Monthly Boost May 2005

Welcome to May’s newsletter. Before I share some info on hay fever, I would like to take a little space in this newsletter, to THANK all of you who wrote to your MP regarding the supplement ban. It has been announced that it is 90% likely that the ban will not go ahead, so well done and ask your colleague next to you to pat you on the back if you participated. BUT, please I urge you to write again (maybe to a new MP this time round) to ensure that the 10% chance of it passing through will not happen. And as for the Australians, you better do the same, as it seems Australia is now under the same threat.

Last month we touched upon hay fever and its multi-factorial causes, this month we will continue with this irritating condition but with a focus on the forever loyal adrenal glands, please don’t switch off by the terminology, they are the glands that are responsible for the ‘flight or fight’ response.

As I had mentioned in last month’s boost, hay fever does not just happen, allow me to repeat this, hay fever does not just happen, it brews quietly over the years and then one year, WHAM BAM the plethora of symptoms take over your upper body. It usually occurs from a toxic overload, for more info go to toxins . Basically, toxins, include chemicals, biological toxins (viruses, parasites etc) and emotional toxins. When a body goes into toxic overload, it will manifest in a number of ways, such as in the form of arthritis, diabetes, hay fever, depression ……I am sure you can fill in the blanks.

The adrenal glands play a vital role in hay fever. These little glands prepare us to ‘deal with emergency situations’. In the day of our great ancestors, this would have occurred when ‘the man of the house’ encountered a beast in the wild, his adrenals would suddenly throw out a surge of adrenaline, the result of which is to increase blood sugar rapidly. This blood sugar then gives the individual fuel/energy to run for his life. Sometime later the wild beat has been left behind and the sugar surge has been burnt during the heart pounding, sweat excreting run.

Now fast forwarding thousands of years later, David a trader in a big banking firm, finds out that his investment has just crashed, his billion dollar client is away on holiday and some where 'something is going to hit the fan'! In the meantime, David’s adrenals still respond in the same way, they shoot out adrenaline, cause a blood sugar surge…for what? To escape the danger?...I don’t think so. David is not thinking, well I better go for a run around the block to burn off this sugar rush, as a matter of fact this sugar ends up as fat! Yes, there it is, the link between stress and lack of weight loss! Usually this weight is accumulated around the mid section, what I call ‘stress adiposity’ (sounds more scientific than stress fat).

Now the adrenals do not only produce the stress hormone adrenaline, but they also produce our NATURAL steroids. In other words hormones that dampen an over active immune system…see the link with hay fever? …if not, just hang in there, I will come back to this….let me give you another 21st century example;

Faiza, a 34 year old new mum, suddenly gets hay fever 6 months after having little Maya. By the way this is a true case.

Faiza chose the ‘complemetary’ medicine route for ‘treatment’ for the hay fever and the hay fever was successfully cleared.

Now Faiza’s situation is a very common one in today’s society. Faiza was a lawyer and worked for a firm that considered 9am to mid-night as ‘normal’ working hours. Faiza enjoyed her job so she did not mind the long hours and worked up until two days before she gave birth. During her pregnancy, her adrenals took a ‘blast’ due to the long hours, poor diet and lack of sleep. She had to have an emergency Caesarean section and recovered quite slowly from the surgery (slow recovery can be an indication of ‘tired adrenals’). Maya was diagnosed with acid reflux and was put on several medications to alleviate the digestive symptoms. She was a ‘cranky’ baby and did not sleep through the night even at 6 months of age.

So what’s the story here? I am not digressing from my main subject ‘hay fever and the adrenals’… just stay with me…..When an expectant mum is stressed (this may be physically, emotionally or mentally) the adrenals go into over-drive. If this stress is not dealt with, the adrenals get tired and start to slow down. The mum-to-be can suffer from nausea, morning sickness, high blood pressure, oedema etc until the last trimester, when she suddenly feels a sense of relief. What happens in the third trimester you may ask?....in this trimester the baby’s adrenals glands are fully developed to the point that the baby starts to support the ‘adrenally-lacking’ mother by making the adrenal hormones for ‘mummy’ and giving her somewhat of a break. I wonder what Freud or Jung would have to say about this one.

Anyway, the baby is then born with ‘hyper’ adrenals!!!!! And what do you get?...a cranky, ‘colicky’ baby with various other symptoms (which can vary from eczema through to multiple food intolerances). So not only does the mum need to be treated but so does the baby. It may have helped Faiza somewhat if she had started to slow down during her pregnancy and ate more ‘healthily’ and got more sleep and reduced her stress levels (some of you maybe thinking, 'dream on', but it is all a matter of priority my friends), this may well have prevented the hay fever and not to mention an unhappy medicated baby.

So what’s the moral of the story? NOT only to look after your adrenals as no body else will, BUT also, it is not always the external environment (such as pollen) that we should be blaming, but everything else that may be going on in our lives. After all why does one person over-react to pollen and another does not?

To healthy adrenals

Khush Mark