Stress

September 14, 2002

Mike,

To my knowledge,what one should take for the adrenal support would depend on

how one's adrenal condition is.If you only have high cortisol problem than

you might make use of adaptogens or cortisol controlling agents like

Seriphos.At later stages things get little more complicated. You might need

to supplement Pregnenolone and or DHEA.You might also need some adrenal

cortex extract and raw adrenal glandular.I believe one must make a good

search before starting an adrenal supplement.Wrong supplementation may make

you worse.For example if you use DHEA when your dhea level is not low this

may suppress adrenal functioning. If you use adaptogens like panax ginseng

when your adrenals are exhausted,this may stimulate you and make you

worse.These are just couple of examples. That is what I have learned from my

research.

I am at later stages. I am currently using Pregnenolone,Adrenal cortex

extract,adrenal glandular and Seriphos. No stimulants like coffe,tea.

resting.

Thanks.

Nil

Re: Stress

| Hi Kathy and All,

| Kathy, what do you use to supplement your

| adrenal system?

|

| Thanks

|

| Mike

|

| This list is intended for patients to share personal experiences with each

other, not to give medical advice. If you are interested in any treatment

discussed here, please consult your doctor.

|

September 14, 2002

Hi Mike,

Like yourself, I believe in the physical laws and their governing

effect. When we achieve anything in life, it is by obedience to the

laws that predicate our receiving it. Our biggest problem at this

point is that we are not aware of all the laws that affect us. Life

is a trial and error, learn as you go, condition.

All the best,

Jim

Fibromyalgia: A Hypothesis of Etiology

http://www.xmission.com/~total/temple/index.html

> Hi Jim and All,

> I wish that I could have faith. I was

brought up

> on the science and

> the scientific method and I don't believe that there is a higher

power.

> I don't believe

> that there is a grand scheme of things. As far as I have seen in my

> life, everything

> goes according to physical laws until proven otherwise. I am not

> claiming to know

> everything and I respect people who believe.

>

Take

> Care

>

> Mike

September 14, 2002

Dear Mike,

In my former life I thrived on stress. I flew airplanes, raced cars and

sailboats and was in a very high stress, high reward profession. I was the work

hard, play hard sort and enjoyed my

life very much.

The onset of my illness came after being bitten by Brown Recluse Spiders 3X

within a month's span of time. To me, they were just the cute little brown

spiders that lived in my bathroom. It

turns out that their venom is quite poisonous, demylenating nerves, attacking

the immune system and causing severe colitis. (Hmmm, never made the colitis

connection before.)

About a month after the bites, after one of my regular sailing trips I came

down with the Flu from Hell.

I was running a business, flying all over the country, and had commitments to

clients. I simply refused to stop, although my body told me constantly to shut

down. I remember staggering to the

shower each morning and standing in the hot water, gutting up to face the day.

It got to where I would sleep 2 days, work 1. Finally, I hung it up, let my

employees go, closed my office, and

began shucking investments. In the mean time I had married a man who liked

being married to a woman who could finance his outdoor adventures and had a hard

time adjusting to the idea that we

weren't going to be living overlooking the golf course, instead in a small

duplex in a different part of town.

All of the above created severe psychological stress, and it was much harder

than some of the physical stress I put myself through backpacking, canoeing,

etc. and it has only been in the last

year that I have not had that constant psychological stress of living with an

unhappy person.

In the matter of psychological stress vs. physical stress, I have come to

the point where I simply don't physically challenge myself anymore than

necessary. I recently made a trip that

involved a 6 hour auto drive. I found that both ways I had to pull off and

sleep for about 45 minutes. For someone who used to drive semis, that seems

pretty wimpy, but absolutely necessary.

As for psychological stress, it has become a discipline to think positively,

period. If I allow myself to imagine negative consequences of anything, it

affects me physically. You may have

seen my post about using Omega 6 and 3 and ridding myself of depression. That

has helped considerably.

I also find that increasing my immunepro/IP-6 dosage helps during stressful

periods. Maybe Rich might have some thoughts about why this helps.

Beck

Mike wrote:

> Hi All,

> I have an extreme problem in dealing with stress. I think

> emotional stress

> is the hardest for me to deal with. Physical stress is also a problem.

> What happens

> is that I get easily stressed out and it makes me physically sick and

> also much harder

> for me to function mentally. The longer I am under the stress the sicker

> I get.

> At this point, when I get sicker, it takes me a real long time to

> recover and I always

> seem to lose some ground. I was wondering if other people have this

> problem.

