Adrenal Insufficiency

Almost every health problem that you have… has stress as a component!

In every stressful situation, there is an immediate adrenal gland response… This is the gland that is responsible for the ʺfight or flightʺ response.

Over 80% of us will experience adrenal insufficiency multiple times over our lives. Symptoms may include weakness, lack of energy, trouble concentrating, becoming easily confused, forgetfulness, trouble completing basic tasks you could once handle easily, hoarse voice, poor digestion, constipation, bruising easily, depression, insomnia, not feeling rested after waking from sleep, and relying on naps during the day.

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4 Stages of Adrenal Fatigue:

Hans Selye, MD, a pioneer endocrinologist, developed the first workable “theory of stress”. Selye theorized that all individuals respond to all types of threatening situations in the same manner. He found that the adrenal glands responded to stress in three distinct stages.

In the initial stage (Stage 1: Alarm Reaction stage), the adrenal glands enlarge and the blood supply to them increases. Cortisol usually rises or becomes erratic.

As the stress continues, (Stage 2: Resistance Response stage) the adrenal glands begin to shrink. Cortisol is now decreasing.

Eventually, if the stress continues, the adrenal glands reach the third stage, which is the Stage 3: Adrenal Exhaustion stage. Cortisol is at this stage very low and/or below the normal ranges.

There is a fourth stage (Adrenal Failure; Addison’s disease) which is severe and most individuals at this stage are almost bedridden and in a tremendous amount of pain. Cortisol is below the ranges throughout the entire day. DHEA and Testosterone, estradiol and progesterone and pregnenolone are all below their ranges.

Back in the day… when primitive man walked through the forests and saw a wild animal, his heart rate would increase, his pupils would dilate, his blood would go out of his digestive system and into his arms and legs, his blood clotting ability would improve, he would become more aware and his blood pressure would rise.

At that point he would do 1 of 2 things: pick up a stick and try to fight the animal or run away. The physiological changes brought on by the adrenal glands would make the body more efficient so that he could flee or stay and fight. It is called the fight or flight response.

If he survived the ordeal, chances are it would be a while before such a strain was put on the adrenal glands and the rest of his body again. His adrenal glands would have a chance to recover.

Most people don’t have the luxury of a recovery period for their overworked adrenal glands. We are dealing on a daily basis with a tremendous amount of stress from work, lifestyle, diet, relationships, environment, and political stressors. Some of us stay in a fight or flight mode 24/7. Others have lots of ups and downs.

The changes caused by the overproduction of adrenal hormones stay with them. The stimulation of the adrenal glands causes a decrease in the immune system function, so an individual under constant stress will tend to catch colds and have other immune system problems, including allergies. Blood flow to the digestive tract is decreased. Stress causes many digestive problems such as indigestion, colitis and irritable bowel. Adrenal hormones cause an increase in the blood clotting ability; so prolonged stress can lead to the formation of arterial plaque and heart disease. The adrenal glands literally become confused and might become erratic with their production of hormones… some go up and some go down and some are ok.

The first stage of adrenal insufficiency is called the alarm reaction stage. This is when someone (with healthy adrenal glands) can perform amazingly well when the need arises. The primitive man, seeing the wild animal, was able to run faster than he ever dreamed possible during the alarm reaction. In this stage, many other bodily functions are “turned off”. A person going through the alarm stage might feel their stomach “turning over” (actually shutting off – you certainly don’t need to eat and digest food if you’re being chased by a wild animal).

If the stress continues, the body moves into the resistance stage (Stage 2), during which the adrenals become enlarged. The individual is responding to the stress and handling it. He or she may feel keyed up and anxious. The person may have cold, clammy hands, rapid pulse or reduced appetite and the digestive system being turned off, but hasn’t begun to feel any of the more serious symptoms of the next stage.

During the Exhaustion Stage (Stage 3) the adrenal glands begin to fail to meet the demands placed upon them. During this stage, the individual begins to have a variety of symptoms including fatigue, digestive problems (IBS, IBD, etc.), obesity, depression, dizziness, fainting, allergies, joints ache, dry skin, low body temp, heart palpitations, unexplained hair loss, pain in upper back and neck, difficulty getting out of bed in the morning, trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep and many other problems.

