Struggle to get out of bed?
Are you a snooze button alarmist?
Do you struggle to lose weight?
Have you gained extra weight around your mid-section without any known reason?
Do you have salt cravings?
Are you more energised in the evening than in the morning?
The best time to have an elevated level of the stress hormone Cortisol is in the morning before you train. However it’s far too common these days to have elevated Cortisol throughout the day.
Many of the people I consult with in London have low morning energy, struggle to get out of bed and have to press the snooze button on their mobile phone alarm at least 5 or 6 times before getting out of bed. Then they reach for that cup of Java before even thinking of eating.
Rushing to work having left themselves too little time to get ready; then the day continues at the same pace, stress, stress, stress. They get so used to their stress and adrenaline surge that it becomes their source of energy for the day.
With the odd pick me up every few hours; it becomes a constant up and down of finding energy to keep going through the day.
They often feel the best when they have eaten their evening meal at home. This is a sign that they are producing their Cortisol at night to make up for running out during the day.
Science tells us that if you experience stress on a chronic basis, the tiny adrenal glands that moderate your stress response and balance many other hormones in your body will suffer. Adrenal fatigue is what develops. And as the adrenal glands become increasingly compromised, people end up with excess abdominal weight, decreased immunity, lack of concentration, irritability, disrupted sleep, and ultimately, pure exhaustion. But the upside is: adrenal fatigue can be prevented and reversed. I’ve seen it time and again. And one of the best places to start is by paying closer attention to the choices you make about food — and not just what you eat, but when you eat it and how.
One thing I often tell my patients is to never allow themselves to get too hungry. Low blood sugar by itself puts stress on your body and can tax your adrenals. You may not realize that your body is in constant need of energy — even as you sleep. And the primary adrenal hormone cortisol serves as a kind of moderator in making sure your blood sugar between meals, especially during the night, stays adequate. It does this by signaling to the liver to release its stored sugar, glycogen, when there isn’t food on board. Long periods without food make the adrenals work harder by requiring them to release more cortisol to keep your body functioning normally. So eating nutritious meals and snacks that are well-timed throughout the day is one way to balance your blood sugar and lessen the adrenal burden. I have found that most people do best on 6 feedings per day, with no more than 3 hours between feedings.
When you eat makes a difference in preserving, supporting, and restoring your adrenals. As you can see in the graph, cortisol has a natural cycle that works with your circadian rhythm. Normally, it begins to rise around 6:00 AM and reaches its highest peak around 8:00 AM . Throughout the day cortisol gradually declines — with small upward bumps at meal times — in preparation for night time rest.
Keep in mind that cortisol will also rise a bit with exercise. Lighter activities, such as a walk after dinner or a bit of gentle stretching before, will not subvert this natural tapering-off process. But to work in concert with your body’s natural cortisol cycle, more intense exercise is best planned for the morning.
Here are some other simple ways to gently support your body’s natural cortisol cycle:
- If possible, eat breakfast by
- Try to eat lunch between
- Eat a nutritious snack between
- Make an effort to eat dinner around
But I’m not hungry in the morning...As your mother probably told you, breakfast is important. But maybe you don’t feel hungry in the morning, and if so, it could be for the following reasons:
Ø Corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH), which has appetite-dulling effects, begins to enter the bloodstream at a fast rate first thing in the morning.
Ø Decreased liver function, which can accompany adrenal dysfunction or a heavy toxic burden, can also dampen morning hunger.
Even if you don’t feel hungry, having a nutritious breakfast within an hour of rising — preferably with protein — will provide energetic benefits to your metabolism and cortisol levels that last throughout the day.
Eat, drink, and support adrenal gland function
As our awareness about when we eat increases, it’s also helpful to think more about what we eat. Stress often brings out the worst in us — especially when it comes to food choices. Many of my patients with adrenal fatigue tell me they reach for foods that give them an instant burst of energy — foods like cookies, cakes, doughnuts, white bread or pasta. These foods contain refined sugar and flour, and allow a great surge of energy, but generally the surge is followed by an even greater dip in energy, causing you to feel worse.Another problem with high-carb foods like these is that they often contain gluten, a protein that is found in many grains (including wheat, rye and barley, and oats) and frequently used as a food additive, too. I have found in my practice that many women with adrenal fatigue are sensitive to gluten. For this reason, a gluten-free diet is one of the first things I suggest to my patients with symptoms of adrenal fatigue, who often report feeling much better when they get the gluten out of their diets.
Other women with adrenal fatigue drink more and more coffee or soda throughout the day to stay awake. They may think it’s not affecting their sleep patterns, but research has linked higher caffeine intake to classic “night owl” or “eveningness” behavior. Caffeine can pick you up in the short term, but it can also over-stimulate the adrenals, which only compounds fatigue as it wears off.
