Tag: Adrenal Fatigue

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Adrenal Insufficiency

Tired woman; possible adrenal insufficiency.

Poor adrenal function is something we discuss frequently because it can have a big impact on overall health and well-being, and it is also one of the most common undiagnosed medical issues. Poor adrenal function can be hard to diagnose because it shares symptoms with many other medical conditions, but it is important to know the symptoms. Let’s look at what the adrenal glands and cortisol do, some causes of low cortisol, and what we can do about it.

Adrenal Glands and Cortisol

The adrenal glands are two small glands located on top of each kidney, and they are responsible for producing several different hormones including cortisol and adrenaline. Cortisol is often called the stress hormone because it is released when we experience stress due to physical exertion, traumatic events, or even something as simple as running late. Cortisol also plays an important role in regulating metabolism and blood sugar, reducing inflammation and forming memories, but as with other hormones, it needs to be balanced. Many people have too little or too much cortisol, and both come with negative impacts.

Adrenal insuffiency, or poorly functioning adrenal glands, usually leads to low cortisol. Low cortisol can cause low blood sugar, loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue, low blood pressure, nausea, abdominal pain, trouble sleeping, depression, anxiety, etc. Low cortisol can affect a person’s well-being and energy levels, making it difficult to exercise, be productive at work, and can make it difficult to perform small tasks like getting out of bed or going to the store.

Causes

The causes of adrenal insufficiency can be hard to pinpoint. Arguably the most common cause is chronic stress which can put a strain on the adrenal glands, eventually causing them to produce less hormones than they are supposed to. It may also be caused by an autoimmune disorder that affects the adrenal glands. If the autoimmune reaction targets the adrenals, it can damage them and prevent them from functioning correctly. Lack of sleep and a poor diet may also contribute to impaired adrenal function because it contributes to stress, and poor sleep and nutrition can make it difficult for your body to repair any damage that may occur.

What to Do?

There are some things you can do to help ensure your adrenals have the right nutrients to help them function correctly. This includes getting at least eight hours of sleep per night, drinking plenty of filtered water each day, eating a diet high in organic fruits and vegetables, avoiding processed food and excessive amounts of sugar, and supplementing with herbs and vitamins that help regulate adrenal function. Some supplements we recommend are:

  • Adrenal Response Complete Care – Excellent formula containing adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha that may help balance cortisol levels.
  • Pantothenic Acid Complex – This formula contains Cordyceps, Rhodiola Extract, Eleuthero Extract, and Pantothenic Acid to help support adrenal function.

Having adrenal insufficiency can make the smallest tasks difficult to complete, but giving your adrenals the sleep and nutrients it needs can go a long way!

If you are experiencing serious symptoms, or have a sudden change in symptoms, you should see a doctor right away to rule out more serious conditions.

You can listen to our Common Signs of Adrenal Insufficiency podcast here. You can also listen to it on our YouTube channel here.

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Common Signs of Adrenal Insufficiency

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Poor adrenal function is something we discuss frequently because it can have a big impact on overall health and well-being, and it is also one of the most common undiagnosed medical issues. Poor adrenal function can be hard to diagnose because it shares symptoms with many other medical conditions, but it is important to know the symptoms. In this article we’ll discuss some of the common signs of adrenal insufficiency, things like:

  • Chronic Fatigue
  • Muscle Weakness
  • Changes in Appetite
  • Weight Loss
  • Digestive Issues
  • Low Blood Pressure
  • Dizziness or Fainting
  • Mood Changes
  • Irritability
  • Depression
  • Headaches
  • Cravings for Salty Foods
  • Low Blood Sugar
  • Trouble Sleeping, which leads to always feeling tired
  • Sweating and night-sweating
  • Missed Menstrual or Irregular Periods
  • Low Libido

There are some things you can do to help ensure your adrenals have the right nutrients to help them function correctly. This includes getting at least eight hours of sleep per night, drinking plenty of filtered water each day, and eating a diet high in organic fruits and vegetables. You should also avoid processed food and excessive amounts of sugar, and try supplementing with herbs and vitamins that may help regulate adrenal function.

Product Mentioned in Today’s Show:

Adrenal Response Complete Care – Sensoril® is a patented stress management extract that may help to nutritionally support metabolic processes associated with stress, restlessness and fatigue.

Lab Mentioned in Today’s Show:

Comprehensive Panel – Comprehensive Panel w Consult panel contains 13 tests with 102 biomarkers.