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The overall symptoms caused by adrenal insufficiency are numerous and varied. The following are some of the more common ones:

Anxiety and/or Panic attacks, nervousness (nervous energy)
Diarrhea , constipation, IBS, poor digestion, gas, gallbladder dsfx
Frequent urination
Thyroid issues
Salt cravings
Sugar cravings, low blood sugar
Insomnia – trouble going to sleep
Waking up tired in the morning
Wanting caffeine to ‘get going’ in the morning
Caffeine can almost put you to sleep
Feeling stressed
Inability to handle stress
Overthinking (having a brain that won’t turn off)
Dizziness when rising from seated or lying position; extreme light headedness, head weakness
Nausea for no apparent reason
Fluid retention in feet and ankles.
Foot pains.
Low blood pressure or sometimes high blood pressure
Feel weak all over
Autoimmune issues in body
Sometimes cold body temp
Lymph nodes in neck swollen
Afternoon crash between 3 and 5pm
Arthritis, aches and pains
Allergies worsened (asthma, hay fever, sinus conditions, rashes)
Groin pain (possibly shooting from the front of your pelvis to the inside of your knee)
Bruise easily, tenderness in back
Changes in skin color (dark patches)
Swollen eyes in the morning
Blurred vision
Late at night feeling panicky and like you’re going to die, negative thoughts
Unexplained hair loss
Overreacting
Headaches

TESTING:

The ONLY valid test for cortisol is a one day 4 point saliva test (blood testing is inaccurate for cortisol). When we see a client’s saliva hormone test showing a cortisol pattern that is flat from morning to night… this means the body does not recognize morning or night and this client is feeling fatigued, anxious, irritated, brain fogged and non motivated all day. He/She may have difficulty sleeping due to this. Their DHEA production is low leading to reduced sex hormone production causing low libido, low drive, and they lack umphh! The underlying cause is that he/she usually has medical and emotional trauma.

NOTE ON LONG COVID SYMPTOMS:

It is known that cortisol levels drop in LONG COVID. SARS CoV9 virus is also capable of infecting the adrenal cells and replicating intracellularly, leading to cell death by several mechanisms. Clients report long covid with symptoms like chronic fatigue, shortness of breath, sleep abnormalities, headaches, brain fog, joint pains, nausea, cough and abdominal pain. This means tens of millions of people are affected, 2.4% of the working population

Earlier scientific papers have linked cortisol with LC, depression and fatigue are positively correlated with cortisol and LC. In an article published in Nature in May 2022, the authors brought up that adrenal gland insufficiency in patients with Covid might be induced through different mechanisms, including vascular damage, viral replication, inflammatory factors and improper tapering off of long term steroid replacement.

In autopsies performed in Hong Kong, it was revealed that cortisol-producing cells in the adrenal gland showed degeneration and necrosis. In a YALE study, a 50% decrease in serum morning cortisol was noted. Bottom line: symptoms of LC overlap with those of hypo-cortisol!

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Most people have heard the TV commercial repeating over and over again that “cortisol causes belly fat!”. That may be true but only if your cortisol levels are HIGH. If they are low and you take some herbal product to lower your cortisol levels you will feel worse and be even more tired than you are now! So please be careful and don’t take herbal products without first testing your cortisol accurately with a saliva hormone test.

Cortisol is not the enemy; it’s all about timing and amount!

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But What About HIGH Cortisol Levels?

We know that cortisol is an important hormone in the body, secreted by the adrenal glands and involved in the following functions and more:

Proper glucose metabolism
Regulation of blood pressure
Insulin release for blood sugar maintenance
Immune function
Inflammatory response

While cortisol is an important and helpful part of the body’s response to stress, it’s important that the body’s relaxation response be activated so the body’s functions can return to normal following a stressful event.

Higher and more prolonged levels of cortisol in the bloodstream (like those associated with chronic stress) have been shown to have negative effects, such as:

