All Is Well: Heal Your Body With Medicine, Affirmations, and Intuition (17 page)

that she wasn’t familiar with her individuality, she lived with a

great amount of anxiety and fear. This wasn’t healthy, and her

body soon let her know it was time to change. She began to feel

her body abandon her to fatigue. She walked slowly, talked slowly,

thought slowly, and was tired of feeling heavy. It just so happened

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that levels of cortisol and insulin in her body were completely off

balance.

The adrenal glands and pancreas—the organs that control cor-

tisol and insulin production—are mysteries to most people. All

people have two adrenal glands. Think of these as oranges. The

inner pulp produces epinephrine, a caffeine-like, stimulating sub-

stance that is released when you need short-term bursts of energy.

The outer layer of the adrenal gland, the “peel,” produces an array

of hormones from your body fat for long-term energy. The most

infamous of these is cortisol. However, adrenal glands also pro-

duce other hormones, including progesterone, DHEA, testoster-

one, and estrogen, from body fat.

If you are suddenly anxious, under threat, or furious about

something, your brain via your pituitary gland tells your adrenal

glands to pump up production of epinephrine, cortisol, and other

hormones to put your body into high alert. Once the threat goes

away and you “cool off,” the adrenal glands stop their escalation

of hormones. However, if your mind ruminates about the anxi-

ety and threatening events, with such thought patterns as “It’s

hopeless”; “My life is a disaster”; “Things should be different!”;

and “This is unfair!” your adrenal glands continue to overproduce

cortisol and estrogen. This leads to your pancreas secreting more

insulin, and you get symptoms of what is commonly known as

“adrenal gland exhaustion.”

Adrenal gland exhaustion is tricky because it is not always

clear whether you have too little cortisol or too much. However,

your symptoms and blood and urine tests will reveal the direc-

tion of your adrenal imbalance. This is very important to know

because if you medicate for the wrong condition, you will feel no

relief—in fact, the symptoms could get worse.

So in Lorinda’s case, we sent her to an endocrinologist, who

would look at her symptoms. The symptoms of low cortisol in-

clude vague weakness, discoloration in the pigmentation near the

mouth and other mucous membranes, nausea and vomiting, diar-

rhea, low blood sugar, and low blood pressure. These symptoms

are subtle.

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Excess cortisol leads to weight gain in the abdomen and face,

increased blood pressure, erratic blood sugar levels, strange hair

growth, acne, depression and irritability, bone thinning, muscle

weakness, and irregular menstruation.

After a trip to visit her physician, Lorinda came back with the

full report. The doctor had explored all the possible symptoms

and determined that she was producing too much cortisol. Lorinda

was five feet four and 180 pounds, with most of her weight clus-

tered around her abdomen. She had some hair thinning near the

crown of her scalp, and she had some hair growth on her upper lip

and chin. Her blood pressure was 140/85 and her blood sugar was

130, both of which are mildly elevated levels. She had acne on her

shoulders, back, and face.

After determining that her symptoms resulted from excess

cortisol, her physician wanted to do a test to verify that she didn’t

have Cushing’s syndrome, a disorder of the adrenal glands. Luck-

ily, the results of blood tests and a dexamethasone suppression test

were normal.

Finally, Lorinda went to an endocrinologist, who ran further

tests for adrenal enzyme abnormalities, all of which came back

normal. So Lorinda was dealing with run-of-the-mill adrenal

fatigue.

The solution? She needed to lose some body fat so her adre-

nal glands would have fewer building blocks from which to make

cortisol and the other hormones that were driving up her blood

sugar, blood pressure, and hair growth.

To help give her the energy she desperately needed to make

changes in her life, we started her on chromium. This would not

only give her energy but also help regulate her blood sugar. She

started taking green tea extract, which has been shown to give

people a great deal of energy, and began with a pharmaceutical-

grade multivitamin with folic acid, pantothenic acid, vitamin C,

iron, magnesium, potassium, and zinc because any deficiency in

vitamins can lead to fatigue.

Next we had to address Lorinda’s anxiety. Because she wasn’t

taking serotonin medicine, I asked her to find out from her physi-

cian if it would be okay to add 5HTP to her supplement regimen.

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A New Attitude

This natural serotonin supplement is often used to calm anxiety,

which could be a contributing factor in the overproduction of cor-

tisol. However, she also needed to talk with a counselor to help her

get a handle on the sources of her anxiety.

Our last integrative medical recommendation was for Lorinda

to visit an acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist. There are a num-

ber of herbs—astragalus, licorice, Siberian ginseng, Cordyceps

sinensis, Rhodiola extract, banaba extract, wild oats, and schisan-

dra—that are said to be helpful in managing adrenal gland hor-

mone production imbalances. A skilled practitioner would help

her figure out the best combination to use.

While Lorinda needed to lose weight, her problem wasn’t nec-

essarily only one of bad nutrition. She ate poorly at times, but this

was generally because she was so busy with her responsibilities to

her family and friends; it was not that her instinct was to eat badly.

So instead of focusing on a food diet, I put Lorinda on a variation

of the responsibility holiday we discussed in the weight section.

