Have you been feeling more tired in the afternoons and burned out at work? Having difficulty concentrating and getting anything done? Are you gaining weight, or having trouble losing it – especially in your tummy? Losing hair on your head, but gaining it on your chin? Not interested in sex at all anymore or just not feeling sexy? Noticing changes in your menstrual cycle like lighter/heavier periods or irregular cycles? Having night sweats or insomnia, and then can’t get going in the morning? Or generally just not feeling yourself?
If you’d like to see how YOUR adrenal glands are holding up and what exactly YOU could be focusing on to restore your balance,
we’d love to help you!
As part of our 8-week Replenish program, you can order your own adrenal saliva test kit, learn how to understand the results, and get expert guidance on easily building the practices that support your adrenals, replenish your energy and create the foundation for overall hormone balance.
Our naturopathic patient care, which usually starts with our Vitality Jumpstart, can help you address your adrenal health as well as other issues through more comprehensive testing and individualized treatment.
Sign up for a complimentary Vitality Discovery Call today so we can learn more about your needs and help you figure out your best next steps to get back to feeling fantastic again!
Request a free call here —>>> https://womensvitalitycenter.com/apply/
In our practice, we see that stress is often at the root of these issues, and once you understand what role cortisol (the body’s major stress hormone) plays in the body, it’s not surprising. Even starting in childhood we can have stressors to deal with, and when you consider high school, college, work, growing up with racial and/or gender discrimination – then relationship issues, raising kids, financial stress, aging parents, global pandemics and natural disasters – well, you can see how stress can accumulate over a lifetime.
Our bodies are resilient, but over time, constant demand can create negative effects. Stress can create inflammation as our bodies become resistant to cortisol (which is a natural anti-inflammatory). We can become insulin resistant too, since cortisol raises blood sugar, and stress makes us more likely to crave sugar and carbs. A busy schedule may not allow time and energy for cooking at home, and take-out food may have more sugar and poor-quality fat that adds insult to injury. We start to sleep poorly due to high cortisol levels at night, then low cortisol levels in the morning make it hard to get out of bed. We start noticing changes in weight, our ability to focus at work, our menstrual cycles and our sex lives! How exactly does this happen? Let’s start with cortisol.
What is cortisol?
Cortisol comes from the adrenal glands, which are pyramid-shaped glands on top of our kidneys in the mid-back. The adrenals have an inner and outer section. The inner section (medulla) produces epinephrine, commonly known as adrenaline. The outer section (cortex) produces corticosteroids. You may have heard of corticosteroid drugs, such as prednisone, that decrease inflammation. Well, the body produces these corticosteroids naturally, and cortisol is one of them. The 3 main groups of corticosteroids are:
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- Glucocorticoids (including cortisol), which influence your metabolism, immunity, inflammation and stress response.
- Mineralocorticoids (including aldosterone), which maintain your blood pressure via sodium and potassium regulation.
- Androgens (including testosterone and DHEA), which are produced in small amounts by the adrenal glands in both men and women. Androgens influence libido, muscle mass, self-confidence, motivation and positive mood.
Understanding the function of the various hormones produced by the adrenal glands helps us see what symptoms may be caused by “adrenal fatigue” aka “HPA axis dysregulation.”
What is “Adrenal Fatigue” aka “HPA Axis Dysregulation”?
Adrenal fatigue is a term coined by Dr. James Wilson in the late 80’s to describe the combination of symptoms that occur from prolonged stress. The term “HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis dysregulation” more accurately describes what truly goes on in the body under these conditions. The adrenal glands don’t just become weak, fatigued and unable to produce cortisol (though we can see very low levels of cortisol in some patients). Instead, the chronic stress we experience in our lives impacts our brain and changes the signals and feedback loops that control our adrenal glands via the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.
In healthy people, there is a natural circadian rhythm where cortisol is high in the morning and gradually tapers down to a low point in the evening and overnight. With HPA axis dysregulation, you may instead see low cortisol levels in the morning and high levels at night, or low cortisol levels all day long, or high cortisol levels occurring in response to daytime stressors or caffeine intake.
HPA axis dysregulation is not widely recognized by the conventional medical community. The only accepted diagnoses related to the adrenals are Addison’s or Cushing’s diseases which are the extremes of adrenal dysfunction, usually caused by damage or other pathology to the adrenal glands. However, the symptoms of each of those conditions (related to either too little or too much cortisol in the body) can be recognized in many of our patients even though they don’t meet the criteria for Addison’s or Cushing’s.
Common Symptoms of HPA Axis Dysregulation (“Adrenal Fatigue”)
Weight gain (especially in the tummy or mid-section) Fatigue, insomnia, brain fog Blood sugar fluctuations, insulin resistance and sugar cravings Poor immunity Inflammation and pain High or low blood pressure, electrolyte imbalance, dizziness, salt cravings Poor stamina, difficulty building muscle, low or nonexistent libido, low mood or motivation, difficulty concentrating
How do we assess adrenal function?
Many people already know they’re stressed – they feel anxious and overwhelmed by work, family and life, irritable, can’t sleep at night due to running thoughts, cravings carbs and emotional eating, don’t want to get out of bed in the morning to face everything on their plate…but how do we measure that stress?
In addition to looking at someone’s life situation and symptoms, we can also measure cortisol levels through testing. Cortisol levels are produced in a natural day and night cycle, ideally with levels rising in the early morning shortly before waking, reaching a peak in the mid-morning, then tapering gradually to evening and overnight lows. Cortisol can also be produced in response to stress, pain, intense exercise and fluctuations in blood sugar, and we do see levels change accordingly.
Testing for cortisol is best done in urine or saliva with 4 or more samples in a day to assess a general pattern. Once we know where your levels are out of balance, we can improve HPA axis regulation with personalized lifestyle strategies, such as recommendations for nutrition and blood sugar balance, sleep hygiene, cortisol-calming or cortisol-boosting exercise or meditation, as well as herbal adaptogens, nutrients or adrenal glandulars.
Now that you’ve learned how profoundly HPA axis dysregulation impacts your health, you can see why The Women’s Vitality Center’s approach involves assessing and addressing the adrenals as one of the most critical foundations of hormone balance and optimizing overall health and wellness.
If you’d like to see how YOUR adrenal glands are holding up or what exactly YOU could be focusing on to restore your balance,
we’d love to help you!
As part of our 8-week Replenish program, you can order your own adrenal saliva test kit, learn how to understand the results, and get expert guidance on easily building the practices that support your adrenals, replenish your energy and create the foundation for overall hormone balance.
Our naturopathic patient care, which usually starts with our Vitality Jumpstart, can help you address your adrenal health as well as other issues through more comprehensive testing and individualized treatment.
Sign up for a complimentary Vitality Discovery Call today so we can learn more about your needs and help you figure out your best next steps to get back to feeling fantastic again!
Request a free call here —>>> https://womensvitalitycenter.com/apply/
