Hormones in disarray?

Your endocrine system is highly responsive to stress. It is responsible for mobilizing your body's resources to deal with threats. Acting on signals from your brain, your hypothalamus alerts your pituitary gland, which then releases stress hormones into your blood stream. These blood-borne stress hormones travel to specific endocrine glands elsewhere in your body, which they stimulate to add more stress hormones into your blood stream in turn.

The most significant of these hormones are adreno-cortico-trophic hormone (ACTH), released by your pituitary, and the cortisol that ACTH releases from the outer layers of your adrenal glands. Cortisol plays a primary - and in the short term, beneficial - role in stress reactions. It increases the glucose from your liver and stimulates insulin from your pancreas to supply the quick energy needed for a fight-or-flight response. Cortisol increases the activity of your immune system and the excitability of your brain and sympathetic nervous system. It also protects against inflammation and fights off allergies.

While a number of hormones are released in relatively large amounts during times of stress, others are stopped or slowed to very low levels of production and release. Sex hormones, for instance, are inhibited by stress, leading to lowered sexual desire in both men and women, and to menstrual irregularities in women. Growth-hormone production and release diminishes, causing slow or arrested growth and development in children.

Your hormonal system is a delicately balanced instrument of numerous, interacting bits of biochemistry. Stress disrupts this balance by putting your system on a wartime footing. If this goes on too long, or if your hormonal system can't synthesize key substances, it stops functioning normally. Stress symptoms then appear.

This process takes one to five years of fairly chronic stress. Once it happens, it takes time for your endocrine system to repair itself. There are no quick fixes. But your body has marvelous healing powers, as long as you provide a healthy diet, rest, and peace of mind.

Many endocrine problems are related to genetic predispositions, such as diabetes. While you may need medication to regulate an endocrine disorder, the stress of your personal life may throw your system further out of balance and escalate the need for medical care and medication.

Click on other stress symptoms you may have experienced to learn more about what you can do about them as well.

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