You can also listen to our Common Signs of Adrenal Insufficiency episode on our YouTube channel here.

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How Stress Ages Us

Chronic stress affects many people and can be caused by financial struggles, marital issues, health issues, demanding careers, or a number of other different things. We may think chronic stress just makes us tired and more agitated, but we often don’t consider the effects it can have on our body. Stress can age us and increase our risk of developing certain diseases, but why? Let’s talk about what happens when we’re stressed, and what we can do about it.

Adrenal Glands, Cortisol, and Adrenaline

Being overworked, fighting with your spouse, experiencing financial difficulties, being sleep deprived, having nutritional deficiencies, or dealing with emotional disorders like depression and anxiety can all contribute to stress. When you are stressed, your adrenal glands release cortisol and adrenaline. When adrenaline is released, a person typically experiences an increase in blood pressure and heart rate, and may feel more energy for a short period of time. This can be helpful in a dangerous situation, but a chronic release of adrenaline can damage the heart, and may even contribute to vision and hearing loss due to the effects of prolonged blood vessel constriction.

Cortisol also gets released during times of stress and it can help regulate blood sugar, blood pressure and metabolism, and can help reduce inflammation. However, it needs to be released in the right amounts or it can have some negative effects on your health, as is the case with high or low cortisol. Low cortisol, also called adrenal fatigue, may be due to an underlying health condition, but the most common cause is being stressed for such a long period of time that your adrenal glands essentially “burn out”. The adrenal glands are responsible for producing and releasing certain hormones, and are critical to your health. They also control the “fight-or-flight” response, and release hormones accordingly. However, when we stay in the “fight-or-flight” (stressed out) mode for too long, our adrenal glands get tired, and greatly decrease the amount of cortisol they produce and release. This can lead to depression, food cravings, low blood pressure, irritability, diarrhea, etc.

Conversely, high cortisol usually occurs before adrenal fatigue develops. Being stressed leads to a release of cortisol, and a continual release of cortisol due to chronic stress can cause high blood pressure, osteoporosis, depression, irritability, muscle weakness, increased thirst, etc. Keeping your stress levels down can help keep your cortisol levels balanced.

Aging

The ways in which chronic stress age us physically can be complicated, and the research is still ongoing, but there are a few things we know. Stress can damage DNA and lead to an increased risk of developing conditions like heart disease, Parkinson’s, and cancer. Vision and hearing may also be affected by stress due to the prolonged release of adernaline as discussed above. Adrenaline causes blood vessels to constrict, potentially reducing the blood flow to the eyes and ears.

Stress can also speed up the aging process in some indirect ways. When a person experiences stress they are more likey to crave unhealthy foods and alcohol, less likely to engage in exercise, and may find it more difficult to get enough quality sleep each night. Each of these things can speed up the aging process, contribute to a lower quality-of-life, and increase a person’s risk of developing certain conditions.

Reducing Stress

There are a few things you can do that may help reduce stress. Meditation, taking a relaxing bath, taking a walk, spending time with loved ones, taking a nap, or finding a calming hobby can all help reduce stress. If your stress is work-related, try to keep your workspace organized and know what needs to be done each day. If you are dealing with financial struggles, try creating a budget plan. Simply reminding yourself that something isn’t worth being stressed out over may also help.

Chronic stress is a problem affecting millions of people, and it can have lasting impacts on physical and mental health. Eating a balanced diet high in organic fruits and vegetables, and gettting at least seven hours of quality sleep every night can help provide the nutrients and energy you need to face the day, and can help increase your body’s ability to handle stress. It is so important to reduce stress whenever possible, so find time to take care of yourself every day.

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Chasing Sleep

Sleep issues are one of the most common things we see people suffering from. Sleep is crucial for good mental, physical, and emotional health, and chronic sleep deprivation can greatly impact your health. There are many potential reasons for the rise in insomnia, with stress and anxiety being the most common. Fortunately, there are many things you can do that may help you sleep better.

Insomnia

Insomnia is often used as a general term for a broad range of sleep issues. It may be trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, not feeling rested upon waking up, unable to fall back asleep after waking up, lying awake for long periods of time during the night, etc. Some people experience this for a night or two every once in a while, which is usually due to a stressful event. However, some people suffer with these problems nearly every night. This can lead to sleep deprivation, which can cause fatigue, food cravings, difficulty concentrating, and irritability. Chronic sleep deprivation can also contribute to high blood pressure and weight gain, and may increase your risk of experiencing a stroke, diabetes, or a heart attack.

