Latest / Love Your Gut / Ep 63: Do adrenal cocktails actually work for stress?

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Ep 63: Do adrenal cocktails actually work for stress? · Love Your Gut

• 0:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome to the Love Your Gut Podcast.
• 0:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: Heather Finley, registered dietitian and gut health specialist.
• 0:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: I understand the frustration of dealing with GI issues because I've been there and I spent over two decades searching for answers for my own gut issues of constipation, bloating, and stomach pain.
• 0:21
  Dr. Heather Finley: I've dedicated my life to understanding and solving my own gut issues.
• 0:25
  Dr. Heather Finley: And now I'm here to guide you.
• 0:28
  Dr. Heather Finley: On this podcast, I'll help you identify the true root causes of your discomfort.
• 0:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: So you can finally ditch your symptoms for good.
• 0:36
  Dr. Heather Finley: My goal is to empower you with the knowledge and tools you need so that you can love your gut and it will love you right back.
• 0:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: So if you're ready to learn a lot, gain a deeper understanding of your gut and find lasting relief.
• 0:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: You are in the right place.
• 0:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome to the love your gut podcast..............
• 0:54
  Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome back to the next episode of the love your gut podcast.
• 0:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: So excited to be here with you today, talking about adrenal cocktails.
• 1:02
  Dr. Heather Finley: If you scroll tick talk, which may or may not be around at the time that I am releasing this episode, but if you scroll the internet, Instagram, TikTok, anything, you've likely seen people talking about adrenal cocktails, cortisol face, and how adrenal cocktails can be this like magical cure for your stress.
• 1:25
  Dr. Heather Finley: So I want to break it down today and answer the question, do adrenal cocktails actually So the thing I want you to think about is if you've ever hit that like 3pm slump and thought why am I so tired all the time or maybe you've caught yourself googling how to stop craving sugar while scrolling past, you know, all the new year's information at this point, all the detoxes, the trends, et cetera.
• 1:53
  Dr. Heather Finley: It might seem like everyone is swearing by some kind of trend to boost energy, curb cravings, improve digestion, and adrenal cocktails is probably something that you've seen.
• 2:04
  Dr. Heather Finley: So are they really a magical fix?
• 2:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: And more importantly, could they actually work for you?
• 2:09
  Dr. Heather Finley: So that's what we're going to dive into today.
• 2:12
  Dr. Heather Finley: But first, By the end of this episode, I want you to understand really what your adrenal glands actually do and why they're so important.
• 2:20
  Dr. Heather Finley: You can imagine your adrenal glands.
• 2:22
  Dr. Heather Finley: They're kind of like your thermostat for stress.
• 2:25
  Dr. Heather Finley: So when life gets busy or stressful or even exciting, stress doesn't always have to be negative.
• 2:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: It could be really just a busy, exciting time in your life.
• 2:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: Your adrenals adjust your body's quote unquote settings to help you handle stress.
• 2:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: They release hormones like cortisol, which you've probably heard of to give you energy, keep things running.
• 2:44
  Dr. Heather Finley: But if you're stressed all the time, that thermostat can get stuck in overdrive, making you feel cranky, tired, burnout.
• 2:51
  Dr. Heather Finley: I also want you by the end of this episode to understand what the components of adrenal cocktails actually are and why they help.
• 3:00
  Dr. Heather Finley: So things like vitamin C.
• 3:02
  Dr. Heather Finley: Sodium, potassium, vitamin C is kind of like the oil for your stress thermostat, helping everything run smoothly.
• 3:09
  Dr. Heather Finley: Sodium is kind of the coolant, so it keeps your body balanced and hydrated.
• 3:13
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then potassium is kind of its sodium's teammate, just helping to keep your stress in check.
• 3:19
  Dr. Heather Finley: So your body doesn't get too hot or too cold.
• 3:23
  Dr. Heather Finley: I also want to talk about some common lifestyle factors that could probably be putting extra stress on your adrenals.
