Bust the Stress: How to Help Manage Adrenal Fatigue

Have you been watching the news, and now feel very stressed out? It’s only natural. The 2020s seem to have been a stressful time with plenty of unexpected twists and turns. Adjusting to life as it is now can be tough. Life today can be enough to make anyone feel stressed, and there’s no shame in dealing with that extra anxiety and getting a little overwhelmed.

However, while stress is nothing to feel embarrassed about, it’s definitely worth addressing – and beating — as soon as possible in order to preserve our health. Taking steps to ease your stress is one of the healthiest habits you can form, and it’s easier than you might think.

In this post, we’ll focus on adrenal fatigue, one of the many problems that stem from elevated stress levels. If you’ve been stressed more than usual lately, you might be experiencing adrenal fatigue. Keep on scrolling down to how to help manage adrenal fatigue effectively.

What is Adrenal Fatigue?

Let’s dive into biology 101. Your adrenal glands produce different hormones that are essential to the function of your body. They’re about the size of a nickel and sit above your kidneys. One of the hormones that they produce is cortisol, which correlates to stress. Adrenal fatigue happens when you push your body to the point where it is experiencing chronic stress. When this happens, your body stops producing cortisol as it should. Adrenal fatigue causes various symptoms, including body aches, fever, fatigue, nervousness, low energy, and digestive problems.

How to Help Manage Adrenal Fatigue

Since adrenal fatigue is rooted in long-term stress, you can make some lifestyle changes to start feeling better. One of those is cleaning up your diet. Start by cutting out sugar and alcohol from your diet, and replace those with fruits and vegetables. You also might want to improve your sleep, as not getting enough sleep or not getting the right sleep quality could prevent you from feeling better. Some tips to get better sleep include reducing your blue light exposure before going to bed and not consuming too much caffeine late in the day. You also can try reducing your naps and perhaps take a melatonin supplement to help you fall asleep faster.

Even Small Changes to Your Diet and Lifestyle Make a Big Difference

While dramatically reducing – or even eliminating – alcohol, refined sugar, and other junk food from your diet is ideal, even small changes can help you manage adrenal fatigue. Simply adding more fruits, vegetables, and other whole, unprocessed foods to your plate each day can provide you with more vitamins, minerals, and other key nutrients.

Your body needs a high-quality mix of nutrient-dense foods to properly regulate your stress levels, and you’ll be doing yourself a favor if you focus on healthy eating, which can go as far as to help counteract some of the inflammation that stress can cause. Remember, your diet doesn’t have to be perfect to keep stress at bay. A little change is better than no change at all!

Better Sleep Equals Less Stress

You also might want to improve your sleep, as not getting enough sleep or not getting the right sleep quality could prevent you from feeling better. Some tips to get better sleep include reducing your blue light exposure before going to bed and not consuming too much caffeine late in the day. You also can try reducing your naps and perhaps take a melatonin supplement to help you fall asleep faster.

In addition to reducing blue light exposure, trying melatonin, and implementing other restful practices, another step worth considering is focusing on your quality of sleep as well as the quantity. The amount of hours that you sleep per night is just one ingredient in the recipe for feeling rested and de-stressed. Deep, restful sleep is what you need most, and that’s achieved by optimizing your sleep environment and cultivating healthy bedtime and morning habits.

The habits listed above – monitoring caffeine intake, minimizing blue light before bed, and even cutting down on those afternoon naps – can all promote deeper, more restful sleep at night. In addition, reducing the amount of light in your bedroom using blackout curtains or a sleep mask may help as well.

High-quality sleep – ideally around eight hours of it – should leave you with more mental clarity, calm, and focus, which is exactly what you need to conquer your daily tasks with less stress.

Vitamin Supplements

Another way to help cure adrenal fatigue is to take supplements that help relieve your system of stored tension while boosting energy levels. Magnesium, B complex, Vitamin C, Zinc, Glycine, and Taurine, are just some supplements that can help, as they are key components in vital bodily functions. If you’re looking to feel the effects of vitamins quickly, IV therapy can be quite helpful, as it delivers the vitamins directly to your bloodstream, making them almost 100% bioavailable to your body. 

Turning to IV therapy sessions for stress might not be the first solution that pops into your head, but it may be a quick, convenient way to help give your body a nutrient-dense dose of stress-fighting vitamins and minerals that can help get you a little more balanced out. Getting essential nutrients delivered straight into your bloodstream can help rejuvenate your body so you’re physically better-equipped to manage the everyday stress that may come your way.

Sleep & Stress Support was formulated to help you get back to your best, whether you’ve been having trouble with malaise, brain fog, or just poor quality sleep. The B6 plays a key role in boosting feelings of energy, while zinc helps to inhibit the exictatory effects of glutamate, helping you to reach a state of calm that can help get you restful sleep.

Stress Management

The best way to cure adrenal fatigue fast is stress management. After all, stress is what got you here in the first place. Managing your stress can be done through meditation for a couple of minutes every day, or exercising for about 30 minutes every day. Lastly, unplugging yourself from your device and getting off social media can also help you feel less stressed. 

Let’s briefly take a look at how these anti-stress habits can positively impact your well-being and help you live a calmer life.

Exercise and Stress

When you move your body, you promote the release of hormones called endorphins, which are some of your best assets in beating stress. Endorphins can regulate feelings of calm, contentment, and euphoria, and they’re part of the reason why distance runners experience a “runner’s high” about half an hour into the run.

Getting even light daily exercise is one of the best ways to get a noticeable reduction in your stress levels. So, find a workout that you enjoy and make it an integral part of your daily routine for a calmer mind and a healthier body.

Meditation and Stress

In a world that never seems to stop moving, one of the most impactful habits you can practice is slowing down and meditating. Meditation doesn’t have to be a spiritual or religious practice – it’s simply focusing on your breathing, grounding yourself, and getting in touch with the world around you.

Intentionally taking time to slow down and meditate, even for a few minutes per day, can play a key role in your path towards a calmer life. While it might sound tough to sit still for long enough to meditate, many people from all walks of life have found real peace in getting a chance to center themselves and just take a moment.

Unplugging for Less Stress

There’s no denying that the constant buzzing of your smartphone could play a role in heightened stress levels – and even adrenal fatigue. If you want more peace and less stress in your life, turning off those notifications and taking a break from distracting apps might be just what you need.

If completely unplugging sounds too extreme, you might prefer to simply monitor your usage of your digital devices for a while. Setting time limits, uninstalling particularly addictive apps, and being selective about which notifications you receive can all be helpful practices as well.

So, the answer to the question “how to cure adrenal fatigue?” can be put simply in two words: reduce stress.

If you want to learn more, speak to a provider who may help share other modalities and means of management.

Sources:

Stress: Signs, Symptoms, Management & Prevention | Cleveland Clinic

Exercise and stress: Get moving to manage stress | Mayo Clinic

Phantom Phone Vibrations: So Common They've Changed Our Brains? : All Tech Considered | NPR