Parts of a Whole
The endocrine system is so awesome! I remember learning about this in biology and again when I was doing coursework to become a medical office assistant. It’s a known system with known - and crucial - functioning glands and organs that do many important things for us in a day.
The adrenal glands are responsible for releasing stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) when we are in a state of arousal. Adrenaline helps us amp everything up in preparation for fleeing a threat. It increases the heart rate and blood circulation and helps our senses and brains hyper focus so we have the best chances of safely escaping the danger. Cortisol, in turn, is released as a stress response to try and calm the body. It calls for higher functioning to draw less energy resources so the baser functions can be heightened. This allows for the greatest chance to escape a threatening situation.
Like any part of any system - I often think of an engine - when one part has to work too hard or becomes faulty, ultimately it puts strain on the entire system. In today’s world, we are constantly being placed, and seemingly meant to exist, in a state of heightened arousal. Guess what? Our endocrine system isn’t designed for that kind of prolonged demand. Over time, it is not a sustainable state and complications with this, or other body systems, can arise. Given what this system is responsible for, it can absolutely wreak havoc on other body systems and/or our daily functioning once it’s exhausted. Within the first four years of being a public-school teacher, I experienced adrenal fatigue. It affected my mood, my energy levels, my sleep patterns, and the quality of sleep. An adrenal supplement from my naturopath helped balance things out for me in a matter of a week. I was so grateful.
In another situation, I might have been prescribed an anti-depressant or recommended counseling when that wasn’t at all what I needed. In fact, my situation involved an initial visit to my family doctor who was off when his locum prescribed vitamin B12 injections. I had made the appointment because a friend of mine had had great success with B12 shots to help restore her energy levels. I wanted to inquire about this as an option. The locum agreed that this could be helpful, and trying it would not be harmful since it is a vitamin. When my doctor returned to work and learned that I had been taking these injections he was floored. In his office, I sat shocked as he berated my attempt to look for something to increase my energy. I was told that I was not B12 deficient and that I needed to face the reality of my Crohn’s disease because that’s ‘just what life is like now’. I was heart-broken after that appointment and (luckily) didn’t have to see him again.
Now I have a caring and understanding doctor who supports the opportunity for natural medicine when appropriate. As a side note, my naturopath looked carefully at my blood work and decided that I was close enough to needing vitamin support (her range was different than the one my doctor was looking at), and so she prescribed me the supplement. It changed everything for me. My energy returned in the spring of 2019 and come 2020 I was eating better, hiking and walking daily, learning about gratitude, good habits, and personal growth, and moving forward on a new path of self-discovery. It’s amazing how one piece of the puzzle can be shifted to allow for quantum improvement in all other areas.
I dream of a medical system that acts like a body system - separate parts that have specialized functions, working together with the rest of the system for the greater good of the whole. I love to envision a world where my family doctor communicates with my specialist and my naturopath, and anyone else who is part of my ‘health team’, so they can come from a heart-focused place of supporting me in my picture of health. What a world it would be if practitioners honoured other practitioners as experts in their particular field. It would be pretty amazing, too, if we had choice over our practitioners. I should have health practitioners who are invested in my well-being – my specific story and unique bodily mural. After all, it is my body and I deserve to be treated as a stakeholder in the care and condition of it. That would be true holistic care, in my mind, and I believe we all deserve that.