If you find yourself craving caffeine — or sugar for that matter — it may be that your cortisol is low, but it also simply may be that your body needs to rest. I encourage you to honour your body’s request and take a break, instead of winding it up another notch. Take a quiet moment and treat yourself to some deep breathing or a ten–minute walk. And if drinking a cup of coffee is a relaxing part of your routine and you don’t want to give it up, drink it in the morning with something nutritious to eat, and add organic cream to dull the negative effects of caffeine and cinnamon to further control blood sugar.
Choosing adrenal-healthy beverages
Just as with food, your choices about drinks can either contribute support or strain on your adrenal glands. Here are some good and not-so-good choices.Adrenal draining | Adrenal restoring |
• Drinks that contain caffeine | • Ginseng [Panax sp.] • Eleuthero/Siberian ginseng [Eleutherococcus senticosus] (in the morning) |
• Alcohol | • Herbal teas like chamomile, passionflower, |
• Gatorade | • Vegetable juice (with Celtic sea salt), like V-8 |
Salt and adrenal fatigue
Women with adrenal fatigue often crave salt — and many of my patients are surprised when I tell them to honor this craving. Yes, salt can increase blood pressure, but low blood pressure (hypotension) is a very common sign of adrenal fatigue — at all stages. If you feel lightheaded when getting out of bed in the morning, standing up quickly, or getting up out of a bath or hot tub, you may very well have low adrenal function, and including more salt in your diet could be helpful. But try to make it good-quality, Celtic or Himalayan sea salt (the colour will be grey or pink – avoid white salt even white sea salt)Craving for salt in people with adrenal fatigue is complicated to explain, but in a nutshell, it’s a result of low aldosterone. Aldosterone, a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal cortex, is part of the complex mechanism that regulates blood pressure in the body. Levels of aldosterone go up and down in much the same diurnal pattern as cortisol does, and likewise go up as a normal response to stressful situations.
Production of aldosterone by the adrenals depends on how much cortisol-stimulating hormone (ACTH) is being sent from the brain. The brain takes its signals from the amount of circulating cortisol — not circulating aldosterone — so high cortisol tends to lower the brain’s ACTH production, which in turn decreases aldosterone secretion, leading to lower blood pressure.
Another consequence of low aldosterone is electrolyte imbalance and cell dehydration, which both have negative effects on almost all physiological reactions in the body: aside from salt cravings, low blood pressure and light headedness, patients with adrenal fatigue often experience an irregular heart beat, lethargy, muscle weakness, and increased thirst. These are all a result of imbalance in sodium and other minerals, including potassium and magnesium. Increasing your salt intake is one way to help restore these imbalances.
A nutrient-rich foundation — essential for healing adrenal fatigue
If you decide to do nothing else for your adrenals, I urge you to provide your body with a strong nutrient base. The vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients available in a pharmaceutical-grade supplement like the one we offer in our Personal Program are absolutely essential for healing adrenal fatigue — as well as for the everyday workings of your adrenal glands.If you need additional support for adrenal health
Essential Nutrients provide an optimal nutrient foundation for your adrenal health. Yet some women need extra nutrient support for healing adrenal fatigue. Here are my top recommendations:
· Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera)
· Eleuthero / Siberian ginseng (Eleutherococcus senticosus)
· Phosphatidylserine
· Licorice root (Glycyrrhiza glabra)
· Extra B vitamins (B-complex)
You can begin on your own with the first two herbs listed above. If you do not notice improvement within a few weeks, see a functional medicine or BioSignature practitioner for a program that best fits your personal needs — dosage, timing, blood pressure, cortisol levels, and other factors should be taken in to consideration.
A strong nutrient foundation also supports the endocrine system overall. There is great synergism between the different organs of the endocrine system (including the adrenal glands), where each organ and its secretions interact with the others to upregulate and downregulate activity to keep us in balance. But as hormonal levels become deficient or excessive, the natural response of our cells is to compensate by increasing or decreasing their receptors for those molecules. To do all this optimally, they need nutritional support!
Small things, dramatic differences
Your adrenal glands are tiny in comparison to many other organs. They are roughly the size of a walnut, yet they have enormous responsibilities in your body. When they are functioning at their peak, these small glands can help you feel energized when you need to be and relaxed when it is time for rest. They contribute to the production of estrogen, testosterone, progesterone and so much more. But life’s demands can slowly drain the balancing power of the adrenal glands. Even the healthiest person’s adrenals, though evolutionarily equipped to handle periods of stress, become fatigued under chronic, unrelenting stress.You have the power to lessen the burden on your adrenals — and your whole body. It doesn't take much. The small choices you make in regards to your nutrition and eating patterns will make a difference. Here’s my advice to you: support your foundation with a high quality nutritional supplement and eat good food in harmony with your body’s natural daily rhythms. Soon you’ll find the energy you thought you lost — and it’ll be here to stay!
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