Integrative Health Blog

Help for Fatigue: Adrenal Support Cocktail

Posted by on Mon, Nov 02, 2015

Feeling overwhelmed? Low on energy?

Many of us could benefit from supporting our adrenal glands.

The adrenal glands are two glands that sit on top of the kidneys. They are made up of the adrenal cortex and the adrenal medulla. The cortex is the outer part of the gland which produces hormones that are vital to life, such as cortisol, which helps regulate metabolism and helps your body respond to stress, and aldosterone, which helps control blood pressure. The medulla is the inner part of the gland that produces hormones such as adrenaline, which helps your body react to stress.

Adrenal fatigue is caused by chronic stress. When your adrenal glands cannot keep up with the demands of everyday fight-or-flight arousal, they can’t produce enough of the hormones you need to feel good. Existing blood tests can detect adrenal insufficiency once it’s already been burned out, but your body can detect it much sooner.

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Tags: adrenal fatigue, recipe

Balance Your Hormones Naturally

Posted by on Mon, Jun 15, 2015

Hormones play an important role in your life every day.

They are your body’s chemical messengers, traveling in your bloodstream to tissues and organs. They play a role in your growth, metabolism, sexual function, reproduction and mood. If you doubt the power of hormones and their ability to affect everything from mood, to weight, to bowel health – ask the nearest pregnant woman if she’s noticed any difference in these areas. Or, just for fun, ask the nearest 13 year old girl!

Endocrine glands, which are special groups of cells, make hormones. The major endocrine glands are the pituitary, pineal, thymus, thyroid, adrenal glands, and pancreas. In addition, men produce hormones in their testes and women produce them in their ovaries. 

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Tags: thyroid, hormones, adrenal fatigue, integrative health, holistic approach

Balancing Hormones Using Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT)

Posted by on Mon, Apr 06, 2015

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The body’s hormones work as a choreographed dance. All must be working and in sync for the body to function properly.  

That means if your thyroid is not working properly, eventually it will affect the adrenal function and sex hormone function. Treating one hormone imbalance without checking and treating others creates a shift but not necessarily a correction and a balance.  You might trade fatigue for hot flashes or improve insomnia but have more thinning hair.  So, if you are thinking that you are menopausal or peri-menopausal (periods have not completely stopped but are not as regular and frequent as they used to be) and you are considering hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, be sure that your provider also takes the thyroid and adrenal hormones into account.

What You Should Know About Hormone Replacement

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Tags: bioidentical hormone replacement therapy/BHRT, thyroid, adrenal fatigue

Do You Suffer from Estrogen Dominance? Take the Questionnaire

Posted by on Mon, Feb 04, 2013

Estrogen Dominance and adrenal fatigue are very similar in their symptom presentation.
Symptoms may include:
                                       weight gain
                                       hot flashes
                                       poor sleep
                                       fatigue
                                       irritability

Most women who have one tend to have the other to some degree. Most estrogen dominance is due to insufficient progesterone and therefore there is low cortisol production.When the adrenals are stressed, the increased need for cortisol depletes the progesterone levels used in making cortisol. As more progesterone is shunted to make cortisol, less is available to balance the estrogen.
Another common reason for low progesterone levels is an anovulatory cycle, a menstrual cycle in which there is no ovulation. Without the ovulation there is no corpus luteum to make additional progesterone for the cycle. The lowered progesterone level leaves us with an excessive estrogenic effect due to deficiency of progesterone. In summary, fixing adrenal function and estrogen dominance go hand-in-hand and it is therefore important to test for both and treat accordingly.
Direct help to the adrenals indirectly helps improve the estrogen-progesterone balance by allowing more progesterone to be available to offset the estrogen. More progesterone has a calming effect and may help with sleep which further helps the adrenals.
Fixing estrogen dominance can be done with chaste tree, black cohosh or progesterone. The use of natural hormone therapy must be monitored by a physician to restore the hormonal balance.

Take Dr. Rind's
Estrogen Dominance Questionnnaire

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Tags: hormones, estrogen dominance, adrenal fatigue

Could your breakfast be making you fat and "crazy"?

Posted by on Wed, Aug 24, 2011

by Eve Colantoni CHC

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Tags: holistic nutrition, weight loss, adrenal fatigue