Impaired cognitive performance
Suppressed thyroid function
Blood sugar imbalances such as hyperglycemia
Decreased bone density
Decrease in muscle tissue
Higher blood pressure
Lowered immunity and inflammatory responses in the body, slowed wound healing, and other health consequences
Increased abdominal fat, which is associated with a greater amount of health problems than fat deposited in other areas of the body.
Interrupts estrogen and progesterone and thyroid hormones and stops them from working optimally even when they are in range
When cortisol is high the brain also is less sensitive to estrogens. That’s why you can have a postmenopausal woman with reasonable amounts of estrogen, but when you put her under a stressor and her cortisol rises, she’ll get hot flashes, which are a symptom of estrogen deficiency. She really doesn’t have an estrogen deficiency, the brain sensors have just been altered. If you then drive the estrogen levels up with supplementation to treat the hot flashes, she’ll start getting symptoms of estrogen dominance like weight gain in the hips, water retention, and moodiness. And the hot flashes usually don’t go away.
This is why you often can’t effectively treat someone with hormonal imbalance symptoms such as hot flashes by simply adding what seems to be the missing hormone, be it thyroid, progesterone, estrogen or testosterone. If your cortisol is chronically high you’ll have overall resistance to your hormones.
Too much cortisol, caused by the adrenal glands’ response to excessive stressors, causes the tissues to no longer respond to the thyroid hormone signal. It creates a condition of thyroid resistance, meaning that thyroid hormone levels can be normal, but tissues fail to respond as efficiently to the thyroid signal. This resistance to the thyroid hormone signal caused by high cortisol is not just restricted to thyroid hormone but applies to all other hormones such as insulin, progesterone, estrogens, testosterone, and even cortisol itself. When cortisol gets too high, you start getting resistance from the hormone receptors, and it requires more hormones to create the same effect. That’s why chronic stress, which elevates cortisol levels, makes you feel so rotten—none of the hormones are allowed to work at optimal levels.
Insulin resistance is a classic example. It takes more insulin to drive glucose into the cells when cortisol is high. High cortisol and high insulin, resulting in insulin resistance, are going to cause you to gain weight around the waist because your body will store fat there rather than burn it.

As we mentioned earlier, Cortisol is often called the primary “stress hormone” because it’s one of the main hormones we release when we’re under any sort of pressure and our evolutionary-based “fight or flight response” kicks into gear. Although most think of cortisol as a bad thing — such as contributing to acne, weight gain or high blood pressure — there’s actually a lot more to cortisol levels than just our stress response and its unwanted symptoms.

We need it to live.

While producing cortisol is a necessity for life and helps keep us motivated, awake and responsive to our environment, maintaining abnormally high circulating cortisol levels can become dangerous and contribute to long-term problems. Long-term use of corticosteroids and chronic stress are two of the biggest contributors to high cortisol. Chronic, high cortisol production is tied to symptoms and ailments including weight gain, anxiety, sleep disorders, hormonal imbalances and fertility problems, in addition to many other problems.

The good news is there are many natural ways to get your cortisol levels in check: meditation, walking, balancing estrogens and progesterone, our MOOD product (helps to calm the whole body and lower’s cortisol naturally), exercise regularly, Lavender essential oil, Rhodiola Rosea and phosphatidylserine.

Cortisol at its core is an energy signaling molecule. It says “we are in need of energy” to the rest of the cells. If you ingest carbohydrates, this helps to bring down any spike in cortisol. That’s why after exercising hard and producing a temporary rise in cortisol from the exertion your body will crave carbohydrates to help down-regulate that spike in cortisol.

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LOW BLOOD SUGAR / HYPOGLYCEMIA

& Adrenal Fatigue

Hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, is related to the action of the adrenal hormones cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. These hormones are called the counter-regulatory hormones because they can cause a rise in blood glucose levels. But when these hormones are LOW… hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) is created.

Stress (and the anticipation of stress) signals the body to raise blood sugar (glucose) levels in order to generate energy to respond to the stress. If the body can’t meet this higher demand for blood glucose, hypoglycemia can result.

Stress may also provoke blood sugar swings that can have a cumulative effect on the body’s ability to maintain blood sugar balance, and aggravate hypoglycemic symptoms. In fact, some of the symptoms of hypoglycemia, such as irritability and nervousness, may sometimes be the effects of high levels of stress hormones rather than of the low blood sugar itself.

Hypoglycemia can also happen while you are sleeping.

Symptoms of mild low blood sugar usually occur when blood sugar falls below 84 mg/dL and may include:

Nausea.
Extreme hunger.
Feeling nervous or jittery.
Cold, clammy, wet skin and/or excessive sweating not caused by exercise.
A rapid heartbeat (tachycardia).
Numbness or tingling of the fingertips or lips.
Trembling.
Mood changes, such as irritability, anxiety, restlessness, or anger.
Confusion, difficulty in thinking, or inability to concentrate.
Blurred vision, dizziness, or headache.
Weakness, lack of energy.
Poor coordination.
Difficulty walking or talking, such as staggering or slurred speech.
Fatigue, lethargy, or drowsiness.
Seizures or convulsions.
Loss of consciousness, coma.
Low body temperature (hypothermia).

