Adrenaline Series #2 - Stress & Depression
As we are all dealing with stress during the COVID-1 9 times, one important thing to keep in mind is that when you’re anxious and under stress, the stress hormone cortisol builds up inside your body. This hormone can weaken your immune system.
The number one cause of stress is excess adrenaline and can cause a myriad of health problems, including depression.
Depression
Please understand this is not a medical playbook that explores all the ramifications and characteristics of the diseases I will be mentioning. For our purposes, that will not be necessary.
Simply put, there are basically two types of depression – endogenous and reactive. A reactive depression is related to some event that has affected your life – death of a relative, loss of a job, financial problems, health problems in a loved one (including a pet), etc. An endogenous depression comes from within – you’re depressed but you don’t know why. I feel that internalization of anger is perhaps the most common cause for an endogenous depression. I suspect that excessive adrenaline levels are the most common cause of anger problems. In other words, it is my belief that excess adrenaline is the number one cause of endogenous depression. Except in rare instances, I have successfully weaned antidepressant medications from many hundreds of patients just by lowering adrenaline levels.
One of my goals for the reader of my blogs is to recognize how adrenaline may be affecting their life, or the life of someone they know, and eventually to have a better understanding of how to lower excess levels, which you can read in my Adrenaline Dominance book or email me directly at questions@plattwellness.com.
Let’s discuss another form of depression and that is a Bipolar Disorder.
Understanding how the overproduction of adrenaline can affect the body provides a clear insight into the condition referred to as ‘bipolar disorder’; the older term, ‘manic/depressive disorder, was perhaps more aptly named.
People with this condition go from periods of extreme restlessness and/or hyperactivity to periods of extreme depression. They often exhibit rapid speech in the hypomanic-phase, which is referred to as word salad. Another characteristic of this condition is “flight-of-ideas”, which correlates to excess adrenaline in the brain. When this output of adrenaline, the anger hormone, is internalized, it can lead to depression. Subsequently, the adrenaline can cause swings to euphoria, resulting in the term “bi-polar”.
I suspect that all people with this condition start out with ADHD. It is certainly not unusual to push people who have ADHD into a bipolar state simply with the use of certain medications classified as norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors or NRI’s. These drugs actually lead to an increase of adrenaline in the brain. A partial list of these particular drugs includes the following: Well-Butrin, Effexor, Cymbalta, Lyrica, Pristiq, Adderall, Strattera, and Ritalin. It is not unusual for people with excess adrenaline, the anger/rage hormone, to internalize anger and windup with depression or fibromyalgia.
Because of the tendency for the medical profession to treat problems with Band-Aids instead of treating the cause, it is not unusual for these patients to windup on anti-depressants or pain medications such as Cymbalta and Lyrica.
Reminiscent of how doctors often treat diabetics with the same hormone that actually causes type II diabetes (i.e. by giving them insulin or drugs that raise insulin levels), doctors are giving children and adults medications that increase adrenaline levels in the brain, when they already have too much adrenaline in the brain to begin with. Is it any wonder that suicide and sudden death are listed among the side effects of these drugs?
I have written a book called “Adrenaline Dominance” which I feel is the definitive book on excess adrenaline. It is available at www.Amazon.com or on my website. Aside from providing the brain with the correct fuel, such as green vegetables and coconut oil, the other missing ingredient to reducing adrenaline is the correct amount and dosage of progesterone cream. For those interested, go to my SHOP area on my website where you review the production description of Platt Pro 5%, an all-natural pharmaceutical grade of progesterone cream that provides 50 mg per pump. It is the strongest progesterone cream that is available without a prescription.
Dr. Michael E. Platt has been a pioneer in the research and advancement of the therapeutic use of progesterone cream for use in managing adrenaline and hormonal imbalance. Dr. Platt is considered an important pioneer in observational, functional, alternative, and allopathic medicine focused on bio-identical hormones and adrenaline overload. His three books “The Miracle of Bioidentical Hormones”, “Adrenaline Dominance” and “Platt Protocol” have received 11 literary awards.