Feeling exhausted? Having trouble keeping your energy up to meet the demands of your life? There is a good chance you are adrenal fatigued.

Dragging yourself through your day with very little energy is tough. I totally get it. I’ve been there. If there’s one symptom I see over and over again in new patients who come to see me, it’s adrenal fatigue. Many of you live a crazy busy life that your adrenals can’t keep up with, so learning how to beat adrenal fatigue should be a top priority for you.

What is the typical presentation of someone who is adrenal fatigued?

  • Having trouble getting out of bed when the alarm goes off
  • One cup of coffee has not turned into two or three
  • Dips in energy at 3 pm
  • Waking up at 2 or 3 am for no reason
  • Gain weight easily
  • Depressed
  • Chronic joint pain that won’t go away no matter what you do
  • Skin, hair, and nail changes
  • Feeling dizzy when you go from laying down to standing

Because of the fast paced life most of us are leading, we place a high demand on our adrenal glands. Our adrenals secrete epinephrine and norepinephrine to give us a surge of energy when there is a stressful situation. But if that stress continues or another wave of stress happens, we are constantly asking our adrenals to work overtime. Eventually, the adrenals stop functioning properly and a stressful situation will happen, but your adrenals don’t respond. This is often when a person just feels overwhelmed and exhausted.

There are many ways to find out if you have adrenal fatigue.

First, is by your symptoms. If you have three or more of the above symptoms there is a good chance you have adrenal fatigue.

The second way to test is by an orthostatic blood pressure test. This is a very easy test to perform and is quite accurate. We do it in our office. Ask us next time you’re in and we’ll set up a time to do the test on you.

How To Beat Adrenal Fatigue

People ask me all the time how to beat adrenal fatigue? Dragging yourself through your day with very little energy is tough. I totally get it. I’ve been there. If there’s one symptom I see over and over again in new patients who come to see me, it’s adrenal fatigue. Many of you live a crazy busy life that your adrenals can’t keep up with, so learning how to beat adrenal fatigue should be a top priority for you.

If you are chronically fatigued, it’s likely that your body is having trouble adapting to all the physical, emotional, and chemical stress that we are subjected to in today’s toxic world. So, I want to give you steps to not only help you manage adrenal fatigue but to create a brain and body that is stress proof.

First things first: adrenal fatigue isn’t only about your adrenals.

When stress gets high, your hypothalamus sends a signal to your pituitary to send chemicals down to the adrenals so that they will release cortisol, adrenaline, epinephrine, and norepinephrine.

Once your adrenals release these stress hormones, they are routed to many other organs:

  • Heart and lungs respond by increasing your heart and respiration rate.
  • Blood moves from your brain to your arms and legs.
  • Gut shuts down digestion.

It’s a classic fight or flight reaction. Your body is preparing for the crisis. When these chemicals are released, you will often feel superhuman; a one-time stressor can be quite helpful in giving you energy and focus to overcome whatever it is you’re facing.

But stress gets dangerous when it never stops, and the stress hormones keep pumping…

  • Every day, your brain sends stress signals to your adrenals.
  • Adrenals keep producing more stress hormones.
  • Stress hormones keep shutting your digestion down.
  • Blood pressure goes through the roof.
  • You begin to experience adrenal fatigue.
  • Gut stops producing GABA to calm your brain.
  • The brain becomes hypersensitive, reacting to even the smallest of stressors.
  • And, ultimately, you physiologically lose your ability to handle stress.

Unfortunately, fixing your adrenals is not as simple as just taking an adrenal supplement. If you want to repair adrenal fatigue, you need to repair this whole cycle.

Checklist on how to fix adrenal fatigue and help you build a body that has limitless energy

1. Your Stressors

In working closely with many stressed out families here in Silicon Valley, I’ve noticed that it’s difficult for many of you to control the amount of stress in your lives. So gathering some tools to handle the stress is important. Here are some of the tools I use on a daily basis:

  • Meditation. I do at least 10 minutes daily.
  • Gratitude. When you go to bed at night, focus on the wonderful things that happened to you rather than dwelling on the negatives.
  • Hang out with positive people. Happy people are contagious.
  • Do something every day that makes you happy. Even the smallest things can have a powerful effect on your health.

2. Your Brain

Supporting your brain while stress is high is crucial to mitigating adrenal fatigue. Here are my favorite strategies for keeping your hypothalamus and pituitary healthy:

  • Detox your brain. Strategies we use in our office are Cytodetox, BIND, and adjustments
  • Nourish your brain with lots of good fat
  • Be sure you get to bed before 10 pm (the brain repairs best between 10 pm-2 am)
  • Fix your leaky gut: Restore
  • Test your heavy metal load. Detox metals if the load is high
  • Supplements helpful for brain function: B-Brain, Neurosyn, Calm
  • Fix a leaky blood-brain barrier: Neuroflam
  • Fix your nasal mucosal barrier: Restore nasal spray

3. Your Adrenals

Strengthening your adrenals, of course, is a crucial step in getting your energy back, but rebuilding your adrenals is so much more than just taking a fancy supplement. Here are my top recommendations for combatting adrenal fatigue:

  • Stop eating sugar
  • Add more good fat into your diet to stabilize glucose and insulin
  • Take 20-minute naps to give your adrenals a chance to rest during the day
  • Take Ga with biocommand supplements for anywhere from one to four months
  • Get regular chiropractic adjustments to balance the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
  • Find a holistic practitioner who will use a cold laser to repair damaged adrenals

4. Your Gut

Lastly, you need a healthy gut to produce the proper neurotransmitters that will help the brain handle the stress you are perceiving. One of the most helpful neurotransmitters for handling stress is GABA. Here’s how I like to grow my good bacteria that keep my neurotransmitter levels high:

  • Feed good bacteria with polyphenol-rich foods
  • Add good bacteria by eating fermented foods daily
  • Take a probiotic with a prebiotic for 90 days (my favorite is MBC by Systemic Formulas)
  • Kill any pathogens that might be present in your gut (test gut with Gut Zoomer)

So there you have it. To contend with adrenal fatigue and finally get your energy back, you need to address the entire adrenal cycle. Many of you may look at this list and think it seems overwhelming … but you may only need a couple of the items that I listed here, so don’t despair.

Pick one or two from the list above. If your adrenal fatigue subsides, great! You won’t need to do the other steps. But if you do a couple of steps and you still feel horrible, pick a couple more steps. Eventually, you will have your energy back. I am sure of it!

Hope that helps! Reach out if you need any help.