During adrenal insufficiency, when adrenal hormone levels are lower, it becomes harder to maintain blood sugar balance, especially in response to the increased demand from stress.* It has been known for almost a century that people who are chronically hypoglycemic are often also experiencing adrenal fatigue, and that people going through adrenal fatigue almost always have some form of irregular blood sugar pattern. Hypoglycemia is the most common of these.

Hypoglycemia, without proper snack and meal placement, also encourages overeating when food is available. This overeating can result in unwanted weight gain because the increased levels of insulin circulating in the blood usher that excess energy (glucose) from the extra food into the fat cells where it is stored as fat. Even though the effects (weight gain) of this process may be undesirable, this is a beautiful and savvy compensatory mechanism that has helped us survive. Much of human history is a story of feast or famine; excess calories are a luxury in evolutionary terms.

Therefore, after coming out of a situation of temporary famine (hypoglycemia) into a situation of excess calories (fat and sugary junk food), our evolutionary history urges us unconsciously to overeat. Our bodies are designed to store that energy while it is available. In this way, hypoglycemia creates a tendency to put on weight. To avoid gaining weight, those low blood sugar dips that increase hunger and also create a tendency to store energy as fat must be avoided.

This means regular exercise and eating the kinds of meals and foods that control hypoglycemia. It also means eating regular meals and not eating those sugary foods and caffeine that send blood glucose levels on a roller coaster ride and possibly worsen adrenal fatigue and hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia often has a food sensitivity or food allergy component. Consuming something that the body is sensitive or allergic to can set off a hypoglycemic reaction or make blood sugar levels more erratic.

Blood sugar balance is a very complex process in which all of these factors and more can combine to produce low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) during stress and/or adrenal fatigue. In turn, hypoglycemia and the behaviors and problems that may accompany it can further stress the adrenal glands and contribute to adrenal fatigue.

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THOUGHT HAS POWER:

Situations are not always controllable, but stress is. Stress is cumulative. Emotional stress, structural stress and chemical stress all affect the body the same way. The adrenal glands do not know the difference between an IRS audit, running and lifting weights or excessive sugar consumption. Excess sugar consumption will add to the stress of the IRS audit.

By reducing the stress that can be controlled, stressful situations will not have as much of a physical effect. For instance, eating frequent meals and avoiding sugar will reduce stress on the adrenal glands. Mental focus is important; so the client must be told to not think about problems unless it is to directly do something to solve them.

Hanging on to anxiety over past situations is stressful. Thought has power. Worry produces all of the physiologic responses of Selyeʹs rats or the caveman facing the wild animal. It is a waste of energy and it undermines health.

The adrenal glands simply don’t know the difference between imagined danger and real danger. Think about it; if you hear a noise at night and think it’s the wind, you can go back to sleep. If you think it’s an intruder, you can’t get back to sleep even after you get up to investigate. The thought of facing an intruder made the adrenal glands start producing their hormones.

Meditation and biofeedback have been of such value in controlling stress. They do nothing to control the source of the stress, only the response to it. Physicians are beginning to find that laughter helps the prognosis of cancer patients. They even have clients watch sitcoms in the hospital: ʺMr. Smith, it’s time for your chemotherapy and ʹLucyʹ reruns.ʺ Minimizing chemical stress is also important. We have plenty of chemical stress today. Environmental pollution, food additives, sugar, alcohol, and caffeine contribute stress to the adrenal glands.

BREATHING and your adrenal glands

We are always looking for non medical / non drug ways to help with anxiety and moods. And we know that with all levels of adrenal confusion or adrenal insufficiency, you will experience moments or days or weeks of anxiety, depression, and basically any uncontrollable moods. What is one clinically proven way to calm the body and mind down? BREATHING.

But not just regular breathing … instead… very specific breathing techniques that anyone can do anywhere to get better control over their anxiety.

First, let’s look at what is normal healthy breathing? If you breathe about 6 liters of air per minute or if you are taking relatively shallow breaths in your normal daily routines (not talking or working out) … 12 shallow breaths per minute. Casually breathing in and out then you’re doing perfectly. Most people over breathe! You take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide in a balanced fashion. You should be taking little pauses in between breaths.

When you over-breathe your brain becomes hyper-excited with background noises. In that scenario you are less effective at whatever task you are doing, unable to learn and retain data like you should, and can’t focus as well as you need to.

