Seasons, Shifting hormonal activity, Adaptation

What do you notice in your body right now and how does it change with the season? For me, the winter months draw me into a hibernation phase, a slower pace, a desire to connect deeply and intimately with friends and family, but not with a frenetic or pressured pace or demand. Spring often brings a rise in energy with the noticeable warming in the early morning air, birdsong suddenly erupting with the dawn, the buds which began to take form in late winter bravely opening to life. As Spring approaches, I also notice an increase in creative expression, a craving for lighter foods, a sense of shedding the winter insulation and hibernation tendencies. Summer, with its heat and intensity may offer abundant energy,  long days, short nights, the ripening of our projects. And, Fall, as the winds begin to blow, the air dries, and the temperatures cool down draw me into nature to ground, invite the preparation of warm soups and remind me of the importance of rhythm and routine.

Just as the light, sun and warming and cooling of the earth invite the buds to open through changes in phytochemical patterns signaling the birds and animals to court and play, build nests and frolic, or in the Fall invite the ground squirrels into their burrows and the bears into hibernation, the cranes to migrate south, and the leaves to turn and drop; all of this signaled through hormonal patterns; the same signals, via the pineal gland, shift the endocrine/hormone patterns in our own bodies to prepare for and adjust to a new season.

Seasonal adaptation plays a big role in our overall health. One of the reasons I emphasize seeing patients regularly in the first year of our work together is to observe an individual person’s responses to the seasons. How is your health changed by the transition from Summer to Fall to Winter and then to Spring and back to Summer? Are there aggravations of your symptoms in various seasons, be they physical, mental or emotional? Are the transitions subtle or intense? Are there patterns? Witnessing and understanding these patterns can offer information about each individual’s ability to adapt and lead to more precise choices in lifestyle patterns to support healthy seasonal transition and adaptation.

What is adaptation? The word adapt means to become adjusted to new conditions. Life is really about adapting. From birth on, our bodies grow, develop and adapt to changes in our conditions moment by moment, whether they be light and dark, periods of hunger or thirst, changes in diet, changes in exercise, changes in our environment, changes in our relationships, changes in location and more. How smoothly and efficiently the body is able to adapt without installing a pattern that leads to disease or imbalance is a sign of optimal health.

Much of what I assess in taking your history and in looking at your labs from a systems biology perspective is how you adapt?

There are some particular patterns to seasonal adaptation which are useful to understand in order to optimize our bodies ability to transition smoothly. Around the Fall Equinox, via messages sent from the pineal gland and a hormonal cascade involving a molecule called POMC which is spliced into various active components, adrenal activity is increased fairly rapidly. Through changes in adrenal activity, there are changes in glucose metabolism and the body prepares itself to expend more energy staying warm through the winter. Thyroid activity is also increased but more slowly throughout the Fall months.

In the Spring, also through the pineal gland and POMC,  there is a secondary surge of thyroid activity, stimulating a burst of metabolic activity to help the body detoxify and clear debris from all of that winter work. Then, thyroid and adrenal activity both drop as the same metabolic activity is not needed in the summer months of sunshine and warmer temperatures.

Why does this matter?
If an individual person does not have sufficient adrenal adaptation to the seasonal demands, the body still tries to get the job done and the methods it employs may result in a predisposition towards illness or imbalance. For example, some people will note that every Fall, as school starts and the light declines and the temperatures begin to get a little cooler, they develop an upper respiratory infection, a cough, or increased allergy symptoms which may or may not last through the winter months. These are signs of inefficient adaptation. There may be inefficient adaptation because the system was overloaded with unhealthy patterns through the summer. The system may be overloaded by the demands placed on it by seasonal change and also by the return to school, the ramping up of the schedule in the Fall, an increase in sugar, a decrease in fresh foods, a decrease in Vitamin D and more. But, there is still an insufficiency of adaptation.

In the Spring, where there is a surge of thyroid activity and this is not managed efficiently, it is not uncommon to see mood changes and swings, an increase in allergic symptoms, shifts in weight, shifts in digestive activity, increased inflammatory activity, and sometimes the growth of tissues or tumors.

Recognizing what stressors are placed on an individual and what they are being asked to adapt to allows for shifting lifestyle patterns, preparing for seasonal change, being mindful of choices and actions such as nutrition, sleep, exercise, emotional wellness and self-care, and at times specifically supporting organ systems or endocrine activity through the use of vitamins, nutrients and plant based medicine.

We will discuss in future articles the Ayurvedic perspective on seasonal shifts and will also provide some general tips for seasonal wellness. If you or someone you know has particular patterns of imbalance associated with seasonal changes and would like individualized support, please give us a call.

Dr Amy