“I’m so stressed out.”
Be honest: when was the last time you heard someone around you say this? Or said it yourself?
If you’re like most of us, it probably wasn’t that long ago. And the time before that? Not so long ago either.
Nearly everyone we know is struggling to juggle stressful jobs, family needs, financial concerns, and health issues.
Everybody.
But even if it’s everyone, does that make it ok?
(Kind of like how PMS has become a running joke in our culture…only it’s totally NOT a normal physiologic occurrence. Whoops.)
This kind of lifestyle has become the norm in our hectic little world.
And this has everything to do with the topic of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal dysfunction (known as HPA-D and previous, adrenal fatigue) and hormonal dysfunction. As well as how we go about trying to manage and, ultimately, trying to bounce back from it in the long term.
But in order to try to manage HPA-D (adrenal fatigue), it’s first really crucial to understand the system that you’re trying to fix. This allows you to think about the actions you choose to take in concrete ways in terms of what it is doing to your body.
Example: if I drink this cup of coffee at 6 pm at night in order to stay up late and do work, what am I actually asking my body to do? And how will it contribute to the symptoms and manifestations of HPA-D (adrenal fatigue)?
How HPA-D (Adrenal Fatigue) and Hormonal Imbalance Happens
Luckily, the concept of HPA-D (adrenal fatigue) and hormonal dysfunction can be broken down into fairly simple terms.
The Normal
But to understand the disease state, we first have to cover what is normal.
HPA-D (adrenal fatigue) is a breakdown of a normal functioning system called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Quite the mouthful, huh? (This is why lately adrenal fatigue has been renamed “HPA-dysfunction”, or just HPA-D)
You can see the parts of this system in my illustration below. The hypothalamus is a region of the brain, the pituitary is a little dangly structure below the brain, and the adrenals sit on top of your kidneys.
In order for this system to function properly, the organs need a way to communicate with one another. Like the rest of the body, these organs send out signaling molecules into the bloodstream and each has receptors that can “hear” messages from all the other organs.
While this systems of messaging is incredibly complex, there are just a few molecules that are particularly relevant for our discussion of HPA-D (adrenal fatigue) and dysfunctional hormones.
The Messengers
Let’s start at the level of the hypothalamus.
The hypothalamus is responsible for assimilating all the signals in the body that there needs to be cortisol production. This can come from the central nervous system, the immune system, the gut, and a whole bunch of other messengers that regulate homeostasis in the body.
In the response to all of this, the hypothalamus releases a messenger called corticotrophin releasing hormone (or CRH, for short).
Corticotrophin releasing hormone travels to the pituitary where it and, again, a slew of other messengers stimulates the release of adrenocorticotropic hormone (or ACTH).
Adrenocorticotropic hormone then travels to the adrenals and encourages them to make 3 important types of hormones.
The 3 types includes cortisol (otherwise known as glucocorticoids), mineralocorticoids (responsible for salt regulation, a function critical for life), and sex hormones (which further get made in sex organs like ovaries and other places, like fat).
All 3 groups of these end products go back to exert effects on the hypothalamus and pituitary as a way to regulate their further production and to create balance in the body. But in this regard, cortisol is especially important to our discussion so let’s focus on that for a moment.
In normal function, cortisol has a negative feedback loop with the hypothalamus. That means that as more cortisol is made, the cortisol itself lets the hypothalamus know that, “Hey, there‘ s enough cortisol! You can slow down now!”
That’s the body’s preferred method for regulating the balance of most hormones and ensuring that things don’t get produced out of proportion to the body’s needs.
How The Normal Breaks Down
Ok, so now that we know how it’s all generally supposed to function well, we can talk about this system can break and affect other parts of the system to create general disrepair in the body.
When the hypothalamus is constantly getting the signal that there needs to be more cortisol from all the systems in the body, it’ll start to send out more and more corticotropin releasing hormone into the bloodstream.