The best way to handle this over-breathing and brain excitability is to take a few moments every day and pay attention to how many breaths you are taking at rest. Just time yourself. Chronically holding your breath isn’t good but neither is overbreathing.

CYCLIC SIGHING

In looking for the best way to reduce chronic stress.. the shortest and most effective practice that a person can do to reduce stress around the clock (not just when you are panicking or stressed). CYCLE SIGHING was found to be the best… better than meditation! Meditation daily can greatly improve cognition, focus and memory but not as much stress reduction as cycle sighing.

Doing breathing exercise just 5 minutes a day out performed meditation for the same time period in reducing stress around the clock (not just while doing the exercise). This is SIGNIFICANT!

Cyclic sighing: involves 2 big inhales through the nose to get maximum inflated lungs followed by a LONG slow exhale through the mouth then waiting about 10 seconds and repeat for 5 full minutes (yes… set your timer!).

Basically 25 cycles of breathing in 2 big inhales through the nose to the point of maximum lung capacity and then exhaling (sighing) slowly through the mouth, pausing for 10-15 seconds and repeat.

In clinical trials the effects were astounding. For the sake of stress reduction and improving sleep and mood the most effective practice of breathing you can do is cyclic sighing.

If you’re in a conversation that is stressful, or headed to a meeting that you know is going to stress you, or going into a class that will overwhelm you, or feeling stressed in traffic or at doctor’s office… taking just 1 cyclic sighing breath (2 inhales in 1 long exhale) is the fastest way to reduce your levels of stress and to reintroduce calm. It shifts your autonomic nervous system from a state of high levels of autonomic arousal that is the sympathetic nervous system that is at a higher level of arousal to parasympathetic system (calming). This cyclic sighing restores the balanced in these two nervous systems. Again… just 1 cyclic sigh… not even the full 5 minutes! So just think what 5 minutes will do for you.

Doing this for the full 5 minutes will improve your sleep, lower your resting heart rate, calm your nerves and help you to focus during the whole day.

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HOW TO TEST Adrenal Glands CORRECTLY

As we mentioned earlier… saliva testing is the ONLY accurate way! You can test cortisol/dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and get a very accurate representation of how much adrenal hormones are being produced and how much stress is affecting the body. This is best done with saliva hormone testing. (we offer this as a kit in our office or online!) History: Feeling dizzy when getting up suddenly, craving salt, worsening allergies, fatigue, un-even body temp, and medial knee pain may indicate the need for adrenal support. We also offer an exact protocol to heal the adrenal glands (supplementation and dietary & natural hormones). We will gladly work with you and your medical doctor to help you achieve energy, happiness and health!

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STEPS TO REPAIRING ADRENAL GLANDS

Meditation / Energy Work: Meditation, yoga, Tai Chi or simple deep breathing exercises can help you bring stress under control. The damage done by stress on health is not due to any external factors, but rather how the mind interprets those factors. Meditation and other techniques help reduce the harm of stress by quieting the mind. Doing energy work (Faith Healing, Reiki, etc.) on the body will also help tremendously. Energy work is used as a general term to describe different modalities that help to balance the energy in the body. Discordant or disharmonious energy patterns can be identified at the point of origin, hidden in the mind at varying levels of consciousness. From there, the energy patterns that create our dysfunctional mind-body connections (or mind-mental, mind-emotional, mind-relational, even mind-situational connections) can be corrected to improve one’s overall well-being and life experiences. Our bodies are not just physical structures made of molecules; like everything in the universe, bodies are also composed of energy fields. The world of energy is becoming part of our vernacular. We use the language of energy to explain certain experiences, for example, “bad vibes” or “the energy there was great.” We give more credence to meeting someone and instantly liking or disliking him without knowing anything about him. We can “feel” when someone is staring at us. A negative exchange with a person can make us feel “kicked in the gut,” “stabbed in the heart” or maybe covered in thick molasses. When we experience a loss of some sort we literally feel like a part of us is missing – we feel empty inside. When we have extreme anxiety or worry, we may literally be “beside ourselves.” These feelings are absolutely accurate, energetically speaking. On the other hand, we may get exciting news that makes us feel like we are “on fire” and can conquer the world. All of these experiences have reality in the fields of energy that surround and penetrate our being. Science has developed instruments that detect and measure these fields. More and more mainstream media programs and personalities report on and acknowledge the practical and profound implications of energy medicine and energy psychology on the mind-body connection. For example, Dr. Mehmet Oz of network TV’s The Dr. Oz Show, often touts the benefits of energy work and reported on CNN that “…energy and the use of energy for healing will be the biggest frontier in medicine over the next decade.”

