Tired of Being Tired?

Weekends used to be a time to relax and unwind, but many people now find the weekends to be equally as busy. Sadly, this is “normal” for many Americans.

Your body responds to stress by releasing hormones, including cortisol, from your adrenal glands. Cortisol is an important mediator of the stress response and is also important for regulating blood sugar, electrolyte balance and hormone balance.

Our bodies are designed to respond to a stressful event, and then return to a baseline state. When stressful events occur back to back, or stressful triggers last (as in chronic stress), the stress response can become down-regulated and our bodies eventually reduce the amount of cortisol produced. Though too much cortisol can cause damage to your body, too little cortisol is also a problem.

Millions of people suffer from severe exhaustion and/or adrenal dysfunction. If you find yourself feeling tired throughout the day, relying on coffee, sugar or other stimulants to get you going in the morning, you may be experiencing adrenal dysfunction. This feeling is often accompanied by one or more of the following:

• Morning fatigue or noticeable fatigue any time of day
• Craving salty or fatty foods
• Anxiety or nervousness
• Difficulty falling or staying asleep
• Muscle aches
• Increased irritability
• Decreased tolerance for stress
• Decreased mental sharpness
• Headaches and migraines

Daily hassles, work, chronic pain, and any other life stressors can alter your stress hormone levels. Imbalances in these hormones can have a wide range of negative consequences that can adversely impact your health and overall quality of life.

Did you know we can test your “stress levels”? It is difficult to know what your cortisol levels are based on symptoms alone. Therefore, it is important to test to determine an optimal treatment plan. Salivary testing is the only way to accurately measure the pattern of cortisol release throughout the day, which makes testing easy, convenient, and painless.