Can Chiropractic Help Your Adrenal Function

I have noticed a new trend in my office.  More and more patients are approaching me with concerns of fatigue, difficulty waking up, allergies, waking up at night, sugar/coffee cravings, nagging illness/injury, abdominal weight gain, tiredness in the afternoon then a second wind in the evenings that keeps them from falling asleep, crash after lunch, low sex drive, brain fog or poor memory. The other trend that I have noticed is that more of us are overworked, tired, stressed, type A personalities, and are families with 2 working parents causing them to have to burn the candle at both ends.

All of these things tell me the same thing, ADRENAL FATIGUE, or what we more commonly refer to as, BURNED OUT ADRENALS.

The combination of our lifestyles ( I say our because I’m in the same boat) and our symptoms just scream to me that our adrenals glands may be in trouble.  The Adrenal glands are known as the “stress handling gland.”  The more stress we have in our lives, the more we need to give the Adrenal glands what they want. 

The adrenal glands, are small glands that sit right on top of the kidneys. Their main functions are:

§  Manage the body’s blood sugar balance

§  Handle stress (physical, emotional, and mental)

§  Release of steroids to reduce inflammation due to injury or infection

§  Manage the body’s fluid balances of sodium and potassium

That being said, people that are at risk of adrenal overload are:

§  Sleep deprived people

§  Overworked people

§  Parents of small children, especially parents with jobs

§  Type A personalities

§  Endurance athletes

§  People with long term injuries or illness

§  Stressed out people

In a perfect world when we eat a bowl of oatmeal or any other carbohydrates they are broken down in the body to glucose (sugar).  Your body uses this for energy.  The glucose floating around in the blood causes an increase in blood sugar until insulin is released to grab hold of the sugar and move it into the cells where it can be used for energy.  When the blood sugar gets to a normal level, the insulin should be at a low level.  This allows the body to go back to burning fat instead of glucose. (The presence of insulin prevents your body from burning fat.)  This is the ideal of what should happen.

Now for what usually happens in our real world.  We skip breakfast and then grab a quick fix donut or soda around 10:30.  At around 1:00 we have a great tasting lunch of carbs which gives us energy for about an hour and then we crash at about 3:00 for the rest of the afternoon.  This is when I usually walk across the parking lot and get a cookie or three to “get me through the afternoon.”  Then it’s home for a nap because I’m too tired to function and then a huge dinner of mostly carbs.  What this style of eating does is spike your blood sugar up and down all day long in anticipation of meals or eating only carbs.  This means the adrenals are having to work extra hard to try to regulate it.  When this happens, they start to get worn out and tired, have a hard time handling the body’s inflammation, handling the bodies stress, or keeping track of fluid balances in the body which help with muscle contraction.  All of this means that we feel lousy, sore, stiff, tired, and usually grumpy.

We can fix this by simply changing a little of how we eat and when we eat it.  By eating more protein and limiting our carbs we can avoid the blood sugar spikes and valleys allowing our energy level to be more constant.  This will also allow adrenals to be well rested to work when needed. 

Now for the challenge, if you accept this 7 day challenge you will feel noticeably better and have more energy.

§  Eat every 2 ½ to 3 hours. (Small meals, or snacks)

§  Limit your carbs to 60 grams per day.  This includes bread, fruit, grains, pasta, beans, etc.

§  Eat all of the green veggies that you want.

§  Don’t be afraid to eat a little fat.

There are a couple of important things to remember about the adrenals.  The adrenals like to be fed protein often.  They like a good night sleep.  They like vacation so that they can relax.  Fruit is a carb and will trigger an insulin response.  The most important thing to remember is that the body will not burn fat when there is too much insulin present.  This means that during this 7 day challenge you may lose some weight.  Be sure not to skip breakfast as it will trigger an insulin response.

Another important note:

The 9^th Thoracic vertebrae is very important in the maintaining the nerve supply to the adrenal glands.  Get chiropractic adjustments to make sure that area is functioning optimally.

I would love to talk to you more about this or any other health concerns that you have.

Thank you,

Dr. Asay