Generally, this is a good thing since, let’s say you’re about to get into a car accident, cortisol and all the other “alert-signaling” messengers (especially neurotransmitters…more on this later) and modulators will be activated and help you get out of the situation safely.
When this cortisol-stimulating signal is chronic and unrelenting (unlike our car accident example), the adrenals will attempt to produce more and more of it (they’re helpful like that!).
At first, the hypothalamus will try to down-regulate the production of CRH in response to increased cortisol production, but as more and more other competing signals urge it to make more cortisol, it starts to get confused.
This means that cortisol no longer gets to give it that negative feedback signal (this is one example of a phenomenon called “cortisol resistance”).
An easy way to think about this is pretending you’re the hypothalamus and all your family and friends as messengers. Imagine that everyone is coming up to you to tell you something. Now imagine that they keep coming up to you with greater and greater frequency. Now imagine that they all start yelling at you, all at the same time!
What would you do in this case? You’d probably find the person who had the most important message and focus on them.
In the case of the hypothalamus, it’s going to focus on the signals coming in that keep you safe and alive. That means that the signal from cortisol saying, “Hey, we’re good here” is going to go by the wayside.
The control of cortisol over its own production is lost and the system begins to lose balance and there is a chronic increase of cortisol in the body.
From Hyperfunction to Hypofunction
Eventually, however, your body begins to struggle with upkeep of that volume of cortisol production.
(At this point, there will dysfunction in the normal rhythms for cortisol release. That’s why people with HPA-D commonly complain of feeling wired at night–getting that “second wind”–but dog-tired in the mornings.)
In this case, the body starts to sacrifice the production of other, seemingly less important hormones to keep up with putting out cortisol.
Remember how we talked about 3 types of hormones made at the level of the adrenals?
They were glucocorticoids (cortisol), mineralocorticoids (responsible for salt regulation), and sex hormones. Well, since the body doesn’t like to waste energy, those 3 types of hormones have common precursors (an important one here is DHEA). So it looks like this:
But when the body is struggling to output cortisol, it’ll shuttle the precursors away from the production of sex hormones and, to a much lesser extent, the mineralocoids to make more cortisol instead. Like so:
Of course, even this band-aid solution will ultimately fail. While the part leading up to this was hyperfunction of the adrenals, continued demand from cortisol production will ultimately lead to hypofunction of the adrenals.
This is HPA-D (adrenal fatigue) and the corresponding hormonal dysfunction.
(Remember, it’s no longer the cortisol that’s a problem but all of the neurotransmitters and sex hormones have been impacted as well.)
Note: you can go directly from normal to hypofunction as well, especially if you have specific diseases such as Addison’s Disease, but it’s not quite as common.
Changes in output from the adrenals, as well as imbalances at the level of the hypothalamus and pituitary, will go on to impact the production of downstream sex hormones made by the ovaries (and other tissues that convert hormones, like fat).
Those changes go on to impact neurotransmitter levels…which goes on to further impact the signals that the hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenals, and ovaries get.
That’s how you get this terrible cycle of dysfunction that can be so challenging to break free from!
Neurotransmitters and Their Role in Hormonal Dysfunction
Let’s talk a little more about how neurotransmitters can impact our hormonal and adrenal health.
Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that deliver important and vital messages from the brain (or, more accurately, the central nervous system), the gut, and the adrenal glands.
These tiny messengers help you respond to stressors and if they become imbalanced, we begin to experience symptoms (like fatigue, anxiety/depression, poor sleep, etc.).
In times of acute stress or when you are in a constant chronic state of low stress (which includes mental/emotional stress but also hidden internal stressors such as food sensitivities, bacterial overgrowth, heavy metal toxicity, etc.) neurotransmitters can become depleted.
Just having a stressful thought or being scared will alert your brain to alter hormone and neurotransmitter production in response. The neurotransmitters are a part of the stress response cascade.
Think about how often we are bombarded with negative imagery and high stress situations in our fast-paced lifestyle!