• 3:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: life has challenges.
• 3:31
  Dr. Heather Finley: Maybe you're in a season where you're not sleeping.
• 3:34
  Dr. Heather Finley: Maybe you have a newborn like me.
• 3:36
  Dr. Heather Finley: Maybe you are skipping meals.
• 3:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: Maybe you are dealing with too much stress from work.
• 3:40
  Dr. Heather Finley: We can't overload our thermostats.
• 3:42
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's like, you know, I live in Texas and Dallas in the summer, our AC is running constantly.
• 3:49
  Dr. Heather Finley: You can't overload it.
• 3:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: Eventually it kind of burns out.
• 3:51
  Dr. Heather Finley: So.
• 3:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: We're going to talk through some of that how adrenal cocktails may or may not help you.
• 3:57
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then what testing might be helpful if you do find yourself in kind of this like burnt out season what to do to just take kind of a sneak peek into your body's dashboard to see what's running low, what you can do about it, et cetera, et cetera.
• 4:13
  Dr. Heather Finley: So if any of this sounds familiar, you're constantly tired.
• 4:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: But you can't seem to wind down at night.
• 4:18
  Dr. Heather Finley: Maybe you feel like you're surviving on caffeine or sugar or salty snacks, or that's what you're craving to get through the day.
• 4:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: Maybe you're frustrated with gut issues, hormone symptoms, not feeling your best.
• 4:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: There, these aren't isolated problems.
• 4:32
  Dr. Heather Finley: They're often connected to deeper imbalances like mineral depletion that your adrenal glands are directly involved in.
• 4:39
  Dr. Heather Finley: And that's where adrenal cocktails and even better customized mineral support can really help you.
• 4:45
  Dr. Heather Finley: So grab your favorite drink, whether it's an adrenal cocktail or not.
• 4:49
  Dr. Heather Finley: And let's.
• 4:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: Let's get into what makes these little glands so crucial for your health why this trend has gained so much attention and really how you can take practical steps to support your body.
• 5:01
  Dr. Heather Finley: So let's start off with what actually are the adrenal glands.
• 5:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: To be honest, the thing that I find most hilarious when I'm scrolling the internet As all of these people talking about adrenal cocktails and they, they don't even know what the adrenals are.
• 5:17
  Dr. Heather Finley: They couldn't explain to you what cortisol actually does.
• 5:22
  Dr. Heather Finley: I think cortisol is like this demonized thing constantly on the internet.
• 5:27
  Dr. Heather Finley: And here's the thing, cortisol is actually a good thing.
• 5:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: We're not trying to get rid of cortisol.
• 5:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: That would actually be terrible for your health.
• 5:35
  Dr. Heather Finley: So we're trying to keep cortisol in check.
• 5:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: Make sure your cortisol rhythm.
• 5:41
  Dr. Heather Finley: is how it should be, but we're not necessarily just trying to get rid of all cortisol.
• 5:47
  Dr. Heather Finley: So that's something to just keep in mind, but your adrenal glands are these two really small organs that sit on top of your kidneys.
• 5:55
  Dr. Heather Finley: They're super tiny, but they're very powerful.
• 5:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: They're part of your endocrine system.
• 6:00
  Dr. Heather Finley: Which is kind of like the body's messaging network.
• 6:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: It uses hormones to send signals.
• 6:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: So there's two kind of key functions of the adrenal glands.
• 6:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: Number one is stress response.
• 6:11
  Dr. Heather Finley: So when you are stressed, your adrenal glands release cortisol.
• 6:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: This is a stress hormone.
• 6:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: Again.
• 6:18
  Dr. Heather Finley: We need some of it.
• 6:19
  Dr. Heather Finley: Otherwise, if you didn't have cortisol, you wouldn't be able to get out of bed in the morning.
• 6:23
  Dr. Heather Finley: Cortisol is actually what wakes you up.
