Re: GAS model outdated and inaccurate...

"What did he say happens to them during stage 3?"

Ok.  First....Let's sum up what he observed in Stage 2.  And I mean observed.  It is not just a theory.  He and his team did many experiements over several years.

He exposed rats to lots of different stressors (excessive exercise, cold, heat, lots of different toxins).   I don't think he tried low calories, but low calories is a stressor, so I suppose it would to the same.  

Stage 1 is the initial shock to the stressor.  It is short in duration, but there is initially a decreased resistance to stress.

Stage 2 is called Adaptation ... because the organism adapts.  If the stressor continues after Stage 1, the adrenal glands grow to be able to pump out all of the hormones they are being asked to.  He also abserved that the Thymus SHRINKS. That explains the lower immunity that c.b. just mentioned from chronic stress.  There is only so much energy to go around, so the immune system output reduces. 

That is why chronic stress is a greater predictor of cancer than smoking.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3282538

From above 10-yr study.

"stress was a very potent cause of death, in the sense that stressed probands had a 40 per cent higher death rate than non-stressed probands"

OK... back to GAS.   

In the 3rd stage "the animals lose their resistance and succumb with symptoms similar to those seen in the 1st stage, this phase of exhaustion being regarded as the 3rd stage of the syndrome"

In Stage 2, the organism adapts, with larger adrenals, for as long as it can, until it just can't do it anymore.

Here is an overview in the Journal of NeuroPsychiatry

http://curezone.com/upload/_A_Forums/Adrenal_Fatigue/neuropsychiatry_selye.pdf

This describes my life perfectly from about my early 20s to ~ 36, I felt super strong and fast.   I weight 165-lb, but could bench 245-lb. (1 rep), probably because of the higher than normal adrenaline levels.   At 35, I was played a guy at the gym in racketball that was about 25.  I could outlast him everytime. One day he said "are you a cyborg or something"  :)   

But the super energy did not last.   First thing to slip away was libido, then the afternoon energy crashes that everyone talks about  showed up. (it is common for the saliva tests to show an afternoon dip).  The afternoon hypopglycemia is common as well, since your body is having trouble producing enough cortisol and adrenaline to increase blood sugar.   

Then anxiety, then palpitations, then night sweats, and more and more and more.

I myself ate like a pig my whole life. I ate a good solid breakfast, lunch and supper.  And ate a bunch of different energy bars all day between meals.   They are processed junk, sure, but I was getting a lot of calories.  Low calories was not my stressor.

Regardless of the source of stress (little doses of toxins, etc), the animals eventually collapsed into the exhaustion stage.