By looking at the levels of different neurotransmitters as well as their relationship to each other, such as the ratio between serotonin and dopamine or norepinephrine and epinephrine, we can see how well your body is adapting to stress.
We have both excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters and some play both roles depending on the situation. Since our body likes to remain in balance, we also function optimally when our excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters are balanced.
For example, stimulants such as caffeine release neurotransmitters into the synapse and that can help improve our focus.
You know how you have your coffee and then feel pretty productive for a while? Feeling productive is great except there is a price we pay for that focus.
Your body must now send in some inhibitory neurotransmitters to reign in the excitatory neurotransmitters. Serotonin and GABA to the rescue!
This is not necessarily a problem, because this is one of the ways that our amazing body stays balanced, but when we abuse ourselves daily by artificially forcing productivity with excess caffeine consumption, we eventually end up depleted in serotonin and GABA.
Among many other functions, serotonin is important for a stable mood and GABA is nature’s valium-like substance…you can see where we can end up without these precious resources.
(That’s why we urge you to ask yourself: is this short-term benefit of being able to focus and have energy worth the long-term risk of an unstable mood?)
Here is an example of the neurotransmitter testing results that we like to test.
Here is a quick explanation of each of the neurotransmitters:
Serotonin – This is considered the master neurotransmitter and helps to keep balance between the excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters. Adequate levels is necessary for a stable mood.
Dopamine – Key player in reward-seeking type of behavior such as pleasure, satisfaction and focus. Dopamine also influences muscle control and gastrointestinal motility. Really low or high dopamine levels is correlated with memory issues.
Norepinephrine– Important to the fight-or-flight response, sympathetic nervous system signaling, and also helps to make epinephrine downstream.
Epinephrine– Also known as adrenaline which most of us know well. Epinephrine prepares the body for fight-or-flight by increasing your heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate so that you can run away or fight off the danger. This will also elevate your ACTH which raises your cortisol.
GABA– Nature’s valium-like substance which also helps regulate muscle tone.
Glutamate– Important for memory and learning but can be damaging in excess leading to depression, seizures and damaged nervous tissue. This is often seen high for those with PTSD but you also have to watch that you are not accidentally consuming glutamate from MSG or DSG sources in food.
Histamine – Helps to control sleep-wake cycle, energy production and memory recall. This reading on your lab is a window into inflammation. The higher the number, the more mental fogginess, allergy symptoms and irritability you might be experiencing.
If your neurotransmitters are all trending low in conjunction with low cortisol levels, than this is a sign you are in a chronic state of stress and are now in the tired and “burnt-out” phase. At this point you will need a good amount of support to return to a healthy level.
Not considering the role of transmitters on the function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal/ovarian axis is one reason we often work with women who have already tried to heal their hormonal imbalances but never found success.
This is because you’re trying to heal one organ system when the organ system communicating with it is broken…and that generally doesn’t get you to where you want to go!
How Do I Know If I have HPA-D (Adrenal Fatigue) and Hormonal/Neurotransmitter Dysfunction?
Great question! There are lots of clues our bodies can give us to let us know that something isn’t quite right in this area of our health.
Here are some common signs and symptoms:
- Stubborn weight gain or weight loss resistance
- Decreased energy throughout the day
- Issues with sleep
- Acne and uneven skin tone (especially with your cycle)
- Poor digestion or gut issues (gut issues are nearly ALWAYS linked to underlying hormonal imbalances because your body can’t mount the healing response it needs to)
- Autoimmune chronic health problems
- Unstable moods/anxiety/depression
- Painful, heavy, and/or irregular periods (especially with a lot of clots)
- Swelling and bloat
- Low libido
- Infertility
- Persistent fatigue
- Breast swelling/tenderness
- PMS symptoms (not a normal thing!)
