Adrenal Dysfunction
Your adrenal glands play a central role in your endocrine system when it comes to regulating and reacting to your body’s stress levels. When they are functioning properly, you are able to effectively accommodate and react to the day-to-day stresses that you encounter.
Does This Sound Like You?
Do you have body aches, fatigue, anxiety, and/or sleep disturbances?
Do you need several cups of coffee just to feel awake and start your day?
Or maybe you just experience low energy throughout the day?
You may have even mentioned it to your doctor, only to be told “it’s just part of getting older”.
Chances are, it has nothing to do with age – but that it is actually a hormonal issue resulting from imbalanced adrenal glands.
Sadly, many conventional physicians will overlook the adrenal glands and don’t know how to run the available testing to check the levels of stress hormones that could be at the root of your chronic fatigue.
And that’s why a traditionally trained doctor is typically in favor of using your symptoms to reach a diagnosis like “chronic fatigue” – which is a mystery illness with no cure
Adrenals & Stress
So how are the adrenals linked to your energy levels? The adrenals, a set of important glands that rest on top of your kidneys, are in charge of regulating important stress hormones like cortisol – responsible for the “fight or flight” response and other stress hormones like epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline).
When your stress response is not balanced, the ability to turn these hormones “on and off” can wreak havoc with your energy levels.
Due to illness, prolonged low-grade stress and other factors, your adrenal glands may be overworked, causing feelings of intense fatigue and exhaustion even after a full night’s sleep.
Without proper regulation from your endocrine system, you may feel unable to cope with normal everyday stress or even handle the normal activities of life.
Craving salty or sweet foods is not uncommon, as a way to refuel fast, since the body is searching to upgrade energy any way it can.
Sadly, eating this way can create even more imbalances, especially with your gut microbiome. Additionally, adrenal dysfunction can result in more than just decreased energy, it can also cause low libido, weight gain, increased PMS/menopausal symptoms, constipation, and a weakened immune system.
How We Approach Stress
In my practice, we are trained to get to the root of your chronic fatigue and any of the other symptoms you may be suffering from – and advanced hormone testing is a key piece to ensure that you won’t continue to “run on empty” due to your adrenals.
If we do discover you have adrenal imbalances, then chances are your stress hormones are not “shutting off” correctly, which could happen for a variety of reasons.
“How do I fix my adrenals?” might be your next question.
Balancing your adrenals takes more than just dealing with those glands separately.
There is a complex brain – adrenal feedback loop, that typically gets “off kilter”… called the HPA axis which also involves glands in your brain.
That’s why in Functional Medicine, we never treat “areas” or “parts” of the body separately, but look at the body as a whole.
As part of our stress recovery program, we devise a full body balancing protocol that not only supports your adrenals but also brings balance back to other areas that may be causing havoc with your adrenals – including diet, gut health, lifestyle and stress factors, sleep habits and more.
If you have been experiencing symptoms that may be connected with adrenal dysfunction and are looking for answers, schedule an appointment with Enlighten Functional Medicine today so we can see if you may be at risk and what your options are.
Take The First Step On Your
Journey With Me
Perhaps you have questions you’d like to ask before you make a decision to become a patient. My patient coordinator, Laci, is standing by, happy to answer any questions you have to determine if Enlighten Functional Medicine is right for you.
Contact Us
111 O’Fallon Commons Dr,
O`Fallon, MO 63368
Phone: 636.978.0970
Fax: 636.978.7570
[email protected]
