I picked up Daniel Golemans book after viewing his lecture. Below are a few excerpts from his book that I hope you find interesting. When Laura noted the relationship between the HPA axis and adrenal fatigue, I was curious and looked up what he had to say. I also pulled a few quotes from Adrenal Fatigue by James Wilson
.
Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Page 225
Under stress, the adrenal glands release cortisol, one of the hormones the body mobilizes in an emergency. These hormones have widespread effects in the body, including many that are adaptive in the short term for healing bodily injuries.
Ordinarily we need a moderate level of cortisol, which acts as a biological “fuel” for our metabolism and helps regulate the immune system. But if our cortisol levels remain to high for prolonged periods, the body pays a price in ill health. The chronic secretion of cortisol (and related hormones) are at play in cardiovascular disease and impaired immune function, exacerbating diabetes and hypertension and even destroying neurons in the hippocampus, harming memory.
Even as cortisol shuts down the hippocampus, it also strokes the amygdala, stimulating the growth of dendrites in that site foe fear. In addition, heightened cortisol blunts the ability of the key areas in the prefrontal cortex to regulate the signals of fear coming from the amygdala.
The combined neural impact of too much cortisol is threefold. The impaired hippocampus learns rather sloppily, over generalizing fearfulness to details of the moment that are irrelevant (such as a distinctive tone of voice). The amygdala circuitry goes on a rampage, and the prefrontal area fails to modulate signals from the overreacting amygdala. The result: the amygdala runs rampant, driving fear, while the hippocampus mistakenly perceives too many triggers for that fear.
The condition of vigilance and overreactivity has been called post-traumatic stress disorder.
In linking stress to health, the key biological systems are the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and he hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. When we are distressed, both eh SNS and the HPA axis take up the challenge , secreting hormones that prepare us to handle an emergency or threat. But they do so by borrowing resources from the immune and endocrine system, among others. That weakens these key systems for health, just for a moment or for years at a time.
The SNS and HPA circuits are turned on or off by our emotional states- distress for the worse, happiness for the better. Since other people affect our emotions with such power (through emotional contagion, for example)the casual linkage extends outside our body to our relationships.
Page 230
An interviewer's unnerving ,hostile reaction reliability trigger the HPA axis to produce some of the highest levels of cortisol of any laboratory stress simulation ever tested. The social stress test hikes cortisol much more than does that classic lab ordeal in which volunteers do increasingly difficult math problems under intense time pressure against annoying background noise, with a noxious buzzer signaling wrong answers- but without the presence of someone making nasty judgments. Impersonal ordeals are soon forgotten but judgmental scrutiny delivers a particularity strong and lingering dose of shame.
Page 232
Relationships that are constantly critical, rejecting or harassing keep the HPA axis in constant overdrive.
When the source of stress seems impersonal, like an obnoxious auto alarm we are helpless to stop, our most basic need for acceptance and belonging goes unthreatened. Kemeny found that for such impersonal stress, the body got over its inevitable jump in cortisol within 40 minutes or so. But if the cause was a negative social judgment, cortisol stayed high 50 percent longer, taking an hour or more to return to normal.
Adrenal Fatigue: the 21st Century Stress Syndrome by James L. Wilson
Page 273
Too much physical, emotional, environmental and or psychological stress can deplete your adrenal, causing a decrease in the output of adrenal hormones, particularly cortisol.
During stress cortisol must simultaneously provide more blood glucose, mobilize fats and proteins for a back up supply of glucose and modify immune reactions, heartbeat, blood pressure, brain alertness and nervous system responsiveness. Without cortisol, these mechanisms cannot react adequately to a significant stress challenge. When cortisol levels cannot rise in response to these needs, maintaining your body under stress is nearly impossible, The more extreme the differences between the level of stress and the lack of cortisol the more significant the consequences.