- Fuzzy memory/problems with concentration
Management vs. Treatment of HPA-D (Adrenal Fatigue) and Hormonal Dysfunction
Later in this post, it is our plan to discuss lifestyle modifications that will help you manage HPA-D (adrenal fatigue) and hormonal/neurotransmitter imbalances.
This is important enough to take up a big chunk of this post because these endocrine imbalance issues often stem from our lifestyle choices, including dietary habits!
Trying to treat the medical symptoms without addressing the instigating problems is like trying to use a bucket to get out water from a boat with a hole. (We’ve all seen cartoons, right?)
The reason we keep saying “manage HPA-D (adrenal fatigue) and hormonal imbalances” is that it’s not always a condition that someone can just fix once and never think about it again.
Some people will be able to reverse the process entirely while others will need to have a long-term management approach to the problem. In either case, doing so will mean that they have to consider their lifestyle choices and habits to keep the symptoms from reappearing.
(This is similar to other disease states; some folks can reverse the manifestations of type 2 diabetes while others will require a lifetime of management to control the symptoms and keep the damage to organs at bay.)
Either way, the goal is to not have symptoms…so we’re not even really making the case that management of something is detrimental. We’re simply stating that it’s an ongoing process. (Both of us consider ourselves in the “managing our HPA-D and hormonal imbalances” category because it’s something we are prone to backslide into if we’re not careful.)
Often, the extent to which someone can officially “treat” their adrenal fatigue and hormonal imbalances is directly related to how much control they have over the lifestyle changes they can make.
It’d be great if we could all live a relaxed, stress-free lifestyle…but we doubt that we’re going to fool anyone into thinking that’s going to necessarily happen anytime soon in a complete sort of way.
That’s where managing the process comes into play!
So what follows is going to be a series of tips for what we do to help manage our HPA-D and hormonal dysfunction.
All of these things help minimize negative outcomes and control symptoms so that we can live healthy, energetic, and balanced lives!
Lifestyle Modifications for HPA-D (Adrenal Fatigue) and Hormonal Imbalances
1. Take Mini Breaks Throughout the Day
We always – no matter how crazy our days get – take a little bit of time at regular intervals to shut down for just a few minutes and to sit somewhere quietly.
This can be done virtually anywhere, even at a desk (or heck, even if you’re hiding in a bathroom stall).
What’s most important is to turn off absolutely any distractions you can turn off and work to minimize any disruptions that may come your way over this period of time.
A lot of times, this quiet time means that we sit in absolute silence, place our hands over our eyes, and give our bodies a break from any stimuli coming in.
It’s a time to just breath, think about all the things we’re grateful for, and and breath some more!
Other times, this means we get out our phones and take a mental-shutdown-break. We look at goofy pictures of cats on the internet (We’re not proud, ok? But it works) or we’ll call a loved one to chat about how things are going for them.
It just comes down to taking a few minutes to do what makes you happy!
By doing this, you’ll likely feel your heart rate go down and your breath get slower. It just feels better to take a few minutes away from any obligations!
And the decrease in heart rate and breathing is your external way of seeing your neurotransmitter, cortisol, and central nervous system begin to balance themselves out!
Sometimes we can sneak away 2 minutes and, when we’re lucky, we’ll get a whole 15. We generally don’t put pressure on ourselves to get a certain amount. We just grab a break when we can and appreciate the bit of respite it provides.
2. Natural Movement and Exercise
To effectively manage our HPA-D (adrenal fatigue) and hormonal dysfunction, we make it a priority to do some sort of activity with our bodies every day.
Now, the question of exercise and HPA-D (adrenal fatigue) is a very complex one.
But a common problem that happens for people, and one we have fallen victim to, is when someone is already very stressed (aka: they have high cortisol requirements with pre-existing dysfunction) and they try to do very strenuous physical on top of that (raising their cortisol output requirements even higher).
