January 2007 Newsletter

An Inspirational Quote

"It is better to allow our lives to speak for us than our words."

Mahatma Gandhi

What To Do If You Have Adrenal Fatigue
by James Williams, james@totalfitness.net

It is important to get your adrenal hormone levels tested because there are different stages of adrenal fatigue. Each stage has different recovery protocols that involve fine-tuning a person's exercise, nutrition, hydration, and quantity of rest and sleep.

One of the common signs of adrenal fatigue is consistently low levels of energy, especially at the end of the day.

We at Total Fitness also recommend energy-building exercise such as Qi Gong or Tai Chi. Performing these gentle Chinese exercises draws fresh energy into the body and assists with recovery. Yoga is another excellent form of de-stressing exercise and can assist with releasing pent-up emotional tension from your muscles, leaving you calm, serene, flexible, and stronger.

Yoga is also a perfect exercise for people who are fatigued because you can fine tune your practice to suit the amount of energy you have at any given moment, just as Catherine does in her yoga classes. The combination of movement, deep breathing and a peaceful outlook gently releases tension and stress from the body. Holding tension in the muscles and organs requires energy, so when we release tension, we have more energy to handle everyday life.

Avoid all forms of high intensity cardiovascular exercise if you have adrenal fatigue. This includes running, elliptical machines, spinning classes and boot camps. This is because any aerobic activity where your heart rate exceeds 100 beats per minute stimulates the release of the stress hormone cortisol.

When you release a lot of cortisol, something called "cortisol steal" happens. Your body switches over to producing primarily stress hormones rather than sex hormones.

Avoiding high intensity cardio is key for maintaining balanced sex hormones as we age and why we recommend against high intensity aerobic activity for all women more than 35 years of age.

If you want to reduce body fat and have fatigued adrenals, you may do best by lifting weights for 15 to 45 minutes two to three times each week. Keep your sets to no more than 60 seconds in length and then rest for at least one minute - preferably until your heart rate reaches its normal resting state. This type of protocol helps to reduce the total amount of cortisol your adrenals manufacture.

Providing you don't have an injury, a brisk stroll outside for up to 45 minutes a day will enhance your adrenals' ability to rest. When your adrenals are stressed, which is also true with all chronically ill people, it pays to exercise smarter - not harder - if you really want to recover.

Even the time of day you perform your exercise can make a huge difference when trying to get over fatigue. Ask your Total Fitness practitioner for an adrenal test to help you identify the best time of day for you to exercise.

In addition to smart exercise, smart rest is essential when your adrenals need to recuperate. This involves you enjoying 10 hours of rest every day. If you sleep for 8 hours, then take 2 hours throughout each day to just chill and enjoy your personal downtime.

If you fail to do this, your adrenals will tire more, and the remainder of your adrenal recovery program will be less successful. Remember, you are more able to help others, including your loved ones and friends, when you are strong yourself. When you put your priorities last, and everyone else's needs first, your health suffers, and helping others just drains you.

Make sleep and downtime your No. 1 priority. This is not selfish. It is necessary for your survival, especially if you are in the later stages of adrenal stress. Some people love to lounge in the bath (and read in it like me), others lie on the sofa and listen to relaxing music. Meditation, reading joke books, or watching a comedy film are equally restorative. In other words, do nothing that requires effort, and give yourself plenty of variety. The only pre-requisites are that you do activities that you enjoy and find spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically uplifting.

Your Stress Levels May Also Reflect What You Eat repeats

Your adrenals glands, just like all of the other physical structures in your body, are made from your food. When you overeat foods that your intestines are sensitive to - common examples being wheat, dairy, soy, corn and chicken - your gut becomes inflamed and calls out to your adrenal glands for help to soothe the inflammation.

They say: "Help! I'm inflamed, he's eaten wheat again - please send me some cortisone, the anti-inflammatory hormone." If your adrenal glands aren't too fatigued, and can oblige, they'll secrete cortisone to be delivered to your gut to damp down the redness. If cortisone is in short supply, the intestinal inflammation persists and eventually leads to bloating and pain. The solution is to ask your Total Fitness practitioner to test your food sensitivities and temporarily remove the foods your body doesn't like.