• 6:25
  Dr. Heather Finley: And so the goal is you want your cortisol to be present in the morning to rise about two hours after you wake up and then to slowly decrease throughout the day because it has an inverse relationship with melatonin.
• 6:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: So sometimes what we find is People's cortisol is just the opposite of that, which is why they can't get out of bed in the morning and then they're wired and tired at night.
• 6:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: So cortisol helps your body react by increasing energy, keeping your blood sugar steady, helping you focus during stressful moments like a big meeting or intense workout.
• 6:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then secondly, the adrenal glands help with electrolyte balance.
• 7:01
  Dr. Heather Finley: Specifically aldosterone, it helps manage your sodium and potassium levels, which are key for keeping you hydrated, hydrated and maintaining normal blood pressure.
• 7:13
  Dr. Heather Finley: This is actually just to kind of put some things together for you.
• 7:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: If you've ever experienced low blood pressure, this can actually be related to your adrenal glands being completely burnout as well.
• 7:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: I think oftentimes we think of like really high stressful seasons you know, and having high blood pressure sometimes.
• 7:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: But when your body gets so burnt out, it can actually go the opposite way as well.
• 7:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: So back to kind of this stress thermostat analogy, you can think of your adrenal glands kind of like the thermostat in your house.
• 7:45
  Dr. Heather Finley: When life gets hot or stressful, they turn up the temperature.
• 7:49
  Dr. Heather Finley: hormones like cortisol to help cool down and manage the heat.
• 7:54
  Dr. Heather Finley: If your thermostat is running nonstop because of constant stress, it can get overworked.
• 8:00
  Dr. Heather Finley: And just like a thermostat, your adrenal glands need regular maintenance and care.
• 8:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: So there's a lot of things that you can do to support your adrenal glands.
• 8:11
  Dr. Heather Finley: And one of the things that you can do to support your adrenal glands is to support nutrients that your body uses during stress.
• 8:20
  Dr. Heather Finley: So there are three nutrients that I want to talk about.
• 8:23
  Dr. Heather Finley: Stress makes your adrenal glands work harder.
• 8:26
  Dr. Heather Finley: And when they work harder, they use up more fuel in the form of vitamins and minerals.
• 8:32
  Dr. Heather Finley: So the first one is vitamin C.
• 8:34
  Dr. Heather Finley: Your adrenal glands need very large amounts of vitamin C to actually make and produce cortisol.
• 8:41
  Dr. Heather Finley: When you're stressed, your body burns through vitamin C faster, which is why you might feel run down if you don't replenish it, or why you might be getting sick more often when you're in a stressful season.
• 8:54
  Dr. Heather Finley: The next two minerals are sodium and potassium.
• 8:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: These minerals help balance fluids in your body and are essential for proper nerve and muscle function.
• 9:04
  Dr. Heather Finley: I've had other episodes where I've talked more specifically about these minerals in relation to digestion and other hormone things, but during stress, your body actually loses sodium and potassium more quickly, and which can leave you feeling dizzy, tired, Even craving salty snacks.
• 9:21
  Dr. Heather Finley: We hear this from our clients a lot where they're like, why am I craving sugar or salty things?
• 9:27
  Dr. Heather Finley: And a lot of that goes back to stress and stress management.
• 9:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: So over time, chronic stress is going to deplete these nutrients and many others, but these three specifically leaving your adrenal glands and you just feeling fatigued and possibly less resilient.
• 9:44
  Dr. Heather Finley: Of course, we can't just out supplement our stress with vitamin C, sodium and potassium.
• 9:51
  Dr. Heather Finley: There's lots of other things we can do to support stress, which I'm going to talk about.
• 9:55
  Dr. Heather Finley: However, these are the raw materials that your body needs to help regulate the temperature or the stress thermometer that's going on and kind of cool down this stress.
• 10:07
  Dr. Heather Finley: So while your adrenal glands are incredibly resilient, they're not designed to handle constant stress day in and day out.
• 10:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: So when your stress thermostat is stuck on high, it can just have this domino effect throughout your body.
