How to Deal with Adrenal Burnout

Do you have poor exercise tolerance/muscle recovery, irregular or non-exisstent cycles, hair loss, insomnia, anxiety or depression? Maybe you depend on coffee or energy drinks all day?  These are signs of adrenal burnout and understanding this dysfunction may be the key to getting off you anti-depressnats or harmful medications to help you find more balance and peace in your life. Women and men with these symptoms can undergo a series of tests that evaluate markers of stress, including cortisol and DHEA levels. The results are usually remarkably consistent: only 20–25% have cortisol levels consistent with healthy adrenal function, while 75–80% suffer impaired function, in various patterns ranging from mild to more serious.

Do you suffer from adrenal imbalance?

Adrenal imbalance or adrenal dysfunction, although you may have also heard it called "adrenal fatigue," "adrenal exhaustion," or "adrenal burnout." It occurs when the adrenal glands are putting out the wrong levels of stress hormones — either too low or too high — in relation to the amount that's needed. This mismatch often results in troubling symptoms.

If you're like many women, you probably can't imagine how it's even possible for you to reduce stress and the negative effects it has on your body. But let us assure you, we can show you how to get you back to feeling as energetic and vibrant as you ever have!

How chronic stress leads to severe symptoms

Just because you have stress, doesn’t mean that this is the cause of your symptoms or adrenal fatigue. While most people today are stressed around the clock, anything that puts your body in fight or flight can push your adrenals to the max including these more common situations :

• Lack of sleep
• Work stress
• Personality conflicts
• Yo-yo dieting
• Relationship turmoil
• Reliance on stimulants like caffeine and carbs
• Digestive problems
• Too much exercise
• Illness, infection or surgery
• Unresolved emotional issues
• Overwhelming responsibilities at home

With the list above and emotional stress, your adrenals rally your body into a "fight or flight" survival response by increasing adrenaline and cortisol production. No matter what the cause of the stress, your body sees it as an emergency.

In its normal function, cortisol helps us meet these challenges by converting fats and proteins into energy, keeping us alert, balancing electrolytes, calibrating heart beat and pressure, and counteracting inflammation. In the short run, that's great — even protective and restorative.

However, problems can develop as today's relentlessly busy lifestyle forces your adrenal glands to be on constant "high alert" resulting in sustained high levels of cortisol.

Sustained high cortisol levels are dangerous because they:

• Slow down healing and normal cell regeneration.
• Co-opt parent molecules needed to make other vital hormones
• Impair digestion, metabolism and mental function
• Interfere with healthy endocrine function

The damaging effects of high cortisol

Adrenal imbalance in women tends to peak between the ages of 35 and 55. Most women can recognize themselves in one of the following descriptions:

• You're always active and feel "wired." Your system is constantly fueled by adrenaline and cortisol to create what feels like a continual state of hyper-energy. Yet you often feel drained.
• You can't get up in the morning — but you can't sleep at night. Your natural 24-cycle of energy and relaxation is off-balance. If you're able to fall asleep, you may wake up in the middle of the night fully alert.
• You have no energy — period. You feel exhausted all the time. Even getting out of bed often feels like a challenge. You may also experience intense cravings and unexplained weight gain.

Adrenal imbalance may be a factor in many other serious conditions, including fibromyalgia, hypothyroidism, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, arthritis, and more.

Normalize cortisol levels to restore adrenal balance

In our experience, women with mild to moderate adrenal imbalance can have several options that can help them feel significantly better while keeping symptoms from becoming more severe. The key is taking the right steps to normalize cortisol levels and restore healthy adrenal function. You can take immediate action by asking yourself these simple questions:

Are you eating in tune with your natural cortisol curve?

• When you eat your meals is just as important as what you eat to rebalance your adrenal glands. The goal is to achieve more stable energy levels throughout the day, which you can accomplish by eating three balanced meals with two snacks.
• What you eat does make a difference too! Try to reduce refined carbohydrates — such as sugar, flour, potatoes, and white rice — which cause stressful ups and downs in your blood sugar that can lead to adrenal imbalance. We know this can be difficult, so just do the best you can. The goal is progress, rather than perfection!

• Based on Naturopathic Principles, there are six steps you can take to restore adrenal health:

  1. Improve digestions and elimination
     
  2. Decrease stressfull patterns and lifestyle habits (as listed above)
  3. Improve gut health by eliminating processed sugars and grains and taking a prescription grade probiotic
     
  4. Incorporate adaptogenic herbs and teas like Lavela WS by ITI or Rhodiola and Bacopa
     
  5. Take taurine, magnesium and glycine at night to help get restful sleep
     
  6. Eliminate all blue light, phone and tv use 2 hours before bed and listen to Marconi Unions Weightless here