A Natural Supplement Protocol for Adrenal Fatigue and Stress Management

The Adrenal Recovery Kit

Our Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol (Adrenal Recovery Kit) is designed to help the body cope with the damaging effects of stress that can negatively influence the health of organ systems vital for healthy energy levels, proper brain function and hormonal health. The physiological effects of stress include adrenal fatigue and adrenal exhaustion. Our Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol consists of a selection of carefully researched natural adrenal support supplements and a patient guide to understanding effects of stress management on adrenal health.

A Natural Adrenal Support and Stress Management Program

The Adrenal Recovery Kit includes the following:

Glycemic Foundation (Natural Powder Supplement) - your choice of Vanilla or Chocolate. A unique formula of natural ingredients including essential nutrients for glycemic support, high quality dietary fiber and hypo-allergenic brown rice protein. Glycemic Foundation is formulated as a natural supplement for gylcemic support, cardiovascular health and hormonal health. Contains NO gluten, soy, preservatives, artificial flavors, artificial colors or artificial sweeteners such as aspartame.

Tempo Bars (Natural Food Bars) - 1 Apple Cinnamon and 1 Chocolate Mint. formulated with 12 grams of protein and 9.5 grams of dietary fiber to help you maintain a glycemic tempo throughout the day

Tranquil Moment Tea - 1 Box of 20 tea bags. A soothing aromatic tea made with traditional herbal adrenal support tonics and adaptogens combined with a subtle hint of peppermint and hibiscus.

Adrenal Recovery Kit Patient Guide - An informative booklet to help understand the physiological effects of stress. Provides suggestions for lifestyle changes that enhance natural stress management and adrenal support.

Beginning Our Natural Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol

A truly satisfying life is a life lived in balance. Your choices of the foods you eat, how you think, your relationships and how often you exercise, all play an important role in natural adrenal stress management and attaining optimum health. By choosing to follow our Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol, you have already taken the first steps toward a life in health and balance.

The unfortunate fact is that life is stressful. No matter who you are, or where you live, you are bound to encounter stressful situations that will influence your adrenal cortex. We are all affected by stress, yet it is how we perceive and respond to the stressors in our lives that can have a profound influence on our health. The consequences and negative effects of stress may vary widely for each individual person.

Are you easily overwhelmed by everyday tasks that once were a breeze?

Do you get angry over things that never use to bother you?

Have you gained weight around your waist?

Is your sleep not as regular or as restful as it once was?

Is it difficult for you to concentrate on important tasks?

Are you falling ill more frequently, catching more colds and infections than before? 

Do you have cravings for unhealthy foods?

Is your libido low and not what is once was?

Are you easily irritated by family members, co-workers, and people around you?

Do you feel exhausted, as if you have no energy by the middle of the afternoon?

Are you relying on coffee or chocolate to make it through the day?

Do aches and pains linger longer than they once did?

Are you drinking more alcohol to relieve stress?

If you identify with several of these statements, then it may be a sign that your body's system for adapting to stress is not responding optimally. If you identify with three or four of these statements, then your body is sending signals that life's stresses are overwhelming its ability to keep up. Our Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol is recommended because it contains some of the basic tools needed to help your body begin the process of responding to stress appropriately. The tools of the Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol can help you regain the reigns of your life to be able to once again enjoy revitalization, vitality, restored energy levels, a happier mood and a healthier life in balance.

A Customizable Natural Supplement Program for Adrenal Support

Each person is different just as each situation is unique and complex. Our Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol is designed to be adaptable and easily adjusted for your specific needs. The tools in this program are intended to create an environment of natural adrenal recovery and healthy stress management, allowing you to discover your own perfect balance that will restore vitality, cause you to attain optimal health and intern provide for a better you.

Adrenal Stress Management - Defining Levels of Adrenal Fatigue and Adrenal Exhaustion

The Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol will also help you understand stress form a clinical perspective, and help you learn how your body responds, or fails to respond to various stressors and discover the stressors that affect you most. Once you identify the stressful situations in your life and address your perception of those influences, you can define your level of adrenal fatigue, adrenal exhaustion and use the Adrenal Recovery Kit Patient Guide to begin taking the needed steps to restore adrenal function, energy levels and overall health. Natural stress management and correctly handling your perception of stressors will help you move towards achieving the balanced and fulfilling life you seek.