The amount of exercise and “strenuous-ness” of the exercise that someone can handle will vary from person to person, depending on their current and long-term adrenal state, but pushing too hard for too long will ultimately worsen the HPA-D (adrenal fatigue) and hormonal imbalances in anyone.
So instead of very intense exercise, what we’re talking about instead is simply moving your body in a way that increases blood flow, engages the joints and muscles, and maybe even gets you connected with nature a bit.
Activities that fall into this category include taking walks/hikes (especially out in a natural environment!), yoga/stretching, and bike riding…but you can fill in any activity you want!
Now, this doesn’t mean that we don’t do intense exercise at all! We simply have to choose the appropriate times to do those strenuous bursts of movement.
In order to decide if we’re going to work out hard on any certain occasion, we’ll ask ourselves the following questions:
- How stressed have I been lately?
- How has my sleep been?
- How do I feel today? Do I have the reserve today to exercise safely?
In our minds, we look at it as “having the luxury of working out”.
When we know we’ve been pushing our hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis around a bit because of our lifestyle choices, we know that our bodies aren’t really in no place to have that cortisol spike that comes with intense exercise.
Sometimes it is difficult to pass it up, especially when you enjoy working out. But like most things with exercise, pushing through an “injury” (yes, we’re counting HPA-D and hormonal imbalances as injuries to the body) will just mean that you’re out for longer later down the road.
We keep that in mind when we’re tempted to ignore how we’ve been feeling.
On occasional, we’ll be wrong about what kind of workout our bodies can handle.
We can always tell if we’ve overdone it by feeling exhausted the next day and or even later that night. It’s not just being tired…it’s not being able to keep your eyes open, not being able to think straight, and maybe even getting a little grumpy! And there’s no amount of chocolate in the world that can make you feel better!
So after a few rounds of that, we’ve learned what our bodies feel like when that happens. While it’s not pleasant when it happens, It has allowed us to correlate what our bodies feel like prior to doing the activity that we chose to do and know what pushed us over the edge.
3. Get Sleep
This is a tricky subject, since most of us are sleep deprived but when it comes to HPA-D (adrenal fatigue) and hormonal imbalances, getting good sleep HAS to become a top priority.
Now, getting the allotted 8 hours of sleep isn’t always possible every day. So we break sleep down into 2 important categories:
Option 1: Get extra sleep when you can.
This means making up sleep on the days we have off. And grabbing a rejuvenating nap whenever the chance come up.
Again, these things aren’t always possible which is why there’s #2…
Option 2: Make the absolute best of the sleep you do get.
This one is actually easier, in our opinions, although it’s not the perfect solution.
(The body is actually quite willing to help out in this regard because the body will head into restorative sleep more readily when you’re short on sleep. This is not an invitation to abuse this ability…we’re saying this as a good thing though because it’s really easy to get stressed out about not getting to sleep enough.)
In preparation for sleep, we power down a lot of the lights and electronics in the house. But since we usually still have to get some things done, we further decrease the stimulating effects of the lights by wearing amber tinted glasses.
We also keep a short bedtime ritual that involves a quick stretch and a cup of sleep-inducing tea with chamomile, lavender, and valerian root. It doesn’t matter what your pre-sleep ritual is…but it’s just important that you pick a few things that make you feel relaxed and do those consistently.
Other things we like to include in our pre-bed ritual is cooling down the house a more sleep friendly temperature (~68 has been looked at in a number of studies), closing the blackout shades to make the bedroom dark, and doing an epsom salt foot bath to get some magnesium and take some time for self-care.
This sounds like a lot to do but it all takes just a few moments…and can be super fun!
Having a ritual helps get our minds and bodies prepared for bed and we have noticed a significant difference in how quickly we fall asleep once laying down.
Once in bed, we like to do some deep breathing exercises to quiet our minds and settle down. If we’re up because we have an ongoing to-do list rumbling around in our heads (who doesn’t!), we’ll get up and write ourselves a to-do list for the morning.
