The Adrenal Glands
The adrenals glands are a point that I tend to feel in quite a few of my clients. My theory behind this is that life is just very stressful these days and we don’t expel the excess hormones it creates, effectively enough.
The adrenal glands, which are small glands sitting on the top of your kidneys, respond to stress by releasing hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. They are what we call the ‘fight or flight’ hormones. In basic terms, back in cave man days we would either fight the lion or run very fast from it. This would ‘use up’ the hormones the adrenal glands had secreted.
However, nowadays, we have no lion to fight or run from and the stresses of our life are much more constant and continuous. Therefore, our body doesn’t have a good enough chance to effectively rid of these hormones as the response doesn’t always turn off.
This continuous exposure to cortisol and other stress hormones can cause huge disruptions in your body’s process, increasing the risk of many health issues.
Here are some natural ways to lower cortisol:
Exercise where you are getting your heart rate up.
Relaxing, breathing techniques
Self-care, like reflexology
Getting quality sleep
Eating a balanced and wholesome diet
This is a really good article and diagram showing the possible effects to much cortisol and other stress hormones can create.
How can reflexology help stress?
Reflexology is a deeply relaxing therapy which can balance and restore homeostasis to your body. In this state muscular tension is released, nerve function improved, blood and lymph circulate freely and overall health and wellbeing improve. Often sleep is improved after a treatment which gives your body time to stop it’s fight or flight response and be calm, still and heal.