Do you feel overwhelmed by daily tasks, have trouble falling or staying asleep or lack the energy you require to get you through a day without feeling exhausted? Then this article is for you! Dr. Shelby Garn explains:

Stress can present itself in so many ways; there’s no doubt that we can’t prevent stressful events from happening on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis but what we can do is support your body to be able to handle these stressors with ease. One question I always ask my patients is if they wake up feeling refreshed in the morning. The answer to this is often no, even after 8-10 hours of sleep. It’s often not as simple as needing more sleep, which leads us into doing a deep dive into what’s causing this lack of energy.

We have around 60,000 conscious thoughts every day, and odds are some of those might cause psychological stress. And on the other hand, we undergo physiological stressors, whether that’s genetics, nutrient deficiencies or an underlying condition. This could present itself through decreased immunity, fatigue or decreased mood, elevated blood pressure, alterations in digestive health or hormonal imbalance and increased cortisol. Cortisol is made from your adrenal glands and is responsible for regulating blood pressure, suppressing inflammation, decreasing immunity and for gluconeogenesis. What this means is that these stressors are constantly asking for more cortisol to be produced. Constant or chronic stress leads to depleted cortisol production causing constant exhaustion, low libido, insomnia, low blood pressure and hypoglycemia.

Did you know that coffee can actually be contributing to this depleted state by altering your cortisol response? I’m not asking you to give up your coffee but your adrenal glands might be! If you’re drinking multiple cups of coffee a day and not noticing the benefit from your cup of joe, consider adding in electrolytes before your morning coffee. An easy adrenal elixir that you can make at home is water, lemon or lime juice, coconut water and a pinch of salt.

Luckily, there are numerous ways we can support and nourish your adrenal glands to help get you through the day with the energy you deserve. There are even ways to test your cortisol level and patterns to ensure we’re supporting your adrenal glands appropriately. Essential nutrients to help decrease adrenal stress are Vitamin C, Vitamin B5 and magnesium. Book in now to learn more about stress and how we can support you best.