Sports and Hobbies: Meditation and yoga may be a little ʺNew Ageʺ for some people, for whom hobbies are a good solution. Most hobbies are relaxing; the mind has to focus on a simple task rather than on sources of stress. I usually tell clients to create something they love: painting, gardening, drawing, knitting, writing, etc. Create, Create, Create!

Diet: There are many types of stress. Chemical, physical, thermal, and mental stresses can all cause harm to the body. Stress is cumulative. A stressful job situation is compounded by a poor diet. Eat small, frequent meals, avoid chemical additives, hydrogenated oil and sugar and eat plenty of vegetables. At mealtime relax and focus on enjoying your food; don’t eat on the run. Truly be mindful of every bite you take. Follow mostly a Paleo or Grain Free diet plan or better yet go Vegan (whole food plant based) for 3 months to cleanse the body of all animal stress and fat. Sugar and FAT are your enemies! You must also remove any foods you have sensitivity to. An incorrect diet can create more stress on the adrenals! Getting a proper blood test to determine allergies is vital. We can do a simple blood spot test (finger prick) on just about any age individual to check 192 different foods.

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The best way to support your adrenals and help recover your health is to eat a light, balanced meal every 90 minutes to two hours. This grazing technique works because the frequent meals keep your blood sugar steady throughout the day; and as long as your glucose isn’t dropping, your adrenal glands don’t have to interfere. Giving your adrenal glands lots of rest allows them to devote energy to healing and restoring themselves.

Each of your meals should ideally contain a balance of potassium, sodium, and natural sugar (from fruit). Below are a few perfect snacks you can graze on (all you need are a few bites!) to help recover your adrenal health. The combination of these foods is KEY (note: with each of these 3 foods you should add in a small amount of protein like black beans, tofu or slice of turkey or chicken, etc.):

* Apple, celery, and dates (all 3 together)

* Orange, avocado, and spinach (all 3 together)

* Sweet potato, kale, and lemon juice (all 3 together)

* Cucumber, avocado, and lime juice (all 3 together)

* Banana, dates, and romaine lettuce (all 3 together)

* Coconut water, dried apricots and celery (all 3 together)

* Coconut water, banana, and spinach (all 3 together)

* Mango, figs, and celery (all 3 together)

* Oranges, cilantro, and butter lettuce (all 3 together)

* Raspberries, tangerines, and green leaf lettuce (all 3 together)

* Berries, raw honey, and cucumber (all 3 together)

* Apple, dates, and collard greens (all 3 together)

* Banana, grape, and red leaf lettuce (all 3 together)

* Apple, cauliflower, and cucumber (all 3 together)

* Watermelon with lime juice, and celery juice (all 3 together)

Exercise: walking outside (not on a treadmill) is almost a cure-all. But must be done for at least 30 minutes daily. Walking helps to extrovert a person, massages all internal organs that help with digestion, and gets you breathing fresh air! Most people find that when walking they start seeing solutions instead of problems. Strongly suggest HIIT training as well.

Read: reading self-help books that focus of the positive is very helpful. My favorites are: THE SECRET, THE MAGIC, HOW TO HEAL YOUR LIFE and THE FOUR AGREEMENTS. Download and listen or read books by Wayne Dyer (one of my favorites). All are available on Amazon.com. I strongly suggest to my clients to avoid all “news” stories. Truly avoid all negativity on the news or on Facebook! Remove “negative” and toxic people and situations from your life.

Supplementation: yes, you are going to need to repair and literally rebuild your adrenal glands if they are in stage 2, 3 or 4. We may suggest a protocol of supplements to assist your body in getting chemically and nutritionally balanced. It will be imperative for you to follow those guidelines as closely as possible. Individuals with health challenges may have a greater need for certain nutrients than the normal requirements for a healthy individual. If you’re experiencing a chronic imbalance, illness or disease in the body, it will usually require increasing your nutrients 7 to 10 fold during the healing time (6 months to 2 years) to compensate.

