Keep Track Of How You Feel

Vitamin C is another good nutrient for you because it improves adrenaline metabolism and adrenal recovery at the same time. Those with this stress type have a bit of a tricky situation. But it’s not impossible to get back on track. It can feel like a tight circle of anxiety and overwhelm, with underlying fatigue that leaves you unmotivated to deal with it. Start by taking magnesium threonate to help your body process adrenaline. All these things decrease your ability to metabolize adrenaline. If you do identify toxicity, it is important to address it with the help of a practitioner who understands how not to trigger more stress in the process. One important point to consider while working on is that you’re likely to still experience fatigue and possibly low motivation. Believe me, almost everyone wishes they could resolve the fatigue sooner than possible. It’s tempting to want to take something to increase your energy level. But remember, if you support your energy too soon, you are liable to push yourself right back into stress mode. For now, just know that the fatigue is part of the healing process and you’ll be able to address it very soon.

Is Everything Really Awesome?

When you have the dosing right, you’ll start to notice that your system calms down. The racing thoughts and hypervigilance stop. You’re feeling more like yourself. You’ve supported your calming neurotransmitters. And you’re ready to move on to the next step, which is to support cortisol and/or adrenaline at the times of day when they become too low and to help your adrenal glands recover from all that stress. You developed balance at the core, calmness within, and a connection with yourself that will help you stay centered, even when confronted with daily stresses. It’s time to expand that state of balance to other areas of your body and your life, to create a foundation to keep you steady under greater amounts of stress. Then, in Phase 3, we’ll build a safety net or shield of resilience around you, so you have a strategy to bounce back from whatever comes your way. I want to emphasize that the intention here is to give your body, and your adrenal glands, what they need to heal and recover from stress, so they can support you going forward. If you are a Stress Magnet or Night Owl, you might not need to support cortisol and adrenaline levels. That’s because stress mode often covers up an essential deficiency. It’s as though your stress type has shifted, but I don’t see it that way.

Outrageous Lows And Extraordinary Highs

Stress Magnets and Night Owls, in particular, have an initial response that raises cortisol and adrenaline. As the body heals, those levels shift lower. In some cases, the shift is due to chronic inflammation that causes cortisol to transition into cortisone. At the same time, they’re ready to be healed. For example, you might be a combination of Night Owl and Tired and Wired. In this mix, will focus on raising cortisol when it’s low in the morning, while preventing it from going high again at night. Once you complete Stress Recovery, you’ll be fully balanced and ready for homeostasis to maintain it. Many nutrients and herbs have been shown to help the adrenal glands make more cortisol and adrenaline. If you think about it, adrenal function is what keeps us going. It is essential to life and survival. The foods we eat, the sleep we get, the nutrients and plants we consume, and even the bacterial balance in our intestines influence the ability of our adrenal glands to keep up with our stress exposure. I’m going to highlight some of the main nutrients and herbs I like to use, and why.

Warning Signs

Keep in mind that, as with most things, it’s important to choose what works best for your body. For one person, that might be individual nutrients, and for another person, that might be herbs in combination. And for still others, it might be a combination of both nutrients and herbs, or something completely different, such as homeopathy, peptide therapy, and/or glandular hormonal support. I encourage you to always be curious and observe how your body responds. If you don’t notice a response at all, that’s also important. It means you need to try a different herb or different dose or combination. There’s no reason to make yourself feel worse or more stressed. At the same time, many people stop right there. If you feel worse, your body is telling you that the particular product or dose or time of day isn’t right. Perhaps you’re allergic to one of the ingredients. Or perhaps your body is even responding to the nutrients and herbs as a stress. This was the case for me. I tried adrenal support way back when I was a medical student. Of course, I was under extreme stress. I was taking more than twenty credits per semester and staying up all night, several nights per week, while also on call delivering babies as a midwifery student. I got heart palpitations and felt more stressed. Once I addressed them, I was finally able to take adrenal support and have it work for me. If your cortisol and/or adrenaline are very low, I encourage you to see an endocrinologist to determine whether you actually have Addison’s disease or another condition that causes such low levels. In that case, you may actually need to replace cortisol levels with an external source. This may be in the form of hydrocortisone, which is available by prescription and requires that you work with a practitioner. It is important to monitor your cortisol levels and to get more help from a practitioner if you are not seeing results or have trouble finding the best dosing. I very often find patients benefit more when they meet with me often through this part of the process. In order to understand which nutrients and herbs to take, we need to think about how the adrenal glands make cortisol in the first place.