• 10:23
  Dr. Heather Finley: Leading to a wide range of symptoms and imbalances.
• 10:26
  Dr. Heather Finley: So chronic stress and taxed adrenals will impact your overall health in many ways.
• 10:32
  Dr. Heather Finley: And number one that we see in our practice a lot is gut issues.
• 10:37
  Dr. Heather Finley: Chronic stress disrupts digestion as your body is prioritizing this food intake.
• 10:41
  Dr. Heather Finley: Fight or flight response over breaking down food properly.
• 10:46
  Dr. Heather Finley: So this can lead to bloating and gas because stress slows stomach emptying and digestion.
• 10:53
  Dr. Heather Finley: This can lead to heartburn.
• 10:54
  Dr. Heather Finley: Cortisol can increase stomach acid production.
• 10:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: It can also increase gut dysbiosis.
• 11:01
  Dr. Heather Finley: So stress will weaken the gut lining and it can allow harmful bacteria to overgrow leading to imbalances in the microbiome.
• 11:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: There is actual research supporting this, showing that chronic stress will disrupt the bacteria in your gut.
• 11:17
  Dr. Heather Finley: So you can take All the probiotics you want, you can take all the antimicrobials you want, but if you don't get your stress in check, it will impact your gut bacteria, which is so cool and crazy.
• 11:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: Just how much the mind body connection truly does matter.
• 11:34
  Dr. Heather Finley: The other way that chronic stress or taxed adrenals will impact your overall health is hormone imbalances, which might sound obvious.
• 11:41
  Dr. Heather Finley: Obviously we're talking about cortisol here, but.
• 11:44
  Dr. Heather Finley: The adrenal glands will play a big role in regulating hormone production.
• 11:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: When they're overworked, it's going to throw off the balance of other hormones like estrogen and progesterone.
• 11:55
  Dr. Heather Finley: High cortisol is telling your body, Hey, it is not a safe environment to Potentially ovulate to potentially get pregnant to potentially have normal cycles because at the end of the day, if you are a menstruating female, the decision that your body is making every single month is, is it safe to have a baby?
• 12:14
  Dr. Heather Finley: Whether you, that's your goal or not.
• 12:17
  Dr. Heather Finley: But is it safe to have a menstrual cycle?
• 12:20
  Dr. Heather Finley: And if you're chronically stressed and your adrenals are taxed, that can be part of the reason maybe why you have an irregular cycle or why you lost your cycle.
• 12:31
  Dr. Heather Finley: So something to definitely think about, but other symptoms besides just irregular and missing periods, PMS, estrogen dominant symptoms like heavy periods or even mood swings.
• 12:42
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then secondly, on under kind of this hormone umbrella is thyroid hormones.
• 12:47
  Dr. Heather Finley: This was the case for me.
• 12:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: And I've talked a lot about this on the podcast, but when I was going through probably the most stressful period in my life, after my dad passed away From a battle with colon cancer, my thyroid went wacko.
• 13:00
  Dr. Heather Finley: I definitely had what the internet is now calling cortisol face, but it wasn't actually cortisol face.
• 13:07
  Dr. Heather Finley: It was a, well, it, I guess it was, but it was definitely thyroid related.
• 13:13
  Dr. Heather Finley: Chronic stress slowed my thyroid function.
• 13:17
  Dr. Heather Finley: It led to tons of fatigue, hair loss puffiness, et cetera.
• 13:22
  Dr. Heather Finley: And so at that point.
• 13:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: I didn't have what the internet called quote unquote cortisol phase.
• 13:28
  Dr. Heather Finley: I actually had complete burnout.
• 13:31
  Dr. Heather Finley: My cortisol was super low because of being chronically stressed for way too long.
• 13:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: Another way that taxed adrenals can impact you is sleep disturbances.
• 13:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: So when you have a healthy cortisol rhythm, Like I said earlier, it does help wake you up in the morning and wind down at night.
