Get to Know Your Adrenal Glands

What do adrenal glands do?

The Latin word adrenal describes the location of these powerful organs (ad—near; renes—kidneys). Your 3 inch long triangular adrenal glands secrete a slew of hormones that power 50 of your bodily functions.

When your brain signals your sympathetic nervous system that you’re up against an immediate challenge, it prompts your adrenal glands to release adrenaline hormone, which makes you more alert and enhances your reaction time. It can prompt a bounding pulse, sweaty palms, small pupils, or a hot flushed face and trembling.

This “flight or fight” response rapidly prepares your body to spring into action during a stressful situation – whether it’s a high stakes client presentation, a grueling triathlon, or a car swerving at you head on.

Adrenal Fatigue

When that kind of stress response becomes chronic, however, your adrenal glands no longer communicate properly with your brain to produce all of your endocrine system hormones – like cortisol, your stress response regulator. This imbalance can eventually lead to adrenal fatigue, which affects more than one million Americans.

That’s why it’s critical to nurture your adrenals so they can secrete healthy levels of cortisol. Just ask the patients who’ve supplemented their imbalances with a-Drenal^®.

How your adrenal glands work?

Whenever you need to respond to a stressor, your adrenal glands secrete the following hormones:

• norepinephrine (noradrenaline)

This is the main neurotransmitter used by the sympathetic nervous system. Norepinephrine function entails modifying each organ to make it more conducive to whole body movement. It’s secreted continuously at low levels, enabling your alpha receptors to maintain a healthy blood pressure.

• epinephrine (adrenaline)

Epinephrine is secreted in larger quantities during high stress incidents. It increases your heart rate, rushes blood to your brain and muscles, and spikes your blood sugar level by converting glycogen (stored in your liver) to glucose. Releasing too much too often can cause dysfunction.

When they’re not responding to stress, your adrenal glands are releasing these hormones that keep you alive:

• cortisol: regulates your metabolism, blood pressure, and heart rate; high levels can disrupt immune function
• aldosterone: helps control your blood pressure

All of these adrenal hormones also help optimize the production and metabolism of thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). That’s why they must be maintained at optimal levels to prevent imbalances, which lead to a wide range of debilitating symptoms.

Your adrenal gland care

Maintaining your adrenal health requires adapting an adrenal friendly diet and lifestyle. Talk to your doctor before making any dietary, exercise, or other lifestyle changes.

Avoiding caffeine in the afternoon to improve your sleep, choosing a stress management technique like yoga or meditation, exercising, and spending more time outdoors, for example, all nurture your brain adrenal axis.

Adrenal balance may also require taking nutritional supplements. Years of international studies have demonstrated that the clinically validated natural extracts in a-Drenal^® help regulate adrenal function via polysaccharides and peptides, which act on your antioxidant, cardiovascular, hormone, and immune systems.¹

For decades, RLC Labs has been producing time-proven adrenal fatigue supplements with stellar results.

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Sources:

1.Geng P, Siu KC, Wang Z, Wu JY. Antifatigue Functions and Mechanisms of Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms. Biomed Res Int. 2017;2017:9648496. doi:10.1155/2017/9648496