Many patients come into my pharmacy that need help with their adrenal glands. By the time they arrive, they have had several, several years of adrenal abuse. They have a stressful job, an abusive relationship, busy family life, hard upbringing; and in the last 10 years have had a combination of a surgery, a car accident, a divorce, death of a loved one, chronic illness/inflammation, a few moves and lots of travelling. This may seem like a hard way to live, but some of these people had no idea of the long term effects stress have had on them. Some of them know now how this type of life feels.
Most of these people will test low for salivary cortisol levels. A number of years back, they would have shown higher - all the time. The body can only maintain this output from the adrenals for so long. The output will drop off after a while, and salivary DHEA will increase in a last ditch attempt to prop up this hormonal drop. With this drop in cortisol, a drop in thyroid function occurs and the patient and physician can be led into a feeling that the thyroid is the culprit. The thyroid cannot be fixed until the adrenal function returns. In fact, the rest of the hormones are having a problem delivering their full potential until this is fixed.
The truth is, you will not normally be treating this problem with a prescription. You will be treating this with over the counter supplements. Hopefully with the help of a knowledgeable healthcare professional trained in hypoadrenalism.
Your will recognize many of these supplements. Some may be the right one for you. Some will have no benefit at all for you. It is important to pick the right one.
Phosphatidylserine is great for immediately lowering cortisol if needed. It is great for lowering bedtime cortisol so you can sleep
Vitamin C, Magnesium, Thiamin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine and zinc are common ingredients found in some adrenal supplements
Licorice (glycyrrhizin) shows us time and again it’s ability to increase cortisol.
Ashwagandha (Indian Ginseng) has been used in Indian (Ayurvedic) medicine for centuries. It is an adaptogen that helps regardless is the high or low nature of the adrenals. Other natural ingredients include rehmannia, schizandra, jujube, dong quai, polygala, holy basil, bacopa, cordyceps, astragalus and rhodiola. It is important to know which of these ingredients to use when. Other ingredients include Kava Kava, melatonin, valerian, gotu kola, St.John’s Wort, 5-htp and SAM-e, magnolia bark, theanine, phytosterols, tyrosine and GABA.
Long term stress causes inflammation, weight gain and is detrimental to cardiac/circulatory health and ages all tissues prematurely. It took years to get to this and it does not cure overnight. It takes months of therapy with the right supplements to right your adrenal health and needs to be combined with the right diet, exercise and removal of stress from your life.
Ask us how!
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