| TIRED? Really tired, sleep not refreshing you? CRAVINGS? Need sugary things a little too much? You may have adrenal fatigue!  | Adrenal Gland Function and Fatigue No bigger than a walnut and weighing less than a grape, each of your two adrenal function glands sits like a tiny pyramid on top of a kidney ("ad" "renal" means "over" the "kidneys"). But don't let their small size fool you; these powerful little hormone producing glands manufacture and secrete almost 50 different hormones, including steroid hormones such as adrenalin, cortisol, aldosterone, oestrogen and testosterone that are absolutely essential to your health and vitality. |
What Is Their Purpose?
The adrenal glands keep your body's reactions to stress in balance so that they are appropriate and not harmful. For example, the protective activity of anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant adrenal hormones like cortisol helps to minimise negative and allergic reactions, such as swelling and inflammation, to alcohol, drugs, foods, environmental allergens, cancer, infection, and autoimmune disorders (like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, MS, and the 70 odd other auto-immune conditions). These hormones closely affect the utilisation of carbohydrates and fats, the conversion of fats and proteins into energy, the distribution of stored fat (especially around your waist and at the sides of your face), normal blood sugar regulation (hypoglycemia is one of the problems related to poor adrenal function), and proper cardiovascular and gastrointestinal function.
Why test them?
If you have some of the symptoms of adrenal fatigue it pays to have the test as you can then get the correct treatment, and get well again! Testing involves keeping a tiny test tube of saliva 4 times over the course of a day, early morning, middle of the day in the afternoon and then the evening. This way the trend of cortisol levels can be tracked over the course of the whole day. Some tests a doctor may give you could take just a single sample which will not be a conclusive result as to the stage of fatigue you may be in. So the 4 samples mean you get a better treatment plan as we know for sure where you are at. As you can see in the below graph, if you took a sample at the middle of phase 2 (orange box) you would get a reading the same as ‘normal’ (green box). So tracking the entire day is crucial to an accurate reading.
This service is not open to the public it is accessed via a qualified practitioner. Contact Rich today to book your test and use his practitioner code. Email: rich@f4l.co.nz or phone/text: 021 777 417 www.f4l.co.nz
The adrenal glands keep your body's reactions to stress in balance so that they are appropriate and not harmful. For example, the protective activity of anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant adrenal hormones like cortisol helps to minimise negative and allergic reactions, such as swelling and inflammation, to alcohol, drugs, foods, environmental allergens, cancer, infection, and autoimmune disorders (like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, MS, and the 70 odd other auto-immune conditions). These hormones closely affect the utilisation of carbohydrates and fats, the conversion of fats and proteins into energy, the distribution of stored fat (especially around your waist and at the sides of your face), normal blood sugar regulation (hypoglycemia is one of the problems related to poor adrenal function), and proper cardiovascular and gastrointestinal function.
Why test them?
If you have some of the symptoms of adrenal fatigue it pays to have the test as you can then get the correct treatment, and get well again! Testing involves keeping a tiny test tube of saliva 4 times over the course of a day, early morning, middle of the day in the afternoon and then the evening. This way the trend of cortisol levels can be tracked over the course of the whole day. Some tests a doctor may give you could take just a single sample which will not be a conclusive result as to the stage of fatigue you may be in. So the 4 samples mean you get a better treatment plan as we know for sure where you are at. As you can see in the below graph, if you took a sample at the middle of phase 2 (orange box) you would get a reading the same as ‘normal’ (green box). So tracking the entire day is crucial to an accurate reading.
This service is not open to the public it is accessed via a qualified practitioner. Contact Rich today to book your test and use his practitioner code. Email: rich@f4l.co.nz or phone/text: 021 777 417 www.f4l.co.nz
RSS Feed