• 13:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: But if your cortisol is too high all the time, or at the wrong time, you might experience trouble falling asleep.
• 13:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: High cortisol in the evening is something really common that we see with our clients.
• 14:02
  Dr. Heather Finley: They're like, why am I sleeping?
• 14:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: So freaking tired all day long.
• 14:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then it comes time to go to bed and I feel like I can do everything.
• 14:08
  Dr. Heather Finley: I'm like superwoman.
• 14:09
  Dr. Heather Finley: I wanna clean my house and get all the chores done and do all the things.
• 14:12
  Dr. Heather Finley: This is a cortisol problem, which is often blood sugar and stress related.
• 14:17
  Dr. Heather Finley: Maybe waking up at night blood sugar imbalances, which are really common with adrenal stress can cause middle of the night wake up.
• 14:26
  Dr. Heather Finley: I am so excited to tell you about the awesome giveaway that we are doing.
• 14:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: The HTMA hair mineral test is probably the most popular test that we run.
• 14:36
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• 14:40
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• 14:51
  Dr. Heather Finley: When you leave a rating and review for this podcast.
• 14:54
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• 15:04
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• 15:05
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• 15:08
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• 15:13
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• 15:14
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• 15:17
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• 15:27
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then lastly, feeling wired but tired, where your body's tired but your brain just feels like it's racing, kind of like I described earlier.
• 15:35
  Dr. Heather Finley: Next would be weakened immune function.
• 15:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: So the interesting part about cortisol is that it's naturally anti inflammatory, so this is why cortisol is not always a bad thing.
• 15:45
  Dr. Heather Finley: But when it's elevated for too long, it will suppress your immune system, which makes you way more likely to catch colds or infections, experience slower healing from injuries or illnesses.
• 15:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: Maybe you feel like you catch everything that your kids come home with.
• 16:01
  Dr. Heather Finley: This can be stress and cortisol related.
• 16:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: Maybe you also feel like it takes you longer to get better where like.
• 16:08
  Dr. Heather Finley: Usually a cold will last you two days and now it's taking you a week to recover.
• 16:13
  Dr. Heather Finley: Cortisol can also just dampen your immune system where you're developing chronic inflammation leading to longer term health issues or even autoimmune issues.
• 16:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: You also may experience energy crashes and burn out which is something that we see a ton Overworked adrenals pump out high levels of cortisol which keep you going and over time they struggle to keep up Which can lead to afternoon energy crashes Relying on caffeine to just kind of push through Feeling tired even though you're sick sleeping really well, maybe you sleep eight hours a night and you still have trouble getting out of bed in the morning or you're still tired all day.
• 16:54
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then lastly, a overworked adrenal system can lead to mood and mental health issues.
• 17:01
  Dr. Heather Finley: Chronic stress will deplete serotonin and dope dopamine, the feel good chemicals in your brain, which can increase anxiety, irritability.
• 17:11
  Dr. Heather Finley: Can increase brain fog or difficulty concentrating and then just lead to feelings of overwhelm and sadness.
• 17:18
  Dr. Heather Finley: So this all ties together.
• 17:19
  Dr. Heather Finley: The body is interconnected and the adrenal glands are at the center of it all.
• 17:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: When they are overworked it can set off a chain reaction that impacts your digestion, your hormones.
• 17:31
  Dr. Heather Finley: Sleep, energy, immune function, mood, which is why it's so important to take a comprehensive approach to your stress and your adrenal health and supporting your adrenals with tools like adrenal cocktails can be helpful, but really true recovery comes from addressing the root causes of the stress and then ultimately replenishing the nutrients that your body really desperately needs.
• 17:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: All right.
• 17:59
  Dr. Heather Finley: So the part that you have been waiting for, and if you're hanging with me in this episode and you hear a dog or you hear a baby, or you hear the gardeners, you are not wrong.
• 18:09
  Dr. Heather Finley: They are all hanging out with me somehow during this episode, the gardeners showed up, the dog is going crazy.