> I would like to know if there are any substances that I can take that

> can make

> me more resistant to stress and allow me to recover faster and more

> fully.

> (Maybe I am asking for the panacea that we all want that is elusive and

> just around

> the corner). I do not want to take medications. Any ideas or help will

> be greatly

> appreciated.

>

> Thanks,

>

> Mike

>

> P.S. I was not this way all my life. It only happened as a result of

> the CFS.

> I used to to all sorts of high excitement / stress fun activities and

> handle life's

> stresses pretty well.

>

> This list is intended for patients to share personal experiences with each

other, not to give medical advice. If you are interested in any treatment

discussed here, please consult your doctor.

>

September 14, 2002

> I also find that increasing my immunepro/IP-6 dosage helps

during stressful periods. Maybe Rich might have some thoughts about

why this helps.

>

> Beck

>

Beck,

Nope, sorry, I don't know why this would help for stress. IP-6 is

known to chelate divalent metals, and probably helps to slow down the

Fenton reaction whereby iron ions catalyze the production of free

radicals, by binding iron ions. I take it because there's some

evidence that it prevents colon cancer, and I wouldn't like that to

come back! It also may help to produce IP-3, which is a signalling

molecule inside cells. ImmunePro supplies some proteins, including

quite a bit of cysteine, which helps glutathione production, and also

contains immunoglobulins, which should help immunity, and

lactoferrin, which also binds iron ions. So far I don't see how all

of this might tie into helping with stress, but it's interesting to

read that you have found this to be true.

Rich

September 14, 2002

I don't know if I'm going to word this very well, because I really struggle

with word recall, and brain fog, but I'll try to share a little of what I

thought as I read your e-mail.

Easily stressed can have a lot of factors associated with it. Weak adrenal

glands can mean not enough adrenal response, or too much adrenal response or

a shift in the cortisol circadian rhythm. Excess stress and excess adrenal

production can make the pituitary loose it's sensitivity to adrenaline, and

make it overproduce ACTH so that it stimulates too much adrenaline when

activated by stress, depleting the adrenal glands, causing a boom/bust

cycle.

Blood sugar problems can increase the demands on the adrenals, weakening

them, and problems of hypoglycemia can develop when the blood sugar levels

begin to fluctuate wildly, contributing t irritability, or less stress

tolerance because of insufficient fuel getting into the cells during times

of low blood sugar, and increasing the demands on the adrenal glands.

NMDA receptor sites in the brain can be overstimulated from excess nitric

oxide production and deplete GABA levels and stimulate excess norepinephrine

production. Long term pain or inflammation can also deplete opioids which

can contribute to depression, increased pain sensitivity, irritability, low

stress tolerance, etc. With less ability to exercise, it's harder to

stimulate the opiod neurotransmitters. Magnesium and potassium deficiencies

can increase NMDA receptor sensitivity. And magnesium deficiencies make it

harder to relax muscles.

Blockages in the Krebs cycle can affect brain chemistry causing depletion of

some neurochemicals. Over alkalinity in the blood can increase lactic acid

production, decrease oxygen carrying capacity, etc., which in turn can

increase irritability, contribute to anxiety and overreaction to stress, and

reduce stress tolerance.

Digestive difficulties can include malapsorption of stress nutrients,

leakage of toxins into the system from the intestines that can include

neurotoxins. (for example delta toxin produced by staphylococcus aureus can

act as a neurotoxin in the brain) With altered immune systems, we are more

vulnerable to more pathogens that can have unpredictable effects on our

brains and adrenal system.

Thyroid deficiencies, whether from high TSH levels, or Low T4 production, or

low T3 conversion, or reverse T3 production or thyroid resistance, can all

contribute to an inability to tolerate stress.

I'm almost overwhelmed by how complicated it can become with CFS to repair

the stress coping systems in the body and regain some adaptability with how

complicated everything can become because of the effects of CFS on our

systems.