The Causes of Adrenal Stress

You probably can provide a comprehensive description of the circumstances or persons that "leave you at the end of your rope". Perhaps you have been feeling exhausted and burned-out for years. Perhaps you can not understand why it is difficult to gather up enough energy for the simple tasks in life. The truth is that your adrenal glands may have been hit hard by the stressors life has thrown at them and are in need of a natural support solution, an Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol designed to ease the burden of stress and allow for healthy recovery from adrenal fatigue and adrenal exhaustion.

Whether you are in a demanding job with constant pressure, a challenging graduate program in a competitive academic environment, or living frugally as a retiree trying to make ends meet, your stressful circumstances may be overwhelming your adrenal glands and hormonal system, negatively affecting your ability to cope, whereby straining your natural stress response mechanisms to the limit.

Triggering Adrenal Fatigue and Adrenal Exhaustion

Scientists have learned that most aspects that are different from the normal expectations of life trigger a stress response. Whether these events are real - actual emergency or trauma, or perceived - anxiety about a potential event, the stress response is surprisingly similar. When you constantly trigger your stress response mechanisms with events that are not resolved, your stress response mechanisms become disjointed, improperly regulated, fatigued (adrenal fatigue) and exhausted (adrenal exhaustion). Sometimes they fail altogether.

Chronic Stressors affecting health of the Adrenal Glands

Most people think of stress as mental and emotional stress, however, an imbalance in blood sugar and chronic inflammation anywhere in the body are also common chronic stressors that cause damage to the adrenal cortex. Ironically, each of these events is a potent stimulator of cortisol, the adrenal hormone produced to help recover from stress. Our Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol (Adrenal Recovery Kit) focuses on how to manage mental and emotional stress as well as stress to the body caused by blood sugar glycemic imbalance and chronic inflammation.

The Four Components of Adrenal Stress

Researchers who study stress - stress response and stress management - state that the events that cause greatest emotional and mental stress usually have four similarities: novelty, unpredictability, sense of threat and loss of control. First, people are stressed by things that are new to them. First-time experiences cause people to anticipate how we will feel during an event, whether pain or pleasure, triggering a stress response. When combined with unpredictability, the second aspect of mental and emotional stress, a person's stress response intensifies.

The third stress component is a sense of threat to one's physical well-being or psyche. While it is not always thought of as stress, the nervous anticipation of someone else's opinion of you is a threat to your psyche, and therefore a source of stress.

Stressful events typically cause people to feel as though they have experienced loss of control over a situation. Families with teenagers are often times find themselves in this situation as teens become more independent and parents must begin to let go.

Four Components of Adrenal Stress in a work environment

An example of those who are frequently affected by the four stress components (novelty, unpredictability, sense of threat and loss of control) are middle managers in businesses or corporations. These individuals feel the responsibility of performing new tasks (novelty) that typically have unpredictable outcomes and threaten their job approval while feeling that they do not have control over the situation. Not surprisingly, middle managers are often considered to have the highest stress in most corporations, leading to high turn-over, burnout and poor job satisfaction.

In order for a stress management program to be most successful, it is important for you to understand how the various components of stress add to your overall stress load. In truth, your perception of an event is gives stress fuel, often more then the actual event itself. After all, situations and events that build stress in one person may be another person's adventure or pleasure: think skydiving, whitewater rafting, public speaking, business meetings, etc.

Adrenal Stress Inventory and Stress Responses

Each of us is faced with common, everyday stressors. It is beneficial to identify these stressors and realize their impacts on our lives and the health of our bodies. With the understanding that certain issues are out of your control, the circumstances that can be controlled should be evaluated and managed to minimize the consequences of HPA axis overload and adrenal exhaustion:

Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol - Natural Stress Management and Your Health Condition

All stress triggers can lead to adrenal exhaustion, especially acute or chronic illnesses. Chronic inflammatory conditions such as inflammatory bowel diseases (Chron's disease, irritable bowel syndrome IBS), arthritis (rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis), diabetes and many others will place constant demands on cortisol production and eventually exhaust the stress response system. Your diet, the foods you eat, the medications you take, all can contribute to a pro inflammatory environment in your body and lead to accelerated deterioration of your health condition. Natural anti-inflammatory supplements can help to relieve your body's inflammatory burden.

Take Control of Your Adrenal Health and Stress Management:

Worrying about your health or conditions you might have will also create anxiety. It is important to find a holistic medical doctor who can help you diagnose and treat the root cause of your health issues. The more you know about your health concerns, the more you will reduce the unpredictability of your symptoms and the associated stress.

See a holistic doctor for help in finding the root cause of your illness or pain.

Consider using natural supplements for inflammation, natural anti-inflammatory supplements, to control pain and inflammation rather than OTC prescription anti-inflammatory drugs.