Reassuring ourselves that we won’t forget to take care of something and that we can handle it in the morning is usually enough to let us relax more deeply for the night.
4. Curb Your Caffeine
Intimately related to the topic of sleep is the consideration of caffeine intake.
Caffeine works in brain by blocking adenosine receptors. The blockade of these receptors increases the action of excitatory molecules in the brain and at the level of the adrenals. Most relevant to our discussion is the increased release of cortisol from the adrenals…and this is why caffeine intake is such an important consideration when it comes to managing HPA-D (adrenal fatigue) and hormonal imbalances.
Caffeine is also often used a crutch by most people, ourselves included. We’ve used it to stay up late and to get ourselves energized to get more work done. While these things can be ok in a more healthy individual on occasion, using caffeine like this can be a slippery slope for someone dealing with HPA-D (adrenal fatigue) and pre-existing hormonal and neurotransmitter imbalances.
We now approach caffeine similarly to the question of exercise…when we’re already taxing our adrenals with other aspects of our lifestyles, we don’t add caffeine to the mix at all or just in very small quantities.
Regardless of the amount of caffeine you drink, timing is a really important aspect because of how much caffeine can impact sleep.
This is because caffeine in the body has a half-life, on average, of about 8-12 hours. This means that if you drink 100 mg of caffeine at 2 pm, you’ll still have about 50 mg of caffeine in your system by 10 pm…that’s pretty surprising, right??
(And this is nothing considering your average drink from Starbucks has about 300 mg of caffeine.)
Because of this, if we have any caffeine at all during the day, we aim to drink it in the mornings. Since we love drinking teas throughout the day, we generally switch to caffeine free versions, like rooibos, for the afternoon.
But what if you really have to get stuff done??
We will, in very specific circumstances, use caffeine to help us get stuff done.
But we’re basically using caffeine as a supplement/medication in this case and we believe it’s important to treat it as such. For these instances, we’’ll generally use a moderately caffeinated tea, like green tea, to give us a boost without as much of the sleep-altering after-effects.
Under normal circumstances, we’ve found that making the rest of the lifestyle choices we’ve outlined here is enough to keep us energized throughout the day (and getting testing with a subsequent customized protocol, of course!)…so it’s not necessary for us to use anything to pep us up at all.
It is absolutely more effort to do it like this, but the sustained energy, for us (and most people if you really ask), is totally worth it.
5. Manage Blood Sugar Levels
A topic we didn’t delve into too deeply in the first part of this post was how all the other hormones in the body interact with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal/ovarian system…but this interaction is very intricate and important.
Negative and positive feedback loops exist for all the hormones in the body. Throw off any of them and the rest are affected.
A very commonly imbalanced hormone, besides cortisol, in our modern-day society is insulin. This is because our main-stream cultures, with copious amounts of unhealthy, sugar-ladden foods and a decreased impetus for natural movement, aren’t super conducive to maintaining good insulin control.
While the rest of the lifestyle modifications outlined in this will help insulin control as well, we think it’s an important enough topic to mention on its own. We personally have seen improvements in our HPA-D (adrenal fatigue) and female hormone imbalances by keeping our blood sugars stable throughout day and night.
Our personal actionable items with dealing with this are fairly straight-forward: decreased intake of sugar-y foods, maximizing nutrient density and diversity, and daily movement. But there’s a lot more to this topic that we address in our Healthy Hormones Group Program!
6. Eat a Nutrient Dense Diet
Good nutrition is pretty much good for everything, so we doubt we need to make the case for it too long here. But we think it’s important to understand how eating nutrient-dense food plays a role in helping manage HPA-D (adrenal fatigue) and hormonal imbalances.
All of the micronutrients in food are used as co-factors to chemical reactions in the body. Without them, the body has to either make do without or use certain workarounds to make the processes happen anyways…in either case, the efficiency drops.
When you ask your body to work harder in the setting of HPA-D (adrenal fatigue) and hormonal imbalances, the problems begin to compound.
