by Feeling Great | Apr 17, 2017 | Body
Healing Adrenal Fatigue – Ever caught yourself thinking, Wow, I feel burnt out! I think most of us have been there. What does it mean and how did it happen?
What is adrenal fatigue?
Adrenal fatigue is a phenomenon characterized by a disruption of your adrenal glands’ ability to make cortisol in the right amounts at the right times in response to stress. – mindbodygreen
Recently, I treated a young working mum that was the poster child of true burnout. She was early 30’s, just had her first child, worked in the emergency services and held herself to high standards with no excuses.
She came to me for weight she couldn’t shift and zero sex drive. She had started letting certain things go over the past year because she just couldn’t keep all the balls in the air, one of them had been intimacy with her partner.
Despite her usual rigorous weights and exercise program her muscle mass was dropping and she was stacking on weight around the middle. Even after restricting her carbs things weren’t getting any better.
She was up for promotion and her brain was foggy, her blood sugar dropped dramatically if she didn’t eat regularly and her strength waned. She felt knocked out when she went to bed, but still woke up with limited reserves.
She regularly needed a caffeine hit to keep her energy on, felt a big slump mid afternoon. At night she got by with hubby cooking and taking care of the kids. There was no thought of any more kids she was at her limit.
This a one presentation of classic adrenal fatigue. They can be varied in their severity.
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by Feeling Great | Apr 17, 2017 | Mind
Today I was inspired to write on anxiety, struggle and overwhelm. A common theme that wafted through my clinic and life over the last few weeks.
Typically the stories vary from…
- Beautiful young women losing their confidence to be themselves in the world, rather focusing on what they’re not than what is. Gripped by feelings of just not being enough, feeling judged and unlovable?
- Being medicated with antidepressants, yet still being depressed.
- Relationships and marriages disintegrating and the turmoil of change as newness is reborn.
- Friendships that have gone pear shaped over a misunderstanding.
- Work you’re no longer engaged or passionate about.
- Teenagers that have gone off the rails and lost the big picture.
- Elderly parents with declining health and associated worries and decisions.
Now stack a couple of these and you’re in the land of anxiety, struggle and overwhelm BIG TIME.
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by Feeling Great | Apr 3, 2017 | Body
Adrenal fatigue is a widespread and growing epidemic in today’s world. Surprisingly few people realise they have it. It’s one of the leading contributors to fatigue.
Your adrenal glands sit on top of each kidney. Their role is to produce hormones, including adrenaline and noradrenaline – both of which are used to prepare your body for fight or flight. – healthdirect
Adrenal fatigue may sound like ….….. I wake up tired, need a coffee to get me started then limp through the day with more caffeine and sugar (bread, lollies, biscuits, cake) to keep me going, then I hit the wall in the afternoon and come awake just before bedtime, often sleep badly then I do it all over again the next day.
This story can vary according to, which of the three stages of adrenal fatigue you’ve made it to.
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by Feeling Great | Feb 13, 2017 | Body
Hormones and Weight Gain After 40 – Don’t Give Into Fat, Frumpy and Grumpy
Hormones and Weight Gain After 40 – I was inspired to write this week when I came across a recent social media comment, that really shocked me – ‘I think for women in 40-55-year-old age group we’ve given up on being able to lose weight, with metabolism & hormone changes through menopause…’
Wow….really! I was totally horrified by the collective acceptance of that comment. It gave me instant visuals of lying on a train track, ready to get severed in half and saying it’s my destiny.
There’s no resignation to fat, frumpiness and grumpiness on my watch!
Hormones and Weight Gain After 40, It’s all so fixable. I do it multiple times a day five days a week – fix, tweak and rebalance hormonal issues. It’s so doable. Having a background in pharmacy and naturopathy, with 25 years experience under my belt, makes it all second nature. And of course, being in this age bracket myself, I do have an appreciation for what this wonderful lady was expressing.
But generally feeling and looking less than great is not OK, nor is it simply a normal sign of ageing. Your hormones are just out of balance and in need of a little TLC or a reboot.
Hormones sweepingly refer to many endocrine organs, which are essentially your thyroid, adrenal, pancreatic and sex hormones.
Here are some signs that will point you in the right direction. And yes, you can often have multiple imbalances….since they are linked in many feedback loops….and we’re not that simple that it’ll be just one thing. Plus, I don’t want to get bored!
Sluggish thyroid problems, often show up as fatigue along with constipation, thinning hair, weight gain you can’t seem to shift, depression, brain fog.
Adrenal problems, involving DHEA, cortisol, often shows up as fatigue and difficulty sleeping, anxiety, weight gain around the middle, craving sugar, irritability, night sweats.
Pancreatic problems or insulin resistance often shows up as expanding waist line, brain fog, dry mouth, variable energy.
Sex hormone problems, involving oestrogen, progesterone, testosterone often shows up as low libido, menstrual changes, hot flushes, PMS, dryness, fibroids (heavy bleeding), irritation, moodiness.
Hormonal serum blood tests, from your doctor, won’t always pick up the problem. Since blood tests only test for total hormones, bound and unbound. We’re interested in unbound hormones since these are the active ones. That’s why salivary hormone testing is a better option for adrenal and sex hormones.
CLICK HERE to get salivary hormone testing done today. It’s not super expensive and is an integral way to getting to back to feeling and looking great.
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by Feeling Great | Nov 14, 2016 | Body
Adrenal Fatigue Treatment Australia – Adrenally Fatigued Or Just Tired? Where Are You?
Adrenal fatigue is becoming more common in today’s fast-paced world. Heard the term a few times and wondering what it is and if you might have it?
Constantly exhausted and dragging yourself through the day, relying on jolts of caffeine, sugar and energy drinks to get you through – morning, mid-morning and mid-afternoon? This is a sign your cortisol is too low early in the day, when it should be at it’s highest. It’s meant to wake you up full of life.
Needing a stiff drink after work to quell the overwhelm, help you relax and get you through the family dinner-bedtime routine? This is a sign your cortisol levels are too high for this time of day and don’t allow for a restful night’s sleep.
Been to the doctor’s saying “why am I so tired?” They run a few labs and do a quick physical. No obvious results come back and you’re told everything’s fine. Perhaps come back in a few months if it doesn’t improve.
Not working for you? You’re not alone.
I have a different approach to Adrenal Fatigue Treatment Australia. I detect the early signs of your body struggling, before you get deep into adrenal fatigue. Why wait until you hit rock bottom? Uncovering the root causes is vital to great long term results.
Your tiny adrenal glands sit on top of your kidneys, to each side of your lower back. They’re responsible for regulating the stress response through the making of cortisol and adrenaline. In our busy, chronically stressed-out lives, our bodies are pumping out cortisol on a continual basis. We simply aren’t meant to function that way, and it can wear us down and burn us out. To add fuel to the fire, we tend to live on a diet of sugary, processed foods and caffeine. The stress, sugar and caffeine overload can wear down the adrenals as well.
So how do you know if your adrenals are fatigued?
Here is a summary of the stages of stress to help you identify if this is you:
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