Do you feel like you have a natural tendency toward fatigue? Everything is sluggish and moving in slow motion? Or maybe you’ve been facing chronic stress and your body is over it? This can be what we see called “adrenal fatigue” all over the internet.
Technically, adrenal fatigue doesn’t exist. It isn’t a real thing. But the term is used a lot to describe what is actually HPA-axis dysfunction. The HPA axis is the connection between the hypothalamus, pituitary glands, and adrenal glands. These glands are the receptors for a number of hormones including cortisol, corticotropin-releasing hormones, and vasopressin. The entire HPA-axis system controls the physiological mechanisms of stress, immunity, and fertility. (PMID: 29719288)
When we are under prolonged periods of stress or constantly high cortisol, we get dysregulation in this system. This HPA-axis dysfunction is a result of the adrenals trying to protect us. The system is down regulating ON PURPOSE to protect our cells from further damage due to too long a period of elevated cortisol. What is really happening is nervous system dysregulation. We get reduced cellular energy in an effort to preserve the body. And this plays out with an imbalance in our nervous system.
How do you know if you have “adrenal fatigue”?
Certain minerals work in combination together within the body. We want to see a balanced ratio of these minerals for optimal function. One of these combinations is sodium and magnesium, aka the adrenal ratio on an HTMA test. Sodium is regulated by the adrenal glands, while magnesium helps our bodies make ATP for energy.
When we are stressed our bodies use more magnesium to make more energy. Once it’s been high for a long time without being replenished, it will end up depleted. And if we don’t have adequate sodium levels, we won’t be able to get our magnesium levels up because low sodium triggers an alarm reaction in our adrenal glands, which leads to retaining sodium and depleting magnesium. This negative cycle drives the adrenal ratio up. We can see symptoms of this through loss of energy and high stress.
When adrenal function crashes and we see a low ratio of sodium to magnesium, we can also find chronic stress and exhaustion as well as hypoglycemia, weight fluctuations, and poor digestion. Because the body never works in isolation!
Signs that the body is working under reduced cellular energy include:
- brain fog
- daytime fatigue
- chronic body aches and pains
- being wired but tired at night
- being prone to anxiety or depression
- poor or non-restorative sleep
- gut issues
- intense sugar cravings
- low resilience to stress
- feeling sick after workouts
- being easily fatigued after mental tasks
- needing to eat frequently or having low blood sugar
- having an inability to heal despite significant effort
So how do we fix this?
We restore sodium and magnesium and support absorption with synergistic vitamins and minerals, through whole foods and some supplements when needed, and we give our bodies a rest. We balance blood sugar with meals composed of protein, health fats, and fiber. And we aid digestion by slowing down at meal time, chewing our food thoroughly (think applesauce consistency before swallowing), and eating without distractions.
We also need to address the nervous system. When our cells spend too much time in a defensive mode and not producing more energy, we lose nervous system regulation. So beyond just food, we also need to address environmental toxins, trauma, circadian rhythm balance, gut health/infections, and stress resiliency. It’s never JUST about food. It’s not just ONE quick fix.
If you’re wondering if you’re facing HPA-axis dysfunction, HTMA can assess this. By seeing your specific adrenal ratio as well as how high or low supporting minerals are, we can create a custom healing plan for your specific needs. When I do HTMA with clients, I don’t just interpret your test results. I give you an actionable plan and custom protocol that includes food, activity, stress, and lifestyle action items. And for clients who go through coaching with me, I walk through the protocol with you, step by step, over our time together. Because healing isn’t immediate. We take it one step at a time and give our bodies a chance to recover, catch up, and absorb all the good we are giving back to it after probably years of depletion.
Interested in finding out if you need to rebalance your nervous system? Let’s chat!