Natural Supplements for Inflammation include: Inflamma-bLOX and InflammaCore.

Recognize that it will take time to get back to normal again - do not get anxious; never lose hope.

Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol - Natural Stress Management and Your Sleep Quality

Sleep is the body's way of re-setting itself both metabolically and psychologically. Humans are designed to function optimally on a 24 hour circadian rhythm. Sleep is what helps your body readjust to the stresses placed upon it during the day. If your body is not receiving the appropriate amount of sleep or if your sleep pattern is continually being adjusted (day shift to night shift, etc.) your natural stress response will not be able to function properly and will overload your adrenal glands with stress.

Support Adrenal Health, Take Control of Your Sleep

While using our Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol, Adrenal Recovery Kit, it is recommended to get 7-8 hours of sleep each night, sleeping as much as possible before midnight. If you have trouble relaxing enough to fall asleep, begin by removing stimuli (such as the TV, radio, cell phones, lights, etc.) and adding relaxation (dim lighting, calming music, warm tea, hot bath) during the 30-45 minutes before bed. Reading a relaxing novel, devotional, or book of inspirational stories may help. You might find it helpful to write down the next day's tasks so you can relax your mind and forget your worries while you sleep. Using herbal sleep aids and natural supplements for sleep support such as Natural ZZZs, Melatonin, 5 HTP, Reacted Magnesium and Seretone may be very effective to help you fall asleep.

Your sleep problems may be hormone related. A hormonal imbalance (menopause, male menopause, andropause, hypothyroidism, etc.) can cause negative influences on the circadian rhythm and prevent you from attaining a restful night's sleep. You may benefit from consulting a bioidentical hormones doctor who can detect, address and accurately treat the hormone imbalance.

Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol - Natural Stress Management and Exercise

Physical activity is important for proper health and stress management. In the right balance, exercise helps maintain insulin sensitivity, blood glucose, boosts immune system function, promotes muscle mass and also produces body chemicals (endorphins) that promote relaxation and happiness. Light exercise and stretching is ideal for producing the health benefits that result in adrenal stress reduction. However, over-exercising, strenuous physical activity and hard training, adds stress to our bodies and can actually weaken the immune system.

Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol - Natural Stress Management Diet

Food is more then nutrition; it also contains information to help regulate systems in the body. The quantity, frequency and quality of your diet and the foods you eat will influence your body's response by either assisting or hindering natural stress management. Constant fluctuations in blood glucose create one of the body's most stressful conditions. Low blood sugar triggers the adrenal glands to produce cortisol, and cortisol stimulates cells to begin producing more glucose.

It is important to maintain a naturally balanced stress management diet. When your diet consists of foods high in carbohydrates (sweets, unrefined sugars, high glycemic index or load foods), you activate high amounts of insulin production from the pancreas. The overproduction of insulin drives glucose levels down quickly and results in a lower than optimal blood sugar level for a short period of time. This often occurs a short time after eating a meal such as lunch, making you feel sleepy. Your adrenal cortisol will normalize the blood glucose level in 30 to 45 minutes. However, some people may attempt to self-medicate their blood sugar level with chocolate or coffee, causing another round of high insulin. When this cycle of glycemic stress is continually repeated, it places a constant burden on the adrenal stress response. Keeping a "food diary" for 7 days may be helpful to objectively assess your food intake to determine the burden of stress you may be placing on your body and help you with natural stress management relating to diet.

Natural Adrenal Support through Healthy Dieting

Controlling glycemic response by choosing foods that promote glycemic stability is a critical lifestyle change to relieve chronic stress. Foods with a low glycemic index that also contain high soluble fiber will help ease insulin spikes that drive blood glucose levels below normal.

Breakfast is especially important. Eating a breakfast with proper glycemic balance, which includes good sources of both protein and fat, while avoiding an excess of sugars, starts the day right by supplying your body and brain with the needed fuel.

Eating a wider array and greater quantity of organic fruits and vegetables will supply the body with antioxidants and help with inflammation, a common burden to the adrenal stress response system.

Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol for Glycemic Support

Our Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol for natural stress management is designed to help you achieve glycemic stability. The adrenal recovery kit includes Glycemic Foundation, a natural supplement formulated with nutrients necessary to help establish glycemic control, whereby providing support for adrenal recovery.

Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids and Adrenal Stress Management

Supplementing with high amounts of omega 3 essential fatty acids while limiting intake of omega 6 fatty acids will also promote appropriate stress responses. Beside fish, omega 3 fatty acids are present in flaxseeds - flaxseed oil, green leafy vegetables and nut oils including almond oil. It may be difficult to obtain the high doses of omega 3 fatty acids needed to ease the burden of stress from food alone. Therefore it is recommended to take a high quality omega 3 fatty acids natural supplement. Healthy natural oils such as olive oil are acceptable.