As far as non-medication methods for managing emotional stress, you might

look into biomeridian forms of accupressure, such as EFT (Emotional Freedom

Technique) or TAT (Tapas Accupressure Technique) to help remove the

intensity of your emotions. (Here's a web site that has more information

about these and more: http://www.theamt.com/ )

You could also consider doing bioneurofeedback to retrain your brain wave

activity to lessen the emotional response. (Think of it as retraining your

brain after a stroke, only in this case it isn't a stroke, it is

intercellular metabolism problems, but to some degree you can still

stimulate it to adapt) There are bioneurofeedback devices that you can

purchase for home use, or you can find a bioneurofeedback therapist to work

with you. There are light/sound alpha wave inducers that can trigger a

relaxed state of mind to help reduce the impact of your emotions. (Although

with me they seem to trigger localized seizures that make me feel like parts

of my body are being electrocuted, so I can't personally vouch that they

work for everyone! But you never know till you try one.) Here's a couple web

sites that have more information:

http://www.pocket-neurobics.com/products.htm#Abhayamudra%20II and

http://www.siberimaging.com/

There are a lot of things that have been posted about adrenal support,

thyroid function, blood sugar control, healing leaky gut and malapsorption

problems, etc. and you might dig through the archives and see if any of it

sounds like it would be of benefit to you.

lindaj@...

Stress

> Hi All,

> I have an extreme problem in dealing with stress. I think

> emotional stress

> is the hardest for me to deal with. Physical stress is also a problem.

September 14, 2002

Hi Mike

I have this problem now too. I used to have what would be considered a high

stress job but never felt stress. Now the tiniest things are stressful and

freak me out and make me sick. So I avoid stress as much as possible.

There is no way around it, I think we all have to avoid stress. But when we

have to face stress, I find the 4,7,8 breathing method works pretty well. I

also personally practice a technique kind of like meditation called

releasing which I learned from some tapes. It allows me to quickly release

negative emotions, which at least helps. Having a great spouse to absorb

the stress for you is also terrific!

Have you tried herbs that are supposed to help with stress? I think lemon

balm is one... I am not sure how well these work for that.

Thanks,

Doris

----- Original Message -----

> I have an extreme problem in dealing with stress. I think

> emotional stress

> is the hardest for me to deal with. Physical stress is also a problem.

> What happens

> is that I get easily stressed out and it makes me physically sick and

> also much harder

> for me to function mentally. The longer I am under the stress the sicker

> I get.

> At this point, when I get sicker, it takes me a real long time to

> recover and I always

> seem to lose some ground. I was wondering if other people have this

> problem.

> I would like to know if there are any substances that I can take that

> can make

> me more resistant to stress and allow me to recover faster and more

> fully.

> (Maybe I am asking for the panacea that we all want that is elusive and

> just around

> the corner). I do not want to take medications. Any ideas or help will

> be greatly

> appreciated.

>

> Thanks,

>

> Mike

>

> P.S. I was not this way all my life. It only happened as a result of

> the CFS.

> I used to to all sorts of high excitement / stress fun activities and

> handle life's

> stresses pretty well.

>

> This list is intended for patients to share personal experiences with each

other, not to give medical advice. If you are interested in any treatment

discussed here, please consult your doctor.

>

September 14, 2002

I don't want this to denegrate into a religious discussion... but I believe

that a sense of well being is extremely important to fighting this illness.

Personally I have never believed in religion or in what people call god. I

too am a scientist. However, I have learned that there is a type of faith

that doesn't depend on god or religion. I don't know if I will be able to

describe it very well. But I will try. It is kind of an acceptance of

things as they are, and when you get to that point then you don't have to

fight it. You just believe that things will work out somehow. Or they

won't. (Buddist's call it detachment.) Ironically detachment allows you

get more engaged in your life. You do what you can to improve situations of

course, but you also realize that ultimately you do not have a lot of

control. So you just focus on what you can affect, that that is how you

live moment to moment. You make the best of each moment, you let the future

take care of itself, and then you get a kind of inner peace. That is what I

call faith, and I think anyone can get it. But it does take some work to

get there. Especially for those of us who grew up believing only in

science.

Thanks,

Doris

----- Original Message -----

From: " Mike " <mikes@...>

> Hi Jim and All,

> I wish that I could have faith. I was brought up

> on the science and

> the scientific method and I don't believe that there is a higher power.

> I don't believe

> that there is a grand scheme of things. As far as I have seen in my

> life, everything

> goes according to physical laws until proven otherwise.

September 16, 2002

Doris & All,

I don't want to start a discussion on faith matters, but I did want to

clarify that faith in God & science

are not disconnected at all. I know a good number of scientists, especially

in the area of molecular science,

who have no trouble having faith in God & in intelligent design as they look

more and more at the complexities

in a single cell and in DNA structure. Belief in random chance takes much

more faith considering

the statistical improbability of the structures somehow coming together

randomly.

Steve Du Pre

Webpage: http://www.angelfire.com/jazz/isaiah40soaringeagle/index.html

" By words the mind is winged. " Aristophanes

Doris wrote: