3 Ways to Heal Adrenal Fatigue
TRANSCRIPT EPISODE 098
Adrenal fatigue is really top of mind lately - its been one of the big features of so much of the information in the holistic health world meanwhile much of conventional medicine still stays that adrenal fatigue isn’t an issue at all.
The truth is - there is an entire spectrum of adrenal fatigue and depending on what end of the spectrum you are on, you may have trouble getting out of bed or staying in bed and falling asleep. Today we are talking about what exactly the adrenals are, what those things are supposed to be doing, and 3 ways to heal adrenal fatigue and help them returm to their normal jobs.
What are adrenals?
Around the lower middle of your back, you have these two bean-shaped, fist-sized organs on either side of your spine. No those aren’t your adrenals, those are your kidneys. On top of each of those kidneys are these little power packs that help your human suit adapt to stress and maintain your physical energy levels.
Energetically, this is also the solar plexus chakra, the seat of your personal power, and works in conjunction with the kidney meridian. The kidney Meridian is the energetic filtering system for the body (much like the kidneys are for the physical form). Are you still following me here?
Any time there is energy stuck in the body the kidney Meridian is something that you want to flush to leave them clear and vital and renew both the energetics and physical kidneys. In Energy Medicine, the kidney Meridian is said to contain the life-force of beginnings and renewal.
These little adrenal glands produce several powerful chemical messengers in your body that control your fight or flight mechanism and stress reactions. This includes one particular chemical messenger you have probably heard of, Cortisol.
What is cortisol?
Cortisol gets a super bad name - I vividly remember entire infomercials from the late 90s and early 2000s scaring people about how cortisol was going to give them the “spare tire” that would lead to their untimely death.
The good news is, like most things naturally created in our body - cortisol is not that scary and in fact, is necessary. Cortisol is a chemical messenger helps to regulate our daily energy needs. For example, it ramps up in the morning to help us wake up and then gradually declines during the day.
Cortisol also spikes during times of physical or mental stress - to give the body what it needs to cope with the perceived stressor. As you can imagine, a few hundred years ago, that could be a really helpful thing.
What do our adrenals and cortisol do?
Picture this: Your walking along the forest path in what someday will be Texas, and a jaguar (not the luxury vehicle) steps out into your path - your brain will send an instant message to your adrenals to produce cortisol - to give you a surge of energy to run or fight. Cortisol triggers many other chemical messengers in the brain to stop digestion, send extra blood and oxygen to the muscles, sharpen your vision and many other self-defense functions.
Seems like it would be very helpful, right?
But notice I said earlier it also reacts to perceived stressors - Picture this scenario - you are driving on the interstate, traffic is bumper to bumper, and some IDIOT cuts you off causing you to slam on your brakes and spill your ice tea all over the center console and seat. Guess what happens?
Your brain will send an instant message to your adrenals to produce cortisol - to give you a surge of energy to run or fight. Cortisol triggers many other chemical messengers in the brain to stop digestion, send extra blood and oxygen to the muscles, sharpen your vision and many other self-defense functions.
Useful? Nah. Probably not.
How many times does this happen to you? Option 2 that is? Probably a lot. Every time it happens in traffic, or the bills are due, or your kids are driving you nuts, or you argue with your partner.
What problem does this repeated adrenal stimulation cause?
It depends on who you ask - conventional medicine says adrenal fatigue is not real, that it is a myth.
In fact, I have had many clients report to me that when they approached their family doctor with symptoms that are typical of adrenal fatigue, like tiredness, trouble getting to sleep and waking up, craving salt and sugar, unexplained weight loss, reliance on stimulants such as caffeine, nonspecific digestive problems.
They are often told to get used, sent to a specialist of some sort, and/or offered an antidepressant.
Here’s the thing, we know that conventional medicine only looks at extremes and even extremes that can be bandaid-ed with medication or surgery. If you can’t use medication or surgery to fix it - modern medicine will say it’s not curable.
Conventional medicine only acknowledges the extremes of adrenal problems such as Addison’s Disease where the adrenals are barely functioning or Cushings Disease where they are producing WAY too much cortisol. But like everything else - there is an entire spectrum in between of adrenals being taxed and tired and underperforming or over performing.