Managing Adrenal Stress with Gradual Diet Changes

Please note that radical changes in your diet while using our Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol are not recommended. We advise to gradually make the needed adjustments in one's diet. Major drastic alterations to a diet can add unnecessary stress onto the adrenal glands and stress response systems of the body. An Excess of any type of foods (especially alcohol, caffeine, carbohydrates and fats) should be avoided while on our Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol. As always, a well formulated natural multivitamin supplement such as our Alpha Base multivitamin is recommended as solid nutritional support to any diet.

Natural Stress Management Diet for Adrenal Support - Summary:

Make it a priority to eat a protein-rich breakfast every morning

Eat protein at the beginning of each meal

Avoid trans-fats and minimize omega 6 fatty acids intake

Increase omega 3 fatty acids (fish, fish oil, green leafy vegetables, flaxseed)

Use a high quality natural omega 3 fish oil supplement

Reduce intake of high glycemic index carbohydrates and simple sugars

Increase dietary fiber and soluble fiber

Schedule "comfort foods" to avoid the feeling of guilt

Limit caffeine, alcohol, fried foods and sweets

Supplement with an effective natural multivitamin such as our Alpha Base multivitamin

Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol - Natural Stress Management at Work

When most people think of stress they define it as "too much to do and not enough time". Perhaps you feel this way about your current job, or other situations in your life cause an overload of tasks. The fact is that the stress levels that lead to adrenal fatigue and adrenal exhaustion are highest when a person is given responsibility without feeling they have the necessary tools to accomplish the job or tasks. Does this sound like a situation you continually find yourself in?

Natural stress management through our Adrenal Support Supplement Protocol can help.

To take active control over your adrenal recovery, ask yourself if the amount of stress at your workplace is overwhelming you and how much of it could be relieved by taking positive action. Consider the four traits of common stressors that lead to adrenal fatigue and adrenal exhaustion. How can you eliminate, or at least lessen, the stress of novelty, unpredictability, threatening events or a loss of control? Speak with your co-workers or supervisors about the need for adequate warning when changes are coming or for additional training when new skills are required. Ask for more specifics about what is expected of you so you can feel more control over your job performance.

If all else fail, consider other employment options. With few exceptions, no job is worth permanently losing your health. Look for work that provides the right amount of challenge with a level of responsibility you believe you can handle.

Natural Stress Management at work for Adrenal Support - Summary:

Schedule as much vacation as you are allotted, ask for more.
Do not skip meals and breaks to get more done.
Resolve issues with supervisors and coworkers as soon as possible.
Recognize the aspects that are truly under your control and do not fret about the rest.
Reorganize your work surrounding for better efficiency.
Acquire new skills or training if needed to perform up to expectations.

Three categories of adrenal stress:

1. Acute Adrenal Dysfunction: Sometimes called "the Alarm Reaction", patients with acute adrenal stress will fell and act "wired". Current demanding stressful situations cause high amounts of cortisol production, however there is inadequate feedback reduction. People with acute adrenal stress may also lack an adequate diurnal rhythm. Adrenal stress in the form of cute adrenal dysfunction will eventually suppress important immune functions and will often result in increased risk of sickness.

2. Adrenal Fatigue: This condition can be the result of adjustments to an ongoing acute adrenal dysfunction condition or the accumulation of years of mild stress without adequate relaxation and recuperation. People suffering from adrenal fatigue may have cortisol levels within the normal range, but either lack adequate sleep through a proper circadian rhythm or have reduced DHEA levels.

3. Adrenal Exhaustion: This condition of adrenal stress is often called "burnout". People suffering from adrenal exhaustion typically have low or very low cortisol levels (Addison's disease is the complete loss of cortisol production). People with adrenal exhaustion are easily overwhelmed by any stress and find that even simple tasks become burdensome.

CONTRAINDICATIONS:
If you are pregnant or nursing, consult your health care professional before taking this product or any herbal natural supplement products. Glycemic Foundation contains significant levels of soluble and fermentable fibers. Some individuals may experience gas discomfort when initially taking the product. We recommend using ½ scoop doses for the first several days to allow for bowel adjustments before regularly using the full dose.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to treat, diagnose, prevent, or cure any disease. Consult a physician before taking. Should you experience any serious physical side effects from taking these nutritional supplements, discontinue and call your doctor immediately.