Eat more salt

Adrenal glands love salt. Not all salt is good for you though. Buy a good quality, unprocessed salt that is high in mineral content, such as Celtic sea salt or Himalayan salt, and use it liberally. (some individuals do better with Celtic sea salt others do better with Himalayan… you have to experiment with which works best for you. We strongly endorse using LMNT electrolyte packets in water (depending on your body’s needs: 1 to 2 daily) www.drinklmnt.com

Electrolytes are minerals that conduct electricity when dissolved in a solvent. That solvent (in the human body and elsewhere) is usually water.

The main electrolytes are sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphate, and bicarbonate. Of these seven minerals, only three—sodium, chloride, and potassium—are essential minerals that function primarily as electrolytes.

Magnesium, calcium, and phosphate mainly serve other functions (like building bone and repairing DNA). Bicarbonate isn’t “essential” because you produce your own supply. And since chloride always appears alongside sodium as salt, I won’t spend much time on that electrolyte either.

That leaves sodium and potassium: the heavy hitters of the electrolyte squad.

Intravenous routes aside, the only way to get sodium and potassium into your body is through diet and supplementation. That means consuming salt for sodium and potassium-rich foods (like dark leafy greens) for potassium.

You must consume electrolytes because you’re constantly losing them through sweat, urine, feces, and (on a bad day) vomit. What’s lost must be replaced. If it’s not sufficiently replaced, a variety of health markers will suffer.

The heavy hitters—sodium and potassium—have two primary roles in the human body:

Regulating fluid balance
Enabling cellular communication (nerve transmission, cellular signaling, etc.)

ADRENAL COCKTAIL (upon rising to give you energy in the AM and/or midday)

We strongly suggest the product (we don’t sell it, just order online) for an “adrenal cocktail”: LMNT contains 1000 mg sodium, 200 mg potassium, 60 mg magnesium and no sugar. This bold yet simple formula is based on the latest scientific literature and evidence gathered from coaching tens of thousands of clients. LMNT has enough sodium to move the needle (i.e. a game changer). It’s formulated with an eye toward the clinical data, the underlying science, and our experience coaching thousands of clients on nutrition and lifestyle.

But why do we put a full gram of sodium in every stick pack? Isn’t salt bad for your heart? The truth is, that’s not nearly as cut and dry as it’s been made out to be. Sodium is an essential mineral—the stuff of life—and we’ve never been shy to address the misinformation around it.

There are several reasons why we decided to include 1 gram of sodium:

1. To replace heavy sodium losses through sweat. Athletes lose up to 7 grams of sodium per day in hot climates. We’ve talked to trainers of professional athletes and they often log up to a 10 g sodium loss in a hard practice or game.
2. To increase sodium intake on diets lacking in—or which cause the rapid loss of—sodium. This includes low-carb, ketogenic, paleo, and whole foods diets.
3. To help people reach a baseline of 5 grams of daily sodium for optimal health.

We didn’t pull the 5 grams out of thin air. This 2011 JAMA study found that 5 grams of sodium per day was the sweet spot for minimizing heart attack and stroke risk. However, 5 grams is a starting point. Folks with any of the aforementioned diet and lifestyle factors tend to need even more.

Best snacks before bed

People can tailor their snacking based on their weight goals and how their body reacts to sugar overnight. A dietician can help.

The best snacks for each person will depend on how the body responds to the dawn phenomenon and the Somogyi effect, as well as personal preferences and goals.

Little scientific evidence points to an ideal bedtime snack, but researchers believe that beneficial snacks will contain:

Protein (roasted chickpeas, a few slices of apple with almond butter, edamame, superfood mix)
Healthy fat (sugar free plant based yogurt or few bites of avocado or olives, one-half ounce of nuts / seeds)
A complex CARB (fruit, vegetable, potato)

Exercise: walking outside (not on a treadmill) is almost a cure-all. But must be done for at least 30 minute daily. Walking helps to extrovert a person, massages all internal organs that helps with digestion, and gets you breathing fresh air! Most people find that when walking they start seeing solutions instead of problems. If you’re in stage 3 (flatlined on a saliva test result) walking is ALL we want with maybe light weights until you have improved (4-8 weeks). You won’t be FIXED in that short of time but should be in better condition to add in strength training.

You might even need a short course of hydrocortisone (cortisol)medication.

“Safe Uses of Cortisol” by William Jeffries, is the most authoritative literature on low-dose hydrocortisone. Dr. Jeffries devoted his entire career to researching and developing a low-dose hydrocortisone protocol for people with CFS, FM, arthritis, post-viral syndrome, mononucleosis, HPA axis dysfunction, hypoglycemia, and many other conditions including infertility. He found even marginal adrenal insufficiency can have big effects.

