How to boost your adrenal health through your food choices

Monday, March 04, 2013 by: PF Louis
Tags: adrenal health, food choice, cortisol

(NaturalNews) If you feel run down and fatigued chronically, there is a possibility that you're experiencing some level of adrenal fatigue, which may precipitate or include hypothyroidism.

Chances are your mainstream doctor won't isolate adrenal fatigue as your main issue. Mainstream medicine only recognizes the extreme level of exhausted adrenals known as Addison's disease.

However, there are many shades of gray, or non-Addison's hypoadrenia, before the extremely rare blackness of Addison's appears. Most of us get stuck in a gray shade of non-Addison's hypoadrenia, which is not recognized by mainstream medicine.

You'll be told there's nothing wrong with you, it's all in your head. Maybe your doctor will prescribe an anti-depressant, and you'll be on your way with a plethora of other problems.

Welcome to the 21rst Century Stress Syndrome, which has roots in the late 20th Century as well. This is because the major source of adrenal fatigue is chronically stressing over situations both real and imagined. Our modern lifestyles have invited more stress than necessary.

Fight, flight, cortisol, and your adrenals

The walnut-sized adrenal glands are above the kidneys. They are involved with producing and distributing 50 hormones. When kicked in by the sympathetic nervous system's "fight or flight" stimulus, the adrenal glands crank up the cortisol.

That comes in handy with real life acute dangers that come and go, but enduring suppressed stress chronically will deplete the adrenals, creating a hormonal imbalance.

Tiredness, mental fogginess, and mood swings are all common with adrenal fatigue. The immune system becomes compromised and allergies, infections, and even chronic autoimmune diseases can take over.

Sugar and caffeine are craved often for quick energy bursts and mental stability. Add white flour pastries to those misguided attempts at boosting energy and you're compromising your immune system even further.

You may also have difficulty waking up and struggle groggily through the day, then when it's time to sleep, you become energized. Adrenal fatigue also leads to other hormonal imbalances that affect sexuality, emotional moods, and thyroid secretions.

These symptoms are all too common and interchangeable with other ailments. Regardless, one's overall health will only improve upon adopting natural remedies for adrenal fatigue that don't involve pharmaceuticals.

Avoiding or reversing adrenal fatigue

Handling stress is the foundation for adrenal health. Whether it involves changing lifestyles, leaving jobs, abusive relationships, getting involved with a "fight club", or practicing yoga with a proper corpse pose (https://www.naturalnews.com/036917_yoga_weight_loss_thyroid_gland.html).

Of course, meditating can be the ultimate stress reliever. It can be practiced in addition to your other choices (https://www.naturalnews.com/028694_anti-aging_meditation.html). Now let's get into what you shouldn't and should put into your mouth.

Stay away from fast food restaurants and don't grab processed foods when you grocery shop. Quit the donuts and other pastries while minimizing coffee intake. Excess caffeine directly stresses the adrenals physiologically.

Do some juicing and consume organic foods. A juice fast could jump start the nutritional dietary changes (https://www.naturalnews.com/038371_juice_cleanse_max_gerson_health.html).

Vitamin C taken within bowel tolerable limits two to three times daily is recommended. Vitamin B complex with extra B12 is also important. Use B12 patches or sublingual B12 tablets that contain methylcobalamin, not the overused, ineffective cyanocobalamin. (http://www.naturalnews.com).

Make sure your vitamin D blood levels are above normal. Stress-caused excess cortisol negatively affects vitamin D absorption (http://www.naturalnews.com).

There are plant foods that you can combine to give you complete proteins if you're a vegetarian. If not, at least avoid factory farm meat products. Make sure your mineral intake is high, especially magnesium (http://www.naturalnews.com).

Adaptogenic herbs that holistic nutritional experts Doctors Sellman and Dr.Pick recommend include ashwaganda, Siberian ginseng, maca, rhodiola, licorice root, schisandra, and astragalus root. The first three are considered the most valuable for rebuilding a damaged adrenal gland system. (Sources below)

Sources for this article include:

VIDEO interview - Dr. Sherril Sellman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD3Ovw2CK0o&feature=youtu.be

Dr. Marcelle Pick http://www.womentowomen.com

https://www.naturalnews.com/019339_adrenal_fatigue_chronic_stress.html

http://www.womentowomen.com

http://www.womentowomen.com

http://healthdirectusa.com

http://www.adrenalfatigue.org/