Depending on where you are storing your fat, gives us an idea of what is going on in your body. If you have thin arms, thin legs, but are starting to get fat rolls over your abdominal area, and putting weight on your face, this is most probably extended stress. When we are stressed, the adrenals produce excessive amounts of cortisol and this is stored across the tummy.
The adrenals sit on the top of each kidney. They produce cortisol which allows your body to respond to danger, increases your body’s metabolism of glucose, controls your blood pressure and reduces inflammation.
Cortisol is a hormone and has many modes of action in the body, essential to health, as above, yet it needs to be in the right balance. Cortisol is needed for the flight or fight response, a natural response to perceived threats.
The Problem
The adrenal glands are regulated by the pituitary gland, the master gland that sits in the base of the brain. When we don’t have enough cortisol we will be tired, feel nauseous, loose weight and have muscle weakness and possible pain in the abdomen. Addison’s disease is the life-threatening condition whereby the adrenal cortex is producing very little or no cortisol.
When we are continually stressed, and produce too much cortisol, we may gain weight around the abdomen and face, have thin and fragile skin, be slow to heal and in women have irregular periods. We will also be burning up our ‘life essence’ or as the Chinese would say our ‘Jing’, depleting ourselves and even shortening our lives. Cushing’s Syndrome is the extreme of excessive cortisol.
What We Can Do
I read somewhere recently that if you are over 40, we should not work more than 3 days per week. Due to financial pressures etc this is not always possible, but perhaps something to aim for, or perhaps to move to work that we actually enjoy. Self-care is important when we lead busy lives with work and families, so what can we do?
Exercise is a great reliever of stress, however excessive cardio-vascular exercise can lead to further stress on the body, increasing inflammatory responses, and exacerbate cortisol levels. Balance cardio-vascular with yoga and/or chi gong. Learn to stop and breathe. A sentence I often say to myself is “now is a great time to relax.”
Nutrition, Herbs and Regression
Stop coffee and stimulants, be gentle with your adrenals. And supplement with vitamin C, a Multi-B Vitamin and Magnesium Chloride (colloidal internally and mag chloride lotion and salts eternally.) If you haven’t got a bath, have a magnesium chloride foot bath 3-4 x per week before bed, using 1-2 cups in warm to hot water.
Regression can be utilised to release core stress at it’s root, usually in childhood, before the age of seven. Regression can help a person clear their negative responses to their day to day life, by healing child-hood trauma. This moves a person away from their conditional response to their lives, by healing their first point of pain.
Nothing beats Herbal Medicine for adrenal exhaustion, Liquorice Root, Withania, Rose Hips, Rhodiola, and Siberian Ginseng to name a few.
On the other hand, if you have a swollen, protruded round abdomen, this is an indication that the liver is over-worked from poor diet, medication and alcohol. This can be seen in the classic beer belly body type. Reduce your alcohol consumption, so that you are not suppressing your emotions and undertake a gentle liver detox. Your liver will love you for it.