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Dr Hans Selye of McGill University, Montreal, noted in his experiments with rats that removal of their adrenal glands gave rise to severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) when foreign substances were injected into them. Family member rats from the same cage, who had their adrenal glands intact, exhibited only minor allergic reactions when injected with the same foreign substances.

From these results Selye extrapolated that strong, healthy adrenal glands in humans were needed if humans were to cope with the stress of allergies and he was right. When the adrenal glands are tired they produce less adrenal hormones and our resistance to allergies goes down. Significant or prolonged stress tires the adrenal glands.

Doctor Herbert De Vries of UCLA in his book, Physiology of Exercise for Physical Education and Athletics, noted in his experiments with athletes that the human adrenal glands begin to wane after sixteen weeks of stress. He noted that in the short term the adrenal glands respond to stress by increasing in size and producing extra adrenal hormones.

This increase in size and production progressed for eight weeks leveling out at a maximum size and production for a maximum of a further eight weeks. After that adrenal gland size and hormone production fell inexorably and would not increase again unless sufficient rest was taken. Four to five weeks was needed for the adrenal glands to build themselves up to a point where they could respond positively to stress again.

Based on this adrenal rhythm Dr De Vries advised his athletes to rest for four to five weeks after every twelve to fourteen weeks of training. The stressful exercise load of Dr De Vries athletes is no different to the stressful work load, socialising load, emotional load and commitment load that many stressed non-athletes subject themselves to. After ten to twelve weeks of stress the beta endorphins are flowing and, along with what adrenalin there is in the system, are masking the symptoms of adrenal fatigue of which physical fatigue is a significant one.

Despite the contrived feelings of well-being promoted by the beta endorphins adrenal hormone production and resistance to allergies is down. Because many people have minor allergies that under rested conditions don’t manifest, they experience their allergies for the first time when under stress.

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. This entry was posted on Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 11:22 pm and is filed under Allergies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.