In the functional and integrative world we know that this spectrum of trouble leads us to so many issues like fatigue, digestive troubles, chronic illness, repeated illnesses (like colds, flus, allergies), and triggers of autoimmune disease or flares.
How to reduce adrenal fatigue once you have it
Sum it all up in 1 word - STRESS REDUCTION. But how the heck do you do that? It’s for sure not as simple as saying it.
As with most things - the most effective strategy is a multi-pronged approach focusing on reducing your physical, mental, and energetic stress- Meditation, Nutrition, Movement, Essential Oils, Supplements. In this episode, I want to give you the things you can help now - quick results - but know that this is just a piece of the puzzle. Next episode we will talk about some of the additional solutions to add to maintain your healthy adrenal function, but today I want to give you the lowest hanging fruit.
Meditation
The number one best thing you can do - because it is easy, free, and requires no supplies. It is also the single BEST stress remedy no to man and studies show it works better than any pill, patch, oil or exercise. You can of course, enhance meditation with some things but nothing is needed - not even a quiet environment.
(I sent out my meditation guide in the newsletter this week and will attach it again next week, you can also nab the new meditation for healing ebook and the quick guide here.)
Energy Medicine
In conjunction with your meditation practice there is a short energy medicine routine you can incorporate. This is low hanging fruit just like meditation - and it helps at the root cause of adrenal fatigue - not just hiding it with supplements or medications.
When you feel tired and fatigued and run down, sometimes its because your energies are flipped in the body. So your energy is running one way and you are going the other way.
The solution to this is to tap or massage the K27 points - the points of the end of the left and right side of the kidney meridian. You can find it by founding the inside corners of your collar bone, near the midline of your chest, then down a couple of finger-widths below that you will find an indention, this is k27. Give it a really good peck with 3 fingers or massage it a few times to flip the energies in the proper direction. You will notice an increase in focus.
Another technique is flushing the kidney meridian. Your kidney meridian starts just under the ball of your feet, up the inside of the legs, up through the middle of the trunk, to the K27 points I mentioned in the previous exercise.
To flush the kidney meridian, you will start at the top and run your hands backwards down the meridian to the balls of your feet one time. Then shake your hands off and start at the ball of your feet, going to the top of the kidney meridian - go this direction 3 times.
Essential oils
Essential oils aren't the lock and key to fixing adrenal fatigue but they can certainly play a significant role in supporting your adrenals get back to full health. I like to recommend a combination of 3 oils to get your through the stressful period and back on your feet, inlcuding Basil, Grapefruit, and Rosemary Essential Oil.
Basil Essential Oil is an oil of renewal it helps to rejuvenate the "wellspring" of life force - espeically after you have been taxing your adrenals for a long time. Basil also strengthens the adrenals, helps them to build resistances to stress, and helps to balance sleep.
Grapefruit Essential Oil works to pull excess cortisol from the body and to help keep our stress hormones balanced.It helps to target those sneaky causes like hormone disruptors that are hiding in the body and eliminates them through the kidneys.
Rosemary Essential Oil also works to decrease cortisol levels in the body improving memory and disrupting seemingly unexplained weight gain.
These 3 are super powerful together or stand alone. You can diffuse them or apply them topically to the K1 points on your feet (pictured below) and K27 points we discussed near your collar bones. In my Free and Clear Foundations bonus on Essential Oils - I recommend testing the oils yourself to determine what your body needs - if you know how to do that - then lets muscle test to determine the drops or test to see how many your body needs and create yourself a roll on. Alternatively, you could use equal drops of each, for a 10mL roll-on I would suggest starting with 2 drops each.
Wrap Up
To wrap this up, despite your doctor maybe tellling you that "nothing is wrong" you could very well be on a chronic fatigue spectrum related to your adrenal glands - sometimes referred to as adrenal fatiuge. Stress reduction via mediation and energy work, combined with some essential oils for a few weeks can help to reduce your symptoms and feel better fast.
Next week we will dive into a few more solutions long term on prevention and maintaining healthy adrenals.
Thanks for listening to the Naturalistic Nurse Podcast, if you’d like to contribute to this podcasting effort of getting the work out about how to shift your practice to ditch the bandaid fixes and shift to root cause resolutions that stick be sure and subscribe, rate and leave a review - I’d be oh- so grateful.
Be well,