The adrenal glands are your stress glands.  They are about the size of the walnut and are located just above your kidneys.  They release your stress hormones.  Any time you are under any type of stress, the adrenals release hormones to help you combat that stress.  There are three things that our bodies perceive as stress.

  1. Mental/emotional stress
  2. Chronic inflammation
  3. Chronic infections

All of these will deplete the overall function of the adrenals.  When this happens it can affect our energy, moods, ability to think clearly and our ability to perform.

Whether you are an athlete, at the office or at home, we can all do things to improve our adrenal function.

So what can we do.

We need to identify and remove stressors. The six stressors are food sensitivities, immune challenges, heavy metals, environmental toxins, emotional stressors and physical stressors. This is what I do in my clinic, we need to remove what is stressing the adrenals and then help to rebuild them. But here are recommendations we can all do to improve adrenal function.

  1. Dietary changes – Avoid refined carbohydrates. These are refined sugars like candies or pop or processed carbohydrates like bread, pasta and pastries which just turn into sugar as soon as you eat them.  These also cause a quick, feel-good response but lead to a bigger crash in blood sugars and adrenal function creating a fatigue situation and a dependency on these substances.
  2. Stress management – We can manage our stress better. Stress is everywhere, it affects everyone, but it is how we manage it.  We can do this by taking time for ourselves, doing things like diaphragmatic breathing, yoga, laughing, writing, reading and doing this everyday.
  3. Regular exercise – moving our body helps to discharge excess cortisol and helps to balance cortisol levels, also making it a great stress management tool.
  4. Adequate sleep – going to bed between 10 and midnight helps to support circadian rhythm and hormonal balance
  5. Specific supplements and herbal remedies – We can feed our adrenals better and nurture them with vitamins and nutrients including B vitamins, vitamin C and a range of different minerals which can be found in our foods, in high-quality supplementation and vitamin IVs.