When you keep eating foods that inflame your digestive tract, you persist in draining your adrenals and you also inhibit the production of serotonin, a key feel-good hormone that keeps you in a positive mindset and on an emotional even keel.

Your intestines manufacture 95% of your serotonin. Continued gut inflammation reduces serotonin production, which heavily contributes to the onset of depression. All those blue thoughts drain the adrenals even more. It becomes a catch 22 situation - until you heal your gut by eliminating the aggravating foods and rebuild your intestinal lining, you may continue to feel depressed.

Eating organic food and keeping your sugar intake low also help dramatically to heal your adrenals. Don't eat sugar or drink coffee to keep going - craving these foods is just a sign that your body really needs rest instead.

The last arm of your adrenal strengthening program is supplementation. There are three main types to choose from: vitamin and herbal strengtheners, adaptogens, and animal glandular extracts. All three act in different ways to replenish the adrenal glands and can be extremely helpful for you to feel better and continue to function while you are healing.

Make no bones about it - adrenal fatigue seriously affects your health. If not dealt with properly, it can trigger chronic illness, pain, immune suppression, an imbalanced hormone system, a miserable day-to-day existence, and eventually death.

You no longer have to be a silent victim to this pandemic and can take action to fine-tune all the areas of potential stress in your life, including your exercise, nutrition, sleep, relaxation and stress perception.

We invite you to learn more top tips by listening to adrenal fatigue specialist Dr. James L. Wilson, N.D., Ph.D., D.C., when he appears as a guest on Total Fitness radio show. Tune in on Friday February 23rd at 10a.m. EST / 7a.m. PST.

Here at Total Fitness we can help you to heal from adrenal fatigue and many other health challenges because we offer:

• Food sensitivity testing to identify and suggest replacements for the foods inflaming your intestines.
• Scientific adrenal hormone level testing.
• Nutritional advice to speed your recovery.
• Adrenal recovery supplements, such as DeStressing Formula, which contains vitamins, herbs and adaptogens, available now from our webstore at: https://www.totalfitness.net/acatalog/1ShoppingCatalog/stres s_management_herbal_supplement.html
• Simple and effective methods of helping you change your stress perception, and reduce or eliminate feelings of depression and anxiety.
• An individualized exercise program that matches your level of adrenal fatigue and INCREASES your energy.
• Yoga classes every Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., and Qi Gong every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.
• Lifestyle advice that will maximize your recovery.

Upcoming Guests, Total Fitness Radio Show

Tune in every Friday at 7 a.m. PST/10 a.m. EST for the latest edition of Total Fitness. Have your fitness, nutrition and healing questions answered for FREE by Catherine and James and our guest experts by calling toll-free, 1-866-472-5792, during the LIVE broadcast.

Afterwards, listen to the archives for FREE, 24/7, by visiting this link: http://www.totalfitness.net/radio_show_past_shows.htm

Feb.2: Paul Chek, HHP, NMT, Making Exercise Your Spiritual Practice.
Feb.9: T.S. Wiley, author, Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival, "Sleep More To Be Thinner, Happier and Enjoy Balanced Hormones"
Feb. 16, Dr. Barry Sears, author, The Anti-Inflammation Zone: Reversing the Silent Epidemic That's Destroying Our Health, "How To Heal Inflammation"
Feb. 23, James L. Wilson, coauthor, Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st-Century Syndrome, "How To Have More Energy"

Yoga and Qi Gong Classes in Atlanta

Yoga Classes: Every Tuesday and Thursday, 7:30 p.m.
Holy Spirit Catholic Church
4465 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA.
$15 per class or $65 per calendar month.

NEW Yoga Classes: Every Wednesday at 3:15 p.m.
Atlanta Speech School
3160 Northside Parkway.
For more information about this class, please call 404-350-8581.

Qi Gong Class: Every Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. 1951 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA. $15 per class.

Booking appointments with Total Fitness

To schedule an appointment to find out about a personalized fitness, nutrition or healing program that will help you get results, please contact us:

In Atlanta

Catherine Carrigan catherine@totalfitness.net

James Williams james@totalfitness.net

In California

Nina Lynn nina@totalfitness.net

You can also visit us on the web at www.totalfitness.net