12
MAY
2025

Understanding Adrenal Health: The Key to Managing Stress and Energy

If you’ve ever said, “I’m just tired all the time,” but your labs came back normal—you’re not alone. That kind of fatigue, foggy thinking, irritability, and stress intolerance might not be something a standard blood panel can catch. But your adrenals? They’ve known all along.

Understanding adrenal health is one of the most powerful first steps in functional wellness. These two small glands sit above your kidneys—but when they’re out of balance, everything from your mood to your hormones to your motivation can feel off.

Let’s break it down so you can feel more in control of your energy, your health, and your life.

What Are the Adrenal Glands?

The adrenal glands are part of your endocrine system. Think of them as your body's internal stress regulators. They produce several essential hormones, including:

Cortisol – Your main stress hormone, released in response to physical, emotional, or environmental pressure.
DHEA – A hormone that balances the effects of cortisol and supports healthy testosterone and estrogen levels.
Adrenaline (Epinephrine) – Released in fight-or-flight situations.
Aldosterone – Regulates blood pressure and sodium/potassium balance.

Together, these hormones don’t just help you survive—they help you adapt.

Why Adrenal Health Matters

Your adrenals influence systems across your entire body:

🧠 Brain – Mood, focus, memory
❤️ Heart – Blood pressure, heart rate
🛏️ Sleep – Circadian rhythm, melatonin production
🍽️ Metabolism – Blood sugar balance, insulin sensitivity
🧬 Hormones – Sex hormone production and balance
🧘‍♂️ Resilience – Response to emotional stress or trauma

When your adrenals are overworked (or under-functioning), everything feels harder.

The Stress Response: Meet Your HPA Axis

The HPA axis (Hypothalamus–Pituitary–Adrenal axis) is the stress communication loop between your brain and adrenal glands. When your body senses stress—whether it's a real danger or just traffic, a tight deadline, or skipping meals—it sends a signal to the adrenals to pump out cortisol.

Over time, chronic stress keeps this loop stuck in “on” mode. Eventually, your adrenals either:

Overproduce cortisol (you feel wired, anxious, can’t sleep)
Or underproduce cortisol (you feel flat, tired, can’t cope)

That’s what we call HPA axis dysregulation, commonly referred to in functional medicine as adrenal dysfunction.

Signs of Adrenal Imbalance

Here are some common red flags that your adrenals need support:

Exhaustion despite enough sleep
Trouble waking up in the morning
Afternoon energy crashes
Trouble falling or staying asleep
Salt and sugar cravings
Lightheadedness when standing
Brain fog or memory issues
Irritability or low stress tolerance
Loss of motivation or interest in usual activities

If you're nodding to more than a few of these, your adrenals might be calling for help.

What Causes Adrenal Dysfunction?

Many things can stress the HPA axis over time:

Poor sleep quality
Skipping meals or imbalanced blood sugar
Chronic emotional stress
Overexercising or under-recovering
Past trauma
Chronic infections
Environmental toxins
Caffeine overuse
Nutrient deficiencies (especially B vitamins, magnesium, and vitamin C)

In my practice, adrenal dysfunction is rarely caused by one thing—it’s usually a combination of long-term habits and invisible stressors.

How to Support Adrenal Health

The good news: you can rebalance your adrenals with intentional, consistent care.

1. Rebuild a Healthy Cortisol Rhythm

Wake and sleep at the same times daily (yes, weekends too)
Get natural light in your eyes within 30 minutes of waking
Dim the lights 2 hours before bed

2. Eat to Stabilize Energy

Eat within 60 minutes of waking
Include protein, fat, and fiber with every meal
Avoid skipping meals or extreme fasting during recovery

3. Manage Stress on Purpose

Breathwork, journaling, or meditation (even 5 mins counts)
Stretch or go for a walk instead of high-intensity workouts
Reflect: What are you holding onto that you no longer need?

4. Use Supplements Strategically (only with guidance)

Vitamin C and B-complex
Magnesium glycinate
Adaptogens (rhodiola, ashwagandha, holy basil)
DHEA or pregnenolone if labs support it

💡 Tip: I use Fullscript to personalize adrenal support based on individual lab results. No guesswork, no wasted money.

When to Test Your Adrenals

If you're not sure whether your adrenals are struggling—or if you want clarity before starting supplements—consider testing.

I often recommend:

Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR) – Salivary test showing how cortisol rises in the first hour of your day
DUTCH Plus – A dried urine test for cortisol, DHEA, sex hormones, and melatonin
Adrenal Saliva Panel – A more accessible option that charts your cortisol curve throughout the day

Testing removes the guesswork and helps us tailor your healing plan.

Final Thoughts: Start Here

If you're feeling depleted, overwhelmed, or just not like yourself, you don’t have to wait until it gets worse. Start small. Choose one thing from this list today:

Add a protein-rich breakfast tomorrow
Get 10 minutes of morning sunlight
Cut back on caffeine after 1 PM
Fill out your intake

Your body is incredibly wise—it just needs support to come back into balance.

Want Personalized Help?

Begin the process of reclaiming your energy—one root cause at a time

📞 Schedule a Consult
🛍️ Explore My Fullscript Shop
🧬 Complete Intake Forms

📚 References

Kalish, D. (2017). The Kalish Method: Healing the Body, Mapping the Mind. Kalish Institute.

ZRT Laboratory. (n.d.). Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR) and HPA Axis Function. Retrieved from https://www.zrtlab.com

Institute for Functional Medicine. (n.d.). HPA Axis Dysfunction and Chronic Stress. Retrieved from https://www.ifm.org

Pizzorno, J. E., & Murray, M. T. (2013). Textbook of Natural Medicine (4th ed.). Elsevier Health Sciences.

Rountree, R. (2007). Cortisol and the Stress Connection. In Liska, D. (Ed.), The Clinician's Handbook of Natural Medicine (2nd ed.). Elsevier.

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Root Cause Nurse

12MAY2025