Noob question - do hormones get "used up" ? Can you sprint off cortisol / adrenaline, for example?

[thisoldtown1978]

I hope my question makes sense. If, for example, you can feel your stress hormones have rocketed because of an unfriendly encounter or a work problem, does it make more sense to try to calm yourself down, or unleash hell on the punching bag?

My (albeit subjective) observation is that adrenaline junkies are often quite healthy looking, vibrant and masculine. Are they tanking their cortisol and adrenaline by simply using them all in one go?

Are the people that suffer in silence, keeping it all inside with no outlet, the ones who get ravaged by chronic stress hormones?

 

[GodsHound]

Natural function of adrenaline should be short bursts on infrequent occasions eg. like when you encounter predators/prey. But bad function of adrenaline is constant elevation throughout daily life, where you are not actually in fight/flight situations. So you could imagine adrenaline junkies having a natural, healthy relationship with adrenaline. But I think people that seek thrills would be in good physiological state beforehand - like someone who lives with chronically elevated stress hormones isn't going to want to seek adventure. So I think it works that way round mostly.

 

[GodsHound]

Sorry, that doesn't really answer your question. Nah I don't think you can quickly use up stress hormones in order to get rid of them. If you have chronically elevated adrenaline due to poor thyroid function, then you are relying on your adrenaline to keep your metabolic rate up, and if you stopped producing adrenaline, you would die. So like, instead of trying to get rid of your back-up fuel source, try to get your primary fuel source (thyroid) back. That's my understanding anyway.

 

[TheSir]

If, for example, you can feel your stress hormones have rocketed because of an unfriendly encounter or a work problem, does it make more sense to try to calm yourself down, or unleash hell on the punching bag?

My hunch is that whether you're expressing or repressing the state will matter more than the means with which the state is expressed. Exercising the stress off works. Relaxing the stress off works too. Problems emerge when you are forcing yourself to calm down instead of letting the state run its course. This is what can easily lead to traumatic conditioning, i.e. the unexpressed state will become embedded into your nervous system, potentially causing disease and pathological behavior down the line.

My (albeit subjective) observation is that adrenaline junkies are often quite healthy looking, vibrant and masculine. Are they tanking their cortisol and adrenaline by simply using them all in one go?

Perhaps they are desensitized to adrenaline, so that the little stressors of day-to-day life no longer phase them, allowing them to spend longer time in more health-conducive metabolic states? Whether this has happened because they are healthy or whether their health has happened because of this desensitization is a harder question to answer.

 

[laleto12]

I wash I was desentized to adrenaline. I am the opposite

 

[Neeters 27]

Of course you "burn through" your hormones! the fastest way to get rid of excess adrenaline is with heavy exercise. I also know when I was training daily with weights and a personal trainer and riding bike everywhere, I had to double the amount of estrogen and Progesterone I was on, I was using them up faster! I will say this about all hormones though: you can become "resistant" to them, such as Insulin resistance, when your body has to spit out a lot more of insulin to do the same job, and also with adrenaline and cortisol and thyroid and so on...

 

[Hans]

I hope my question makes sense. If, for example, you can feel your stress hormones have rocketed because of an unfriendly encounter or a work problem, does it make more sense to try to calm yourself down, or unleash hell on the punching bag?

My (albeit subjective) observation is that adrenaline junkies are often quite healthy looking, vibrant and masculine. Are they tanking their cortisol and adrenaline by simply using them all in one go?

Are the people that suffer in silence, keeping it all inside with no outlet, the ones who get ravaged by chronic stress hormones?

The faster you can mentally recover from a stressor the better off someone is. It depends on how quickly their body breaks it down. Some people get their stress hormones down in 30 min after a stressor, others 3 hours after.
Exercise is a good way to combat it, because then you also increase androgens, which will balance the stress hormones.
That's why the saying goes: "Walk it off." If you're pissed about something and then go for a walk, especially in nature, you lower cortisol, improve core temp, increase androgens, improve ATP production, etc., and will be much better off.
It could be that when you intensely exercise, your liver function improves/speed up, because it has to process a lot of things faster, such as lactate, ammonia, etc., and thus metabolizes hormones faster as well.

 

[KurtisL]

Anything that stimulates dopamine also stimulates adrenaline, being in a bad state metabolically means you either avoid stimulating activities or stimulating activities send you over the edge into mania, rage, fear, instability. Copes and outlets are just that, they're not solutions

 

[supercoolguy]

I hope my question makes sense. If, for example, you can feel your stress hormones have rocketed because of an unfriendly encounter or a work problem, does it make more sense to try to calm yourself down, or unleash hell on the punching bag?

My (albeit subjective) observation is that adrenaline junkies are often quite healthy looking, vibrant and masculine. Are they tanking their cortisol and adrenaline by simply using them all in one go?

Are the people that suffer in silence, keeping it all inside with no outlet, the ones who get ravaged by chronic stress hormones?

Thats a great question ive held for Years. I think!!! you're shifting the balance more so than burning it off. I can shift the balance by consuming a bowl of fruit, a glass of chocolate milk, a casual walk or even cleaning my environment if needed.

I would agree, doing Nothing is probably the least effective counter measure.

When im indoors working under the Florescent Lighting all day. I notice the agitation in about 3-4hrs.
At home I use 130v Incandescent "Red Light" Bulbs with hardly a fraction of perceivable stress, until my anus tells me to get up.

You can influence a trend in Either direction. Pay attention to what works for you in context of where youre at.
Like the context of 2 days eating garbage or missing good meals & shitty sleep, will not be rectified by "Red Light" alone.

Hope that helps a little. Really, you answered your own question, and the choice is individual. Just go for it.