Adrenal Fatigue and Stress

What is Adrenal Fatigue?

Adrenal fatigue or imbalanced cortisol levels can occur when your body is exposed to more stress than you can handle. The longer you stay in stress mode the more demand you put on your adrenal glands. Glands can produce too much or too little cortisol or adrenaline and sometimes the body produces these hormones at the wrong time of day or night. This creates a Cortisol Imbalance.

The adrenal glands adapt to stress by going through three stages. The first stage is called the Alarm Reaction where your body increases cortisol production to adapt to the demands of acute stress. The second stage is called the Resistance Stage where your body attempts to adapt to prolonged stress. In this stage your body has to choose between making cortisol or making reproductive hormones including DHEA, estrogen and testosterone. The final stage is called the Exhaustion Stage where the adrenals can no longer adapt to stress and levels of cortisol and other reproductive hormones are low.

Adrenal Testing

It can be difficult to assess the adrenal glands just based on symptoms. The DUTCH Adrenal Test is recommended to help distinguish between elevated cortisol and low cortisol and to help identify your 24-hour cortisol rhythm. With this information your provider can recommend natural treatments to rebalance your adrenal glands and heal your body from chronic stress.

Our Holistic Approach

Many patients come to us after being told their labs are “normal,” or after being managed with stimulants, sleep aids, or other medications aimed at masking the symptoms of adrenal fatigue rather than resolving them. These approaches may offer temporary relief but often fail to address why the body’s stress response became imbalanced in the first place.

Our holistic approach aims to support the body’s natural stress response while identifying and correcting the underlying contributors to adrenal dysfunction in order to restore healthy cortisol rhythms and build lasting resilience to stress.

Symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue

Fatigue
Allergies
Cravings for sweets or caffeine
Headaches with physical or mental stress
Insomnia or difficulty staying asleep
Hypoglycemia, getting shaky or lightheaded if meals are skipped
Weak immune system

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