For many of us, the holidays represent both the most joyous and the most stressful time of year — and it’s exactly the season when your adrenals work overtime. We hear about the adrenal glands often, but most people don’t really understand the role they play. I’d like to take a moment to shine a light on just how crucial these glands really are.
What the Adrenals Actually Do
The adrenal glands are endocrine glands that sit on top of your kidneys, and they handle three main jobs. Their chief responsibility is releasing hormones in response to stress, through corticosteroids like cortisol and catecholamines like epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine. They also produce androgens, mainly DHEA and androstenedione, the precursor to testosterone. And they affect kidney function through aldosterone, a hormone that regulates sodium balance and, with it, hydration in your blood.
I want to focus mainly on how the adrenals help your body manage stress, since that’s where cortisol comes in — though it’s worth knowing that if your adrenals become fatigued, all of these other roles suffer too.
The Role of Cortisol
Cortisol is a life-sustaining hormone, essential for keeping your whole system in balance. Known as “the stress hormone,” it influences or regulates many of the changes your body makes in response to stress, including:
- Blood sugar (glucose) levels
- Fat, protein, and carbohydrate metabolism to maintain blood glucose (gluconeogenesis)
- Immune responses
- Anti-inflammatory actions
- Blood pressure
- Heart and blood vessel tone and contraction
- Central nervous system activation
Cortisol normally follows a circadian rhythm, peaking around 8 a.m. and hitting its lowest point around 4 a.m. It’s vital for your adrenals to ramp up cortisol in response to stress, but it’s just as important for your body and cortisol levels to return to baseline once the stressful event passes. Unfortunately, in our high-stress culture, the body often doesn’t get that chance to reset when cortisol surges happen too frequently. Over time, this can lead to problems from too much circulating cortisol, or too little, if the adrenal glands become chronically fatigued — what’s commonly called adrenal fatigue.
When Cortisol Runs Too High
Higher, more prolonged cortisol levels, the kind associated with chronic stress, have been linked to:
- Impaired cognitive performance
- Dampened thyroid function
- Blood sugar imbalances, like hyperglycemia
- Decreased bone density
- Sleep disruption
- Decreased muscle mass
- Elevated blood pressure
- Lowered immune function
- Slow wound healing
- Increased abdominal fat
When Cortisol Runs Too Low
Chronically low cortisol, as seen in adrenal fatigue, has been linked to a different set of problems:
- Brain fog, cloudy-headedness, and mild depression
- Low thyroid function
- Blood sugar imbalances, like hypoglycemia
- Fatigue, especially in the morning and mid-afternoon
- Sleep disruption
- Low blood pressure
- Lowered immune function
- Inflammation
Rebuilding Adrenal Health
The good news is there’s a lot we can do to rebuild and rebalance your adrenal glands. I always start with the foundational pieces, so let’s walk through the three lifestyle changes that matter most.
Sleep. The first step to restoring adrenal function is getting enough of it. This varies by person, but most people need a solid 7 to 9 hours a night.
Blood sugar. Cortisol is released in response to low blood sugar, so eating enough protein and healthy fat throughout the day, while cutting back on simple carbohydrates, is crucial for letting your adrenals actually heal.
Your stressors themselves. Equally important is taking an honest look at the stress in your life and finding ways to either eliminate it or manage it differently, so it stops keeping your body in a constant state of tension.
Herbs and supplements can also be genuinely helpful in rebuilding adrenal function. A lot of us have been running at a fast pace for years and are only now starting to feel the effects — fatigue, weight gain, dizziness upon standing, and more. The lifestyle changes above are essential for the long-term health of your adrenals, but herbs and targeted supplements can help you get there faster.
If you’re experiencing symptoms consistent with adrenal dysfunction, I’d love to help guide you back to feeling like yourself.
— Dr. Faith Christensen