• 18:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: And of course I have my sweet baby with me.
• 18:18
  Dr. Heather Finley: So thanks for hanging in there, but what is an adrenal cocktail and why is it so popular?
• 18:23
  Dr. Heather Finley: The standard recipe is really simple.
• 18:26
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's nutrient packed designed to replenish those three key minerals and vitamins that your body needs.
• 18:32
  Dr. Heather Finley: So the basic recipe is four ounces of orange juice, which is the vitamin C source, a quarter teaspoon of mineral rich salt, which is the sodium source.
• 18:40
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then a quarter teaspoon of cream of tartar, which is the source of potassium.
• 18:44
  Dr. Heather Finley: You can optionally add in collagen for protein, coconut milk for healthy fats.
• 18:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: When you do this, it tastes like a literal creamsicle.
• 18:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: If you ever ate those popsicles growing up, it is so good.
• 18:56
  Dr. Heather Finley: You just blend this all up, drink it cold over ice.
• 18:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: And it's delicious.
• 19:00
  Dr. Heather Finley: The role of each, each ingredient is vitamin C two, which is essential for producing cortisol, the stress hormone.
• 19:07
  Dr. Heather Finley: It also helps the adrenal glands recover from stress, and then also acts as a powerful antioxidant, protecting your cells from damage caused by chronic stress.
• 19:17
  Dr. Heather Finley: Sodium, which we ideally want a mineral rich salt, like Celtic salt, Redmond, real salt, et cetera.
• 19:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: It regulates hydration actually helps your cells absorb water and not constantly flush out water.
• 19:31
  Dr. Heather Finley: So you're not peeing all the time.
• 19:32
  Dr. Heather Finley: Both can be thrown off by stress, your hydration and your blood pressure.
• 19:37
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then.
• 19:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: The potassium, the cream of tartar helps to maintain proper fluid balance.
• 19:42
  Dr. Heather Finley: A lot of times when our clients say that they're super puffy or they're retaining fluid, they need a lot more potassium.
• 19:49
  Dr. Heather Finley: And when we run HTMA testing on clients, what we find is that potassium is very, very often low and most people need more potassium also supports muscle function, energy production.
• 20:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then, like I said, the collagen, the coconut milk, add protein to stabilize blood sugar, healthy fats as well, to keep you satisfied for longer.
• 20:12
  Dr. Heather Finley: So, the adrenal cocktail is popular for several reasons.
• 20:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: Number one, it's simple and quick.
• 20:18
  Dr. Heather Finley: It takes less than a minute to make it.
• 20:20
  Dr. Heather Finley: It doesn't require any time.
• 20:21
  Dr. Heather Finley: Fancy tools or strange ingredients or anything like that.
• 20:25
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's effective.
• 20:26
  Dr. Heather Finley: A lot of our clients notice when they drink an adrenal cocktail, they feel a quick boost in energy.
• 20:31
  Dr. Heather Finley: They feel better hydrated.
• 20:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: They have fewer sugar or salt cravings.
• 20:36
  Dr. Heather Finley: Kind of give some of that like self care vibe.
• 20:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: So taking the time to like.
• 20:40
  Dr. Heather Finley: Make something that you know is going to nourish you is a small act of just showing up for yourself, which is really meaningful during a stressful time.
• 20:49
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then it's customizable.
• 20:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: You can adjust it.
• 20:51
  Dr. Heather Finley: You can add more sodium.
• 20:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: You can add more potassium.
• 20:54
  Dr. Heather Finley: You can swap orange juice for coconut water.
• 20:56
  Dr. Heather Finley: You can add flavors like lemon juice.
• 20:59
  Dr. Heather Finley: I mean, the options are honestly endless for homemade adrenal cocktails, which leads me to remind you that we have a free mineral, mineral guide.
• 21:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: This is a multi page mineral guide that walks you through exactly what adrenal cocktails to make based off of your own specific concerns.
