1:15 What is the difference between adrenaline and cortisol?
2:55 When adrenaline is a bad thing
4:19 What you can do
5:18 Hypoglycemia and adrenaline
6:12 Bulletproof your immune system *free course!
What emotion triggers adrenaline? Fear. Fear triggers adrenaline.
A few other things that trigger adrenaline are:
• Exercise
• Excitement
• Physical threat
• Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
What does adrenaline do?
• It increases the heart rate
• It increases sweating
• It causes vasodilation of the lungs and heart
• It makes the body stronger
• It makes the body more alert
• It increases energy
• It triggers ACTH
Both adrenaline and cortisol prepare the body for a stress state. The difference is that adrenaline takes seconds to kick in, and cortisol can take a few minutes. Cortisol is also more long-lasting, where adrenaline is more short-lived.
Short-term exposure to adrenaline can be a good thing. However, chronic exposure to too much adrenaline can be very bad for the body.
Chronic exposure to too much adrenaline can:
• Burnout the adrenals
• Affect the heart
• Affect your mood
• Decrease your stress tolerance
• Prevent relaxing sleep
Adrenaline is like an on switch for stress. Unfortunately, there’s basically no off switch. If the adrenals are chronically stimulated, over time, the adrenals tend to stay on and can’t turn off easily. This can cause someone to have stress and poor sleep. It can also activate cortisol and can even cause belly fat.
Action steps:
• Turn off stress
• Take vitamin B1, vitamin D3, and vitamin C
• Sleep more
• Take long walks
• Consume a low-carb diet
Hypoglycemia can trigger adrenaline. Insulin can cause hypoglycemia. A high carbohydrate triggers insulin. So, a high carb diet can keep your body in fight or flight mode, activating adrenaline and creating a situation where it can be hard to lose weight. A low-carb diet may help restore normal levels of adrenaline.
Dr. Eric Berg
08/31/2023
