I create deadlines there are days when I simply have to devote the entire day to writing just to make progress. I have to read a manuscript through in total quiet without interruptions so that I can gauge its flow and continuity. That takes scheduling. On those days bathroom breaks and food runs to the kitchen are the only interruptions allowed. But it’s so much fun.

I only make business calls during the day. I’m not a phone talker by nature and don’t enjoy talking on the phone so I generally keep calls to the point and move it along. The phone can chew up a lot of a writer’s day. The same is true with the Internet. It’s very easy to get caught up in emails and Facebook.

Because I’m doing FB videos now, that takes a lot of my time. It requires “stage” makeup or I’m washed out. So just getting myself organized, and the camera set up with acceptable lighting takes a lot of time and then it takes time to upload the videos to YouTube. So I generally turn back to whatever I’m writing while the video is uploading. This sounds a lot like mult-tasking though it’s not. I’ve come to the conclusion that multi-tasking doesn’t really result in the optimal completion of tasks. You get stuff done but not in the spirit of excellence.

Right now I’m working on my proposal for Survival Guide. I’m thinking about it all the time, when I wake up and when I go to bed. I take the last draft with me to bed and read and edit it before I go to sleep. After I meditate, I take my laptop to the kitchen for breakfast and download emails and FB messages. I blow through them as fast as I can. Then I eat breakfast and I’ll work for several hours on my writing. I attend to emails and FB messages in between writing when I want to clear my mind of what I’m working on so I can have a fresh look at it.

I don’t go out very often at night. That would probably not appeal to a lot of people, but I like to go to bed early so I can be fresh the next day. I’m dedicated to my lifestyle of work and accomplishments. I haven’t been much of a vacation taker since I started my writing career. That needed to change for my health, sanity, and productivity, so the last few summers we’ve spent 4-6 weeks on Martha’s Vineyard. Last summer was a near total bust. I started working on my memoir Hippie Chick but mostly I goofed off the entire time. It was OK and it didn’t make me paranoid because I knew that I would crank in September. And since that time I have not stopped. But if that kind of slacking derails you, then I wouldn’t recommend it.

Because of my dedication to my work, I’m not a crazy social animal. I love entertaining, but I keep it to a reasonable amount of time. Socializing is a reward for work done, but at the same time there are times when I can’t stand the sight of my laptop.  So socializing purges me of any pent up discontent.

Every single social, travel, or extracurricular event, book, magazine, newspaper, TV, movie, play, or opera is fodder for my writing. I never stop making mental or actual notes. Keeping my mind active saves me time because I never have to think, now what? I have so much creative stuff at my disposal that sometimes it builds up to a toxic level and that’s when I can’t sleep. So I have to monitor my drive a little.

One detail that I have always given priority to is making connections. I spend time networking regularly. I spend a lot of time sending review books out, scheduling radio interviews, preparing for interviews and talks and rehearsing. And in the beginning I always wrote thank you notes (on real stationary not emails) to agents who rejected a manuscript. They took time out of their busy schedules to read my work and I felt an acknowledgement is only polite. Now I don’t really get much information on who reads what because my agent does it for me. But if there is an instance where I have direct contact with a person who gives me any amount of time, I thank that person with a real note.

As I write I’m getting a pedicure. It’s taken me 45 minutes to write this. I planned it that way. I plan my entire work schedule. So I guess in a nutshell my time management strategy is all about planning.

Om Shanti,
Your girlfriend in health,

In Karma Meredith Fitzgerald clings to the Bhagavad Gita (the Hindu bible) as it is one of the only possessions she ends up with. She struggles to understand what has happened to her and examines the meaning of karma trying to decipher its true definition from the holy book. The over arching message of Karma is that sex slaves are not to blame and that society must stop condemning them and instead act righteously toward them with compassion and help.

I read this article about the new subway in New Delhi with great interest as I rode the trains for months all over India in 1968-69. Back then they were British made early 19th century steam locomotives. India was crowded and chaotic and poor back then, but my subsequent trips really drove home the message that India was going to crash and burn if something wasn’t done to at least move people around more efficiently.

The reason I like this article is because it talks about the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s managing director, 77-year old Elattuvalapil Sreedharan who handed out the Bhagavad Gita to his managing directors as a “management text.” In it, Lord Krishna, who is disguised as a chariot driver, convinces Arjuna, a brave but demoralized king that he “must do his duty against all odds, and fight even what seems to be an unwinnable war.”

