Transplants Are Not A Perfect Solution

Cortisol is produced in the mitochondria of the cells in the adrenal glands. It follows, then, that to increase cortisol production, we need to support the mitochondria. With cortisol, they are involved in the steps of turning cholesterol into cortisol. Everything from eating a healthy diet, to fasting overnight, to strengthening muscles, to getting good sleep helps your mitochondria and, in turn, adrenal function. Note that several of these herbs have been used around the world for centuries. Holy basil is commonly used in India to help with stress. Glycyrrhiza and eleutherococcus are often used in Chinese medicine. Now you can use them to address your stress type. The timing of your doses is important when it comes to using herbs and nutrients to support cortisol production. Our goal is to reestablish a healthy cortisol curve, where cortisol is higher in the morning and gradually decreasing through the day. You’ll want to take your herbal and nutrient support at the time, or just prior to when, your cortisol levels are too low. I think of it like a pothole in the road that we are aiming to fill in, but not overfill, so that as you move through that part of the day, you don’t experience a dip in your cortisol levels.

Dark As A Dungeon

It’s important to be mindful when taking glycyrrhiza. If you have high blood pressure, don’t take it until you have managed your blood pressure, because it can raise blood pressure that is already high. It won’t cause high blood pressure if your levels are normal. In fact, usually if you have low cortisol and adrenaline, you are likely to have low blood pressure, in which case glycyrrhiza can be very helpful. It is also important to be careful with the quantity of glycyrrhiza. Too high of a dose for too long can cause issues such as muscle breakdown, so don’t push your dose too high. It could even damage your body by preventing your adrenal glands from recovering. And your goal here is to help your adrenal glands and body recover from stress, not just to ingest substances that will take over for your adrenals. Now, again, in some cases, if your adrenal glands are maxed out and simply unable to make more cortisol and adrenaline than they are already making, then glandular support may be necessary, especially as a starting point. Taking the minimum dose, along with herbs and nutrients, can actually give your adrenals a break to recover function. I don’t recommend adding it unless you’ve already tried the preceding approaches and found that you need more support. We can use the precursor nutrient, tyrosine, which is an amino acid.

Shut Out The Light

By taking tyrosine, you’ll feed into that pathway, supporting dopamine as well. But there is no reason to overdo it. While it is tempting to boost your adrenaline and get some energy, it won’t help to go too fast and raise your adrenaline too high. Instead, your goal here is to support your adrenal glands to make just enough adrenaline to keep up with your day. Note that if you have iron deficiency, which is quite common, your body won’t be able to effectively turn tyrosine into adrenaline. Be sure to check your ferritin levels in your blood, and if lower than 50, you’ll need to support your iron levels prior to taking tyrosine. I often see this situation arise in women who are experiencing heavy menstrual periods. While one might think our bodies would bleed less when depleted, it is actually the opposite. When iron levels are low, we bleed more, losing still more iron, and lowering adrenaline and energy at the same time. Start with a low dose and take it in the morning. It doesn’t have to be with food, but I generally suggest taking it with food or a protein shake to avoid nausea that sometimes occurs from swallowing any pill on an empty stomach. Does your energy, mood, and motivation level improve? Listen to your body and adjust your doses accordingly.

That's What It Takes

As your adrenal glands recover and your digestion heals, your levels will catch up to optimal, and then you’ll likely be able to maintain healthy adrenaline levels without having to take tyrosine every day. It’s important at this stage to ensure that you are optimizing your hormones, including thyroid, insulin, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and melatonin. In fact, each gland and hormone can be supported with specific nutrients, herbs, and peptides. Patients and practitioners have tried flooding the gut with probiotics, which are mainly composed of two types of bacteria, Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. The reason is that our microbiome is made up of trillions of bacteria, and most do not come in the form of a capsule or powder. Swallowing hundreds of billions of lactobacilli is unlikely to support a diversity of bacteria, which is what we want. Eating a ton of fermented foods is also not going to hit the mark. Then practitioners started experimenting with fecal transplants that replace one person’s microbiome with that of another. But there are risks here, too. We don’t want to transfer any unwanted bacteria or infections, and it can be difficult to find the perfect match for what a person lacks. So fecal transplants are not a perfect solution for everyone, either. In most cases, the goal is neither to attempt to replace your entire microbiome nor to flood your intestines with a couple of strains. Instead, I suggest first rebalancing your gut bacteria using diet changes, digestive support, stress recovery, and an herbal protocol if needed. Then, once your gut bacteria are optimized, use a probiotic product at a dosage shown to maintain optimal levels over time and during stress exposure. It’s also important that your bowels are moving daily because when stool sits in the intestines, that can also cause an overgrowth of bacteria. If a moderate to severe imbalance of bacteria and/or other organisms exists, then we can use an effective protocol of antimicrobial herbs to address the imbalance or overgrowth.