Adrenal Fatigue and Holistic Health
Adrenal fatigue, you may have heard more about this recently, not surprisingly it has become an epidemic in the Western world.
What is adrenal fatigue?
When the adrenal glands are overstimulated for long periods of time, it can affect your production of cortisol and DHEA.
Cortisol is your main stress hormone and is there to protect you from danger. In the old days our fight or flight response would kick in if we were being attacked by lions, but these days our nervous system is so out of whack that things like deadlines, financial pressures, social media can activate that state quickly.
Our stress response was designed to be TEMPORARY – switched off when the danger had passed. But our modern day life of always on our phones, working long hours, managing a million different things means stress doesn’t get switched off. It’s constant and long lasting causing chronic unrelenting cortisol to be released.
We need cortisol, but we need it to be balanced. A good cortisol response in the morning wakes us up and gives us the energy and reserves to get us through the day. When you’ve had sustained high cortisol levels, this can put a huge burden on your adrenal glands.
After a while they can struggle to maintain the huge demand for cortisol. This is when cortisol output can be too low. If left untreated, this can lead to long term chronic fatigue and other heatlh issues.
The problem is that as a condition, it's not really recognised by the medical world and symptoms are often mixed up with other conditions like depression, anxiety and insomnia for which there are medication treatments.
But whatever you call it, adrenal fatigue or cortisol imbalance is definitely real. So it's important to spot the signs and do something about it before it turns into full burn out.
Things to watch out for
Tired all the time – Whether your cortisol levels are high or low, it will take a toll on your energy levels. If they are high and you are under chronic stress, it will be hard for your blood sugar to stay in balance and the dips will make you feel tired. This often happens in the afternoon – cravings for sugar, coffee and carbs are especially common in that mid afternoon slump. It makes sense. Your body is low on sugar and is sending you a powerful message; “feed me sugar or I will send you off to sleep!”
PMS – Cortisol competes with progesterone receptors, so stress can lead to oestrogen dominance and PMS symptoms (heavy, painful periods, breast tenderness, bloating, irritability).
Mood issues – depression, anxiety, mood swings can all be caused by high or low cortisol levels.
Fat around the middle – I speak to many clients who have tried all different ways of eating or exercising but have never worked on addressing their stress levels. Suddenly with a few lifestyle changes they are eating more food, exercising less but losing weight! Cortisol stimulates appetite – sugar and carbs are vital when you need energy to run from that tiger. But when food is readily available and there is no tiger to run from, the sugar you have eaten doesn’t get used as energy and is stored away as fat. Your blood sugar surge has increased insulin levels (your fat storing hormone), leading to a blood sugar crash, and another uncontrollable craving for a biscuit, pastry or bar of chocolate. And here we go again……
High blood pressure – Cortisol increases blood pressure, in order to get oxygen into your muscles and cells quickly. Longlasting high blood pressure is a risk factor for heart disease.
Weakened immune system – High cortisol depletes your vitamin C stores, along with your B vitamins and essential minerals. It also reduces the production of immune cells, leaving you more open to picking up that cold or virus that is going around.
Brain fog or forgetfulness – this can affect many people when they’re stressed. Think interview situations or exams – how easy is it to forget something important just because you’re under pressure? Cortisol is messing with your neurotransmitters, and if you are peri-menopausal this can get a whole lot worse.
Poor Sleep – inability to fall asleep, racing thoughts, or frequently waking up around 3am ish can be signs that your stress hormones are messing with your body clock and sleep hormones
Digestive issues – Our gut feeling is real, we have more nerve cells in our gut than in our brain. Emotions and stress are felt in this area and this can seriously impair our digestion. Cortisol doesn’t care about digesting food when you’re facing a tiger, so it shuts much of the system down, giving you uncomfortable symptoms and making it much harder to digest your food and absorb your nutrients.
Low libido and infertility – Cortisol and the sex hormones are all made from the same precursor hormone, pregnenolone. So guess what happens when we are stressed? Pregnenolone gets the message to make more cortisol instead of sex hormones (as we know that our stress response takes priority over our reproductive function when we need to run away). Cortisol also increases another hormone, prolactin, which can stop us ovulating. So our sex hormones take a back seat, our testosterone and libido disappears and forget about getting pregnant. Sensibly the body is trying to protect us. It doesn’t want you bringing a baby into a dangerous world.
So what can we do to avoid or recover from adrenal fatigue?
Prioritise rest and relaxation – as an absolute number 1. I find this is usually one of the harder things I work with clients on BUT it is the most rewarding and it pays you back many times over.
Less screen time – nothing stresses us out more than too much screen time. Set times where you’ll leave your phone in another room, you can build up the timings if you find it difficult.
Pay into yourself daily – a nice walk, talking with a friend, massage, yoga, meditation, long baths, reading, dancing, cooking, gardening -whatever brings you joy.
Breath work – now this can be as easy as taking 10 deep belly breathes during the day, or even doing some deeper meditation with calming breaths.
Stop feeling guilty – so many women feel guilty when relaxing. Why? If you don’t relax, everyone around you is going to suffer. Call it giving back…
Nourish your adrenals – make sure you are supplementing those nutrients that stress is depleting (Vit C, B vits, magnesium, zinc, ashwaganda, ginseng) with good quality supplements.
Balance your blood sugar – avoid refined carbs and sugar, and eat plenty of protein and healthy fats at each meal with lots of veg.
Limit caffeine and alcohol – both of these increase the burden on your adrenals. I aim to get clients to build up to having 1 or 2 days a week without any caffeine. If you are a hardcore coffee addict this can take time but we will work slowly so your body can adjust.
Don’t do strenuous exercise – if you are low on energy, pushing hard through a gym workout won’t do you any good – try gentle walking or yoga instead.
Testing for adrenal hormones
Symptoms are a good indication, but they can be similar to other conditions so an adrenal stress test can help to identify any stress hormone imbalance.
The same 24 hour urine test that we use for sex hormones, can also measure your levels of cortisol over 4 points during the day – morning cortisol being the highest (to wake you up) and evening the lowest (to wind you down). When your levels are too low, it is an indication that your adrenals are struggling to produce enough cortisol.
If this is resonating and you feel like you may need some support drop me a message for a free 30min discovery call so we can discuss how to get you feeling on top of the world again.