Cortef / hydrocortisone has the same molecular structure as our body’s natural cortisol. Prednisone and most of the other synthetic “souped-up” products that are often prescribed are on average about 4 x more potent than cortisol. Each pharmaceutical company had to come up with their own unique molecular formula so they could get a patent and get in on this market. Supplementing with these drugs can be very problematic on a long-term basis.

Hydrocortisone is the chemical form of the cortisone your adrenal gland produces. The average daily production of hydrocortisone in your body is about 30 to 40 mg. If you have adrenal insufficiency (low adrenal function or adrenal fatigue), you may be producing much less and have symptoms as a consequence. By supplementing your low production with 5 to 20 mg of hydrocortisone, your body’s supply becomes normal and symptoms should promptly disappear.

The misunderstanding with this low dose hydrocortisone protocol, stems from the use of high-dose cortisone therapies like prednisone, medrol, etc. With such high doses there are significant side effects such as high blood pressure, osteoporosis, Cushings syndrome, immune suppression and so forth. But these effects have absolutely nothing to do with low-dose hydrocortisone treatment. In fact, the reason why most doctors are reluctant to prescribe it is because the dose is way too low to make any difference whatsoever. Keep in mind that mainstream science is completely ignorant about adrenal fatigue. The low doses we are talking here is even much lower of what your body normally produces, even if your adrenal’s output of hydrocortisone is normal.

High-dose mainstream treatment of cortisone is several times your body’s daily output, that is, 60 to 300 mg of hydrocortisone per day. So if someone tells you that you are crazy for being on cortisone because it has serious side effects, you can reassure them that you are taking below levels of physiological doses of what your body already produces. Remember, it is not prednisone, it is hydrocortisone. 5 mg of hydrocortisone is the same as about 1 mg of prednisone.

Cortisone can be prescribed by your doctor if they are willing or you can order from a reputable online source

EAT HIGH QUALITY PROTEIN:

Protein tends to help stabilize blood sugars by blunting the absorption of carbohydrates/sugars. As protein breaks down into glucose more slowly than carbohydrates the effect of protein on blood glucose levels tends to occur gradually over a few hours. Most women (and some men) have a hard time getting the amount of good plant protein as it does take a lot of bulk to get the protein necessary for your body from only legumes and beans and dark greens. For that reason we usually suggest a superfood drink as a supplement to your diet daily: ORGAIN SIMPLE is an awesome one without gums or fillers and an overload of vitamins/minerals/herbs that many protein powders have.

With that stated it is not unusual for someone recovering from long covid or adrenal fatigue to need animal protein at least 1x per day. Ensure it is high quality! I have seen numerous individuals not recover until they do add in a little animal protein to their regimen.

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HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO HEAL THE ADRENAL GLANDS

That’s a loaded question. First… make sure you are not dealing with “too many cooks in the kitchen”. By that I mean … choose a practitioner and work with them for 3-9 months before jumping to the next practitioner. If you have 4 different practitioners feeding you info and advice your adrenals will become even more confused.

Typically, recovery will take somewhere between 6 and 18 months, but there is a very wide variation between individuals. Some may take less than 6 months, but others may take two years before they can really claim to have returned to normal.

If you are in Stage 1 or the beginning of Stage 2 adrenal fatigue… recovery and improvements will typically occur in a few weeks to months.

If you are deep into Stage 2 and entering into Stage 3, your recovery period will take longer. You will certainly feel better along the way but will still have ups and downs with energy. It truly depends on your diet, supplementation and removal of stress.

If you have reached Stage 3, your recovery period will take much longer. At this Stage there is much more to fix than just your adrenal glands. The crash of hormones at this stage has created a domino effect of ill health in your body. Your digestion is impaired, your body’s ability to repair during sleep is hindered, your thyroid is going to be sluggish, emotions will be all over the place, etc.

As with most illnesses, much depends on the client and their actions or inactions. No matter how good the advice offered by their healthcare professional, if this advice were not followed then the person would not see an optimal outcome.

For example, if an individual suffering from Adrenal Fatigue continues to eat junk food, doesn’t exercise properly (or over-exercises) and does not take the appropriate supplements / hormones, his/her recovery time will inevitably be longer. On the other hand, an individual who follows all the recommendations of his healthcare professional can expect a much faster and better outcome.