Causes

First, let’s talk about what can cause insomnia. As with most problems, sleep issues have many possible causes ranging from adrenal fatigue, to anxiety, to liver sluggishness, etc. When these issues are addressed and improved, it usually becomes easier to fall asleep and the quality of sleep often improves. Trouble sleeping and poor sleep quality may also be due to certain medications, drug and alchol usage, restless leg syndrome, sleep apnea, asthma, allergies, stress, anxiety, and shift work (switching between working day shifts and night shifts). If you’re consistenly not sleeping well, you should ask yourself these questions: Am I having trouble breathing? Am I waking up during the night, and if so, what time do I usually wake up? Am I getting up more than once to use the bathroom? Answering these questions may help you figure out what’s causing your sleep issues.

Solutions

It can be difficult to find the right solution without knowing what’s causing the insomnia. If it’s due to stress, then practicing stress-reducing techniques, and taking supplements that promote relaxation may help. If the cause is poor liver function, then eating organic foods and taking certain vitamins and herbs that promote liver health and detoxificaiton may improve sleep. This is why getting blood work done can be helpful because it shows problems you wouldn’t have known about.

There are steps you can take to help your insomnia, but determining the cause is crucial to fixing it. So, pay attention to your sleep patterns, stress level, and caffeine and alcohol intake, get your blood work done to see what needs to be optimized, and try out some supplements!

Don’t forget to listen to our Chasing Sleep podcast here.

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Adrenal Fatigue or Holiday Blues?

We’ve talked about adrenal fatigue before, but it’s worth discussing again. Adrenal fatigue is very common, but most sufferers don’t realize they have it, and considering how much it can affect your quality of life, it’s something you should know about. However, with the holidays comes a lot of stress, and for some people it can be a depressing time of year, making it difficult to know whether it’s adrenal fatigue or just holiday blues.

Adrenal Fatigue

Adrenal fatigue occurs when a person has low cortisol levels due to being overly stressed for a long period of time. This condition is very common, and it’s believed that almost everyone will experience it at some point in their lives, but most people don’t recognize the symptoms. We lead high-stress lives nowadays due to work, school, kids, social media, holidays, family or marital issues, or a variety of other potentially stressful things. Though most of these things are out of our control, we can control our reaction to them and our nutritional intake. Nutrition can make a big difference in our ability to deal with stress both physically and mentally. Having vitamin or mineral deficiencies makes your body and mind more susceptible to stress, and most people are suffering from at least one nutritional deficiency.

Symptoms

Adrenal fatigue usually occurs when a person is under a lot of stress, which eventually causes the adrenal glands to stop producing cortisol the way they should. These symptoms could be due to a different condition, but adrenal fatigue can cause:

  • Brain Fog
  • Fatigue
  • Weight Gain
  • Body Aches
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Mood Swings
  • Hair Loss
  • Trouble Sleeping

Holiday Blues

Anxiety and depression are more common during the winter months for different reasons, there’s even a mood disorder called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) that causes people to feel depressed during the fall and/or winter seasons. Seasons affect our moods for different reasons including less sunlight (which means less vitamin D), stressful holidays, social gatherings, etc. Sometimes it can be hard to distinguish between adrenal fatigue or holiday stress, but taking certain supplements can help you deal with stress regardless of what’s causing it.

How to Fix It

Our Comprehensive, Comprehensive Plus Hormones, and Super Panel blood tests include a cortisol test which can tell us if your cortisol is too low or too high. For low cortisol you can take Adren-All which contains bovine adrenal glands, vitmins A, C, E, B6 and B12, licorice root extract, and a few other ingredients that promote healthy cortisol levels. For high cortisol levels you can take AdreneVive which contains ashwagandha root extract, l-theanine, skullcap root extract, and a few other ingredients that can help lower and re-balance cortisol levels. Supplementing with a high-quality multivitamin like Alpha Base Without Iron, and a mineral supplement like Reacted Multimin can help fill in any vitamin or mineral deficiencies which will help your body deal with stress. Anxiety and depression tend to become more common during the winter months, and CereVive is a great choice to help lessen the symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression.

Work on eating a balanced organic diet, try out some supplements, practice stress-reducing techniques, set aside time for a relaxing bath or something else that relaxes you, and focus on the positive. It’s difficult to heal adrenal fatigue without reducing the stress that caused it. Remember to enjoy the holidays, and not let them stress you out!