The depletion of nutrients acts as a stressor, and the stress contributes to nutrient depletion in the body.
As a result, we avoid certain nutrient-depleting foods and fuel instead with the more nutrient rich foods we can find (liver, bone broth, sardines, vegetables, healthy fats like ghee and coconut oil, and probiotic foods…just to name a few).
Plus, eating good food is fun!
Which brings us to our final point…
7. Have Fun and Connect
Now, this topic is another huge one!
We’re not sure everyone will relate to this but when we’re trying to deal with a health problem, most of the time our answer is buckle down and get more strict with ourselves. We think stuff like, “I need to get more sleep. I need to narrow my food choices. I need to manage my stress, and I need to do all of these things right now.“
Certainly, this type of action-orientated approach has its place and can be incredibly helpful. Heck, that’s probably what’s gotten you results in school, you job, and in your life!
However, we have learned for ourselves is that one of the best things that we can do is sometimes just let go of the reigns a bit when it comes to being so laser-focused about the whole thing.
Sure, we can improve my sleep hygeine, make better food choices, and work on how we handle stress. And those things definitely make us feel better.
But we also have to make time for HAVING FUN.
Whether this means taking time to goof around with our families, watch a hilarious movie, or even zone out to Friends, the point is to JUST BE HAPPY.
It feels counter-intuitive to schedule time for a pedicure, massage, or brunch with friends when you have more pressing things to do, but the fulfillment and mental release from doing those things can improve your outlook and work flow on all the other parts of your life.
In the same vein, taking time to connect when you feel overwhelmed and stressed can be incredibly therapeutic…though most of us are resistant to doing it.
But interpersonal relationships are incredibly powerful (think back to a day where you got in a fight with someone close to you…and how it impacted your day, your week, or your month).
Taking time out of our busy schedules to connect, vent, and relate to people close to us has been a huge help in managing our HPA-D (adrenal fatigue) and hormonal imbalances.
Testing and Diagnosis
While all of these lifestyle changes we’ve outlined above can be incredibly helpful for anyone with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal dysfunction and hormonal imbalances, we strongly believe in the philosophy of “testing, not guessing” when it comes to these serious health issues.
Getting a clear idea of what is going on at the level of the neurotransmitters, the curve of the cortisol throughout the day, and what’s going on with the sex hormones and their precursors sets you up for much more success with symptoms and long term outcomes.
Not to mention, many of our clients are usually relieved to find out that their test results correlate to how they feel on a regular basis. And it’s not that it’s in their heads or they’re “just lazy” or anything like that!
When you create a protocol based off hard numbers, we find that most women ultimately spend less money on supplements, foods, and bills that they don’t need…and get better results while they’re at it!
(We both have supplement graveyards so ask us how we know that this approach ultimately ends up being cheaper!)
In order to get the best picture of what is going on, we like to use a Hormonal Panel and the Neurogistics Neurotransmitter Panel. And we use those results to create a customized protocol for each of the ladies in our Healthy Hormones Group Program.
Benefits of Balancing Hormones and Adrenal Function
It can be hard work to get to the root cause of your symptoms! We’ve both been there and know that it’s not always easy.
On the other hand, getting your energy and life back to do the things you love is of UTMOST IMPORTANCE! And we truly believe that.
Our Healthy Hormones Group Program participants have told us they experience:
- Better energy throughout the day
- More restful sleep
- Less acne and more even skin
- Happier sex lives
- Better digestion (decreased nausea, constipation, diarrhea)
- Improved/stable moods
- Less anxiety/depression
- Normalization of painful, heavy, or irregular periods
- Satisfaction in finding a like-minded group of health conscious folks to go on the journey with
Tired of being tired?
Sick of spending money on supplements and tools that don’t get you the results you’re looking for?
Ready to stop guessing and start testing?
Join us for our Healthy Hormones Group Program!!!
XOXO,
Megan & Alex