She didn’t have to go an entire day without helping people, but

she was forced to ration her efforts toward others. She had always

put her husband’s career first, so we decided to institute a system

devoted to her own career development. For every hour she spent

on his work, she would spend an hour on her own career. Lorinda

winced when I talked about this diet but she made it happen.

Lorinda also learned tai chi and
qigong
to help her manage her

energy rather than shunting it into other people’s projects.

And finally, to change the underlying thought patterns that

were perhaps contributing to her illness, Lorinda worked with af-

firmations for adrenal problems (I love and approve of myself. It

is safe for me to care for myself); fatigue (I am enthusiastic about

life and filled with energy and enthusiasm); and pancreas health

(My life is sweet).

Lorinda’s work to heal her adrenals inspired self-confidence.

She was able to find solace not just in spirituality but also in the

earthly realm.

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Addiction

People who are prone to addiction—aren’t we all to some ex-

tent?—often have a strong desire to feed their sense of self-worth.

They want personal and creative satisfaction, peace, and clarity,

but they often lack the discipline to follow a diet and exercise regi-

men or even a work schedule. They are so controlled by cravings

for something that gives them pleasure—the food, the alcohol,

the credit card purchases—they have trouble finding the time or

interest to care for themselves or, in some cases, others. Every-

one has their own unique recipe for addictive behavior. The quest

for self-worth and satisfaction can be exhilarating, but it can also

be tiring and frustrating. And the stress and anxiety that come

from knowing you are avoiding healthy levels of responsibility

can be overwhelming. We often turn to things that make us feel

good—alcohol, prescription drugs, sex, gambling, food—to deal

with these strong emotions.

So what is the prescription for beating addiction? Your ability

to renounce addictive behavior and rescue yourself from irrevers-

ible damage to your health depends on changing the thoughts

and behaviors associated with addiction. One good place to start

is by making use of tried-and-true treatments for addiction such

as 12-step programs and other recovery groups. The next step is to

take a good look at what your body is telling you about the con-

nection between your behavior and your health. Once you have

identified what your issue is and what emotions are causing it, you

can begin to incorporate affirmations into your daily life.

Louise Hay’s affirmation theory demonstrates how addiction

originates from fear and low self-esteem. More specifically, those

with addictive personalities spend their lives running away from—

and not being able to love—the person they are. A good affirma-

tion for addiction in general is “I now discover how wonderful I

am. I choose to love and enjoy myself.” Alcoholism specifically is

associated with guilt, inadequacy, and self-rejection. To counter

these negative emotions and turn self-hatred into self-love, Louise

recommends the affirmation “I live in the now. Each moment is

new. I choose to see my self-worth. I love and approve of myself.”

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At one time or another, most people have fed their self-worth

artificially through addictive behaviors or have medicated emo-

tions they couldn’t handle. What we’ve learned is that when life

becomes too confusing, people are more likely to escape into ad-

diction because reality is just
too
painful. People can develop ad-

dictions to very specific things such as alcohol, cigarettes, eBay

or Facebook, computer games, or sex. All addictions—whether to

a drug or a food or a behavior such as gambling—release opiates

that numb physical and emotional pain. However, eventually the

substance wears off or the behavior no longer provides an escape

and reality returns—along with the pain.

The most important thing you can do if you have problems

with addiction is to admit that you have a problem. I know it

sounds simplistic, but this admission sets the stage for everything

else you will do. If you’re unsure about whether or not you have

a problem, ask a dear friend or family member. Then, with their

assistance, ask yourself the following questions: Are you unable to

control how much you drink, eat, gamble, or engage in sex? Do

you feel guilty about your behavior? Are you unable to stop even

in the face of serious health problems? Do these behaviors affect

your job or family life? Do you have family members who have

struggled with addiction? Have you been told you need to stop?

Do you make excuses or try to hide what you are doing? If you

answer yes to two or more of these, it’s time to step back and take

a serious look at your addiction.

And remember, fighting an addiction is hard. You should em-

ploy the help not only of a professional who can help you get in

touch with your strength and emotions but also of your friends

and family. Go for help now. There are support groups for nearly

every addiction out there. Find people who relate to your problem.

They will be able to bolster your courage and provide advice you

may not think of. Between the help of a professional counselor,

your family and friends, and any other support group you find, it

is possible to stop your addiction. These people are important in

your healing because they can be essential to your ability to come

out on the other end of addiction with a strong sense of self.

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There are also some things that you can do on your own to

address the feelings of despair that your addiction is trying to help

you avoid. Try to institute a meditation practice. Sitting silent-

ly—even for a minute—will help you get a better grasp on your

thoughts and emotions. Your thoughts come and they go. They

are impermanent and they can be changed. These are just atti-

tudes that have been etched in your brain. They are not reality. By

creating a new way to look at your thoughts, you can make them

more tolerable and even transform them into healthier attitudes

by using affirmations.

You might also want to think about taking up journaling.

Sometimes simply putting your thoughts into words helps you see

them in a new light.

The important thing with all of these actions is to become

more secure in who you are. Learn about your innate strength. We

were all built to survive and thrive on this planet. You have just