Having seen the arguably unwinnable war of chaos in India and to read that they have a pristine subway now that runs at a profit, it seems that Mr. Sreedharan’s management style has won that unwinnable war.

In our own lives, we may not face something as heinous as my character Meredith does in Karma, but we have our own perceived unwinnable wars. And so the idea of approaching our lives with a management mentality—what can we do to do our duty (good/compassion/acceptance/perseverance) against all odds?

One thing we can do—and it’s free—is to have compassion toward those people in the world who are suffering at the hands of sex traffickers beginning with not condemning the street walkers in our own cities. Feeling compassion in your hearts is free, and it’s a great start in doing your duty toward your fellow human beings.

Om Shanti,
Your girlfriend in health,

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Out of curiosity I compiled a list of one hundred prominent historical figures from the beginning of history to the year 1900 to see how they died—beginning with Menes, the king of Egypt who legend has it was killed in 3040 B.C. either by wild dogs, Nile crocodiles or a hippopotamus. Other illustrious figures among my subjects were Moses, Homer, Lao Tzu, Julius Caesar, Jesus Christ, Charlemagne, Hildegard von Bingen, Leonardo da Vinci, Anne Boleyn, Sir Isaac Newton, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Marie Antoinette, Edgar Allen Poe, Crazy Horse and Louisa May Alcott. A dominant cause of death throughout history was violence: crucifixion, assassination, guillotine, suicide, stabbing, shooting, poisoning and other modes of murder. For those who died “natural deaths,” however, because of undeveloped diagnostics, the causes of death were not as clear. The Barbarian invader Attila the Hun, for example, died in 453 A.D. at age forty-seven and is believed to have suffocated from a nosebleed while drunk. The German composer Johann Sebastian Bach died in 1750 at age sixty five of “a stroke brought on by quackery.” Many others died of “natural causes” or “fever.”

Prior to the year 1900, hygiene—the basic practice of cleanliness—was an advancement yet to be “discovered.” Raw sewage ran in city streets, contaminating drinking water. Doctors with filthy fingernails blew their noses during surgery. People and their habits were essentially dirty. Prior to the year 1900, the primary cause of disease was due to infectious diseases, so we can assume that at least some of the “natural causes” and “fever” in my list of one hundred major historical figures from the beginning of history to the year 1900 were deaths caused by infectious disease.

In the late 1850s French chemist and bacteriologist Louis Pasteur promoted the “germ theory of disease”: all infectious diseases have a causative agent, such as a bacteria, virus, fungus or parasite. The discovery of microorganisms precipitated scientific advancements such as the use of personal hygiene, antibiotics, sanitation and refrigeration, which systematically eradicated many infectious diseases plagues. In addition, for the first time in the history of humankind, a population as vast as ours was gaining the capacity to produce enough life sustaining meat, fish, poultry, dairy, vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, seeds and nuts to feed our nation. At the turn of the twentieth century, U.S. was poised to evolve into a utopia filled with healthy, strapping people. But this did not occur. Instead obesity and degenerative disease rose throughout the twentieth century and are now epidemic.

I wanted to get a read on how Americans were dying since the Industrial Revolution. I could have picked 100 nurses or 100 teachers or 100 artists. But I decided draw from a list of over 1,000 “famous” people. Then (without consideration to how they died) I whittled that list down to people I thought were the most notable. For example, I considered Jackie O more influential than Madge the Palmolive Dishwashing Lady. This list of the causes of death of one hundred influential Americans from 1910 to the present is aided by advanced diagnostics. While it is by no means a representative sample or a scientific analysis, it’s interesting to note that death by violence and infectious diseases seems to have been usurped by a shocking rise in death from degenerative diseases.

See my list here.

It seems that very few people these days are dying of natural causes or old age (just plain wearing out). We can conclude from this unscientific glance at the way people are dying that something is causing us to die from degenerative diseases. Could it be the supermarket food we’re eating?

Death by Supermarket: The Fattening, Dumbing Down, and Poisoning of America

Om Shanti,
Your girlfriend in health,

When we bring home and new baby or pet, we naturally think of ways to nurture that new creature. And this is how we should think of ourselves. With love and caring. And a primary part of loving ourselves is eating food to nurture our bodies and brains.

Eating food is a mystery today. I have had many people ask me, “What is food?”

Food is the substance that is used by the human body to replace, replenish and fuel our bodies. Without food, the human body will eventually consume all internal stores and then die.
I maintain that Americans are not eating food and so they are dying in an accelerated fashion. Eating factory food products supplies just enough nutrition to keep the body going in a very limited way. Meanwhile, these substances contaminate the body with poisons and xeno-hormones. In other words factory food products are delivery devices for toxins. So you have a nutritionally deprived body with a lot of poisons and that is a recipe for disease, heartbreak and early, ugly death.

When you get on an airplane the first thing you hear is the flight attendant admonishing you to think of yourself first if there is a loss of cabin pressure and the oxygen masks fall down from the overhead panels. Put them on first, she tells you, because if you can’t BREATHE then you will not be able to help the helpless around you. This is the same with food. Love yourself enough to feed your body, then you can love (feed) the others around you.

Om Shanti,
Your girlfriend in health,

The video on this blog post is posted on my fan facebook page. I wasn’t able to post it here because it’s too long! If you want to view it rather than read this, please go to my fan page.

Image: smokedsalmon / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I wrote a very successful book on adrenal burnout. But for years I thought there was a missing piece. Now I understand that it’s actually calming your big dumb pet, your brain, that’s the most important.

Before I get into calming your brain, I’d like you to understand how you got adrenally burned out. Stress hormones are secreted from your adrenal glands in response to acute and chronic physical and emotional stress. Your two adrenal glands are grape sized organs rest one above each kidney. The hormones they secrete influence nearly every bodily function and that’s why when you’re adrenally burned out you end up with health problems.

THERE FIVE STAGES OF ADRENAL BURNOUT

DRIVEN: You’re on top of your game and love the adrenaline high. You drive yourself mercilessly.

At this stage, you may not realize it, but your body is working hard to keep up with you. Look at every single president of the United States, and how gruesomely they age. External aging demonstrates what’s going on inside of their bodies. And Bill Clinton is a great example with all the health problems he’s had since his over-the-top stressful presidency.

DRIVEN is the adrenaline rush stage of adrenal burnout, which begins because some people just love this rush. But this adrenaline rush stage can also occurs in people are forced to work nights, like say in an acute medical care or police work, or people who experience frightening childhoods, or a traumatic life experiences like combat, or even a prolonged, hostile divorce, which kept your adrenals in a hyper alert state out of insecurity and fear.

The limbic system of your brain translates sensory input into emotion. When your limbic system registers a major event, your adrenals release adrenaline, the fight-or-flight hormone.

You get an adrenaline response from emotional or physical stress. But actually it could be a positive event like, say winning the lottery, getting a raise, getting married, or buying your dream car.

THE SENSATION OF THE ADRENALINE RUSH IS CAUSED BY THE RELEASE OF THREE FACTORS INTO YOUR SYSTEM AT THE SAME TIME:
1) Energy from sugar stored in your liver and muscles
2) The release of the feel good neurotransmitter dopamine
3) The release of the opiate neurotransmitter endorphins

These three factors suddenly make you feel energized, fully alert, and euphoric.

BEHAVIORS THAT LEAD TO ADRENAL BURNOUT

Driving yourself without let up
Remaining in a stressful situation
Skipping meals/dieting
Eating processed, junk or fake foods
Not exercising or exercising too much
Neglecting relaxation and other ways to calm your central nervous system
Blowing past your own fatigue to finish the day’s work
Not getting enough sleep
Using sugar, caffeine, nicotine, drugs, herbal stimulants to function
Breathing shallowly when tense, instead of breathing deeply
Exposure to toxins through the environment, household products and food
Worrying
Mentally replaying stressful inner dialogues
Neglecting fun and relaxing activities that allow you to clear your mind
Putting yourself last

Initially your body will be in an adrenaline rush state. But if the stress is chronic, your adrenals will then release the hormones cortisol and DHEA. These hormones initially keep you going.

HEALTHY LEVELS OF CORTISOL
Maintains blood sugar balance
Maintains energy
Maintains healthy blood pressure and fluid balance
Diminishes inflammation
Provides direction to the systems of the body
Regulates healthy immune response

HEALTHY LEVELS OF DHEA
Decreases recovery time from exercise
Decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease
Increases human growth hormone
Improves immunity
Improves mood
Increases energy
Increases fat burning
Is correlated with longevity
Speeds recovery from surgery

Just as you wouldn’t rev your car’s engine 24/7, and just as you regularly maintain your car’s engine, your body and more specifically your adrenal glands need rest so that they and the rest of your body can repair. If your adrenal glands are constantly churning out stress hormones and not given the opportunity to rest and repair they will begin to lose function. That’s when you begin to suffer from insomnia, fatigue, mood swings, low sex drive, weight gain, water retention and gastrointestinal discomforts to name just a few problems.

As you continue to drive yourself your adrenals will first decrease DHEA production. Now you have too much cortisol and not enough DHEA. This is not a good situation because DHEA buffers many of the negative effects of excess cortisol. For example, cortisol causes muscle wasting and DHEA stimulates muscle building, essentially replacing what cortisol has broken down. Increased cortisol suppresses immunity, whereas DHEA increases immunity. Increased cortisol leads to increased weight gain, whereas DHEA leads to fat burning and weight loss.

EXCESS CORTISOL RESULTS IN
Bone loss
Decreased sex drive
Emotional mood swings—depression
Increasing tendency to type II diabetes and hypertension
Gastritis
Menstrual disorders
Muscle wasting
Recurrent infections
Slower wound healing
Thinning of the skin and connective tissue
Water retention
Weight gain

Then you go into the second stage of adrenal burnout.

DRAGGING: You feel less energetic than you used to, so you have to rely on caffeine and even herbal stimulants or drugs. You’re too busy to cook, so you eat fast food. You feel terrible so you start taking pain relievers and Valium. Maybe you smoke. You’ve started having insomnia. You notice you’re getting flabby.

Your autonomic or unconscious nervous system that regulates the actions of organs such as your intestines, heart, circulation and glands, is divided into the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems. During the day, when you are awake, responding to stress, eating and on the go, you are predominantly in the sympathetic state. The mistake we fall into is pushing themselves to the extreme by over-exercising or working too hard, or perhaps you have been forced into this hyper alter sympathetic dominant state by a harsh childhood or bad circumstances, people engage in behaviors that force their bodies into a constant state of sympathetic dominance. This places constant extreme demands on your adrenal glands to secrete the stress hormones adrenaline, cortisol and DHEA. This constant demand ultimately depletes your adrenal reserve.

The metabolic processes that take place while you are in a sympathetic state create acids as byproducts, which make your body more acidic. When your body is in a natural, healthy rhythm the parasympathetic mode, which occurs predominantly at night, counteracts the sympathetic mode by turning on the repair processes. These processes rid your body of acid, and allows repair processes to make new cells, membranes, tissues, enzymes, hormones and neurotransmitters.

If you stay in a sympathetic dominant state too long you could end up in the third stage of adrenal burnout.

LOSING-IT: You have dark circles under your eyes. You’re too fat or too thin and looking older. You can’t sleep and lie away worrying. You are not motivated to exercise and drink coffee and eat sugar. You may smoke. You experience shortness of breath, chest pains, vertigo, palpitations, nausea, blurred vision, environmental sensitivities, and dread.

When you’re losing-it you, you’re in the danger zone, but often people keep going until they reach the fourth stage of adrenal burnout.

HITTING THE WALL: You bitch and moan about your fatigue, work, and how fat you are. You suffer from brain fog, irritability, insomnia, nightmares, gastrointestinal problems, allergies, asthma, headaches, migraines, musculoskeltal pains, back and neck pain. You use sleeping pills, antacids, antiinflamatories, cholesterol lowering medications, blood sugar lowering agents and/or blood pressure medications, way too much coffee and caffeinated drinks, and alcohol. You pee all night long. You turn to antidepressants. You have no energy for life.

WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU WHEN YOUR ADRENAL RESERVES ARE DEPLETED
Anxiety
Arthritis
Autoimmune diseases
Chronic fatigue
Colitis
Depression
Eating disorders
Escalating allergies, hives
Esophageal reflux
Fatigue
Fibromyalgia
Gastrointestinal dysfunction
Headaches, migraines
Hypoglycemia and type II diabetes
Inability to make healthy cognitive choices
Infections such as recurrent herpes, yeast, respiratory
Infertility
Insomnia, fatigue
Irrational fears
Irregular menses
Low sex drive
Metabolic problems
Mood disorders
Muscle spasms
Palpitations
Premature heart disease
Sciatica
Stiff Neck
Sweating (excessive)
Temporomandibular joint syndrome (TMJ)
Water retention
Weight gain or weight loss

If you don’t do something you’ll end up in the final state of adrenal burnout.

BURNED-OUT: Cancer, heart attack, chronic fatigue, autoimmune disease such as thyroiditis, lupus, Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, insulin dependent diabetes, Grave’s disease, myasthenia gravis, interstitial cystitis or Sjogren’s disease.

THE PRESCRIPTION FOR ADRENAL BURNOUT (ANY STAGE)

Stop driving yourself
Remove yourself from stressful situations
Eat a balanced diet of only real food
Exercise, but not maniacally
Get enough sleep every night
Stop stimulants like too much alcohol, smoking, caffeine
Take quality supplements
Avoid toxic exposure
Learn to have fun and relax

Yes, it’s important to remove yourself from stressful situations, to sleep eight hours a night, or more if you have driven yourself into sickness. It’s crucial to address all the factors of good health like eating a balanced diet of real food and avoiding all factory foods and toxins, drinking purified water, drinking green juice, and taking quality supplements. These things will all heal your adrenals.

But when I wrote the book on adrenal burnout I didn’t know what I now know, that meditation actually changes the brain. If you think about the alert systems our government has in place now compared to prior to the 911 attacks, it’s much like your brain before and after prolonged stress. Because of the plasticity of the brain, the more you use the areas of your brain that respond to stress, the larger those areas are going to become. It’s like working a muscle.

So even if you’ve been working diligently on correcting your adrenal burnout, you still may feel exhausted all the time, and not anywhere near the way you used to be. You may still be suffering from insomnia because your adrenals are kicking in inappropriately in the middle of the night. The way to address this constant, learned state of hyper-alertness is to calm your brain by actually changing your brain.

MRI studies have shown that eight weeks of 40 minutes a day of Metta (lovingkindness) meditation actually decreases the amygdala, which is the part of the brain that perceives stress. At the same time Metta meditation also increases the size of the insula, which is the part of the brain that generates compassion and loving feelings.

Metta meditation is a simple meditation in which you assume a comfortable position, close your eyes, focus your attention for a few moments on the sounds around you, then focus for a few moments on your breath going in and out. Don’t worry one bit about losing focus. It happens after ½ to 1 second to everyone, even those who are experienced in mediation. Just bring your attention back gently without condemning yourself. Then begin to repeat these phrases to yourself, gently bringing your attention back when your mind wanders.

May I be safe.
May I be happy
May I be healthy
May I live with ease.

Metta is not a way to beg for certain things, like may I have enough money to pay my bills this month, give me a boyfriend, a bigger house, a better job. The purpose of Metta is to give yourself simple, uncomplicated compassion and lovingkindness. This is the meditation that researchers found to actually change the brain. When the part of your brain that is hyper-alert to danger decreases, your adrenals will stop being pounded, and you will find yourself being healed of adrenal burnout.

Om Shanti,
Your girlfriend in health,

Image: Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If you don’t like yourself, your natural inclination is to abuse yourself. If you live alone, for example, you may eat microwaved Lean Cuisine for dinner with a Diet Coke, and then polish off a tub of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, then spend the rest of the evening watching stupid TV eating an entire bag of chips. You stop off in the bathroom before bed to brush your teeth and give yourself a tongue lashing in the mirror. Then you go to bed angry and stare at the ceiling, thinking more bad things about yourself.

If you genuinely like yourself, however, your natural inclination will be to do nice things for yourself, like come home from work, meditate, make yourself a nice, dinner of real food with a glass of raw milk, or even a glass of a good wine. The rest of your evening will inevitably take a more enjoyable track.

But you can’t FORCE doing nice things for yourself like the Gestapo. The desire to treat yourself well comes from within. Begin by recognizing all the times during the day that you say hateful, disparaging things to yourself. You may be surprised at how harsh the inner voice is. Once you recognize this tendency, shut that voice down when you hear it by saying to yourself, “I recognize what you are saying, but I don’t agree. I love myself just as I am.” Say it a million times if you have to—even, and especially if you think you don’t deserve it. Even if you just ate that cookie dough ice cream. Especially if you just at that cookie dough ice cream.

Take a stand against self hatred and soon you’ll find a feeling of self love radiating from within yourself. Along with this newfound respect for yourself, you’ll find yourself relating to others in a more positive way. You’ll also find pleasure in treating yourself more thoughtfully, including feeding yourself healthy food, stopping the destructive cycle of dieting, and cutting down on all the prescription and OTC drugs.

Changes like that are truly sexy.

Om Shanti,
Your girlfriend in health,

Playing the piano exercises my brain in a way that it doesn’t get exercised otherwise, it gives me pleasure, and provides a discipline that adds to the spectrum of my life. I wish that I had started many years ago. But better late than never. So if you have a dream, begin now. Why wait?