Health from A to Z: A – Adrenals

Intro to Health from A to Z

We’re going to talk about adrenals here in a moment, but first, a little bit of “housekeeping” with regard to this month’s A to Z challenge.  With this being the first post in the series, I’m including a “table of contents” at the end.  As I write this, it doesn’t contain any links, but I’ll come back periodically throughout the month and update it with the posts that have been published to that point.

These alphabetical posts will, for the most part, not be the deep, heavily researched type of informative posts.  I’m not planning to throw unresearched junk at you; these are just posts of a different “flavor” than the lengthier, citation-rich variety.  Instead, these will primarily be practical posts with only as much background information/research as is necessary to further that purpose.  I want these to be posts you can do something with.

There will be a few posts designed to round everything out and give those action-oriented posts a bit of context — posts about attitudes surrounding health and change, etc.  But the heavier posts will largely wait in the wings ’til April is over, so I don’t burn myself out writing or burn you out reading.  And now, speaking of “burning out,” how about those adrenals?

What Are the Adrenal Glands?

“Adrenal” comes from the prefix ad-, meaning “to” or “near,” and renal, meaning “kidneys.”  So you can probably guess that these are near your kidneys.  In fact, these small glands sit atop the kidneys.

The “nutshell version” of what your adrenal glands do is respond to stressful situations.  When you encounter something that is a stressor — either internal or external — the adrenal glands secrete substances that tell the rest of your body how to respond to the crisis.

First, they prepare you to fight or flee, shunting resources away from bodily processes presumed “optional” in the short term.  For instance, digestion.  You’re not going to be sitting down for a meal while running for your life, right?  So your body assumes that, for the time being, digestion is optional, but the ability to run fast is really important.

Next, they send you into an “in-between” state.  This is not quite as hyper-aware; it’s more sustained.  But it still isn’t meant to enable you to efficiently “rest and digest.”

What is supposed to happen is that once the crisis is past, your body returns to “baseline,” and you can once again effectively do “non-stress” kinds of things — like digest food effectively.  Unfortunately, in our fast-paced culture, we often stay in “high alert” mode much of the time, which tires out the adrenals (and the other glands that work with them as a team) and causes problems with more “non-stress” functions like digestion and breathing.

How Do I Help Them Work Better?

This post is really only a very brief overview.  If you want to learn more, the books below are some of the top options for further reading.  I’ve read the first two.  Adrenal Fatigue is more of an informational book.  It’s pretty standard paperback size and, although it’s practical, it’s not a workbook.  Overcoming Adrenal Fatigue is less wordy, and it is a workbook.  It’s standard notebook size, and not super-thick, so it might be less overwhelming for some people.

The other two books I have not yet read.  I’m familiar with Dr. Romm through other works of hers, though, and highly recommend her in general.  The Adrenal Reset Diet I’ve merely heard good things about.  (Jump below the books to keep reading.)

Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress SyndromeOvercoming Adrenal Fatigue: How to Restore Hormonal Balance and Feel Renewed, Energized, and Stress Free (New Harbinger Self-Help Workbook)The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution: A Proven 4-Week Program to Rescue Your Metabolism, Hormones, Mind & MoodThe Adrenal Reset Diet: Strategically Cycle Carbs and Proteins to Lose Weight, Balance Hormones, and Move from Stressed to Thriving

There are two major things you’ll want to do to help support your adrenals.  1) Eliminate and/or manage excess stress so there’s less of a burden on them.  2) Give them plenty of nutritional support.  (No part of your body can work effectively without the raw materials it needs!)

1) Eliminate or Manage Stress

In many ways this is obvious, but easier said than done!  Some things just can’t be readily cut out of our lives.  You can, however, actively manage stress through self-care.  If it’s relaxing for you to take a bath, take a bath.  I don’t personally care for them, but I like foot baths, and those take less time and preparation, which is an added advantage.

You can also help yourself in a stressful situation by breathing.  The advice to take a few deep breaths sounds cliche, but there’s solid reasoning behind it.  You can actually trick your body into “non-stress” mode by intentionally making it do what it automatically does in non-stress mode — like breathing slowly and deeply instead of shallowly and rapidly.

You can find more information about stress relief here, and I’ll be talking more about self-care later this month.

2) Support Your Adrenals Nutritionally

The other thing you can do is give your adrenals the support they need.  If you want to pull out the “big guns,” desiccated bovine (cow) adrenal is available.  Various organ meats are supportive for our versions of those same organs because they’re rich sources of the nutrients used by those organs.  (Makes sense, right?)  But not everyone is comfortable with that.

The adrenals also are in particular need of:

• B vitamins
• vitamin C
• salt (well, they don’t require salt, exactly, but you do if your adrenals aren’t working well)

One frequently-recommended “intervention” is an “adrenal cocktail.” This consists of:

• 1/2 cup orange juice (for the vitamin C, and as a potable base)
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt (for the sodium and trace minerals)
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (for the potassium, which helps avoid un-balancing your sodium & potassium)

You simply stir the salt and cream of tartar into the orange juice and drink up!

I recently encountered another option, that would be particularly helpful when traveling.  (I was sent a variety of products to try through the New Hope bloggers’ co-op, so I got this free, but these are my honest thoughts.)

This Immune Oxylent is designed, as I’m sure you can guess by the name, as an immune booster.  It’s an effervescent (fizzy) powder that you simply mix into water, and it comes in individual serving packets, so it’s easy to carry around in a purse, diaper bag, gym bag, etc.

It tastes pretty good, and what really jumped out at me is that the ingredients are a pretty good blend for adrenal support.  Not necessarily precisely what I would blend for that purpose, but so close as to be a really good substitute when you want something that’s easy grab-and-go.  Here’s the nutrition panel:

So…life happened, and I got a bit behind/missed some posts.  Hopefully I’ll be able to come back later and fill them in!

A: Adrenals (this post)
B: Baby Steps
C: Cleaning
D: Dentists
E: Energy Bites {recipe}
F: Feet (Softstar shoes review)
G: Gut Health
H: Himalayan Salt
I: Integrity
J: Journey
K: Kids (What’s Making Our Children Sick? book review)
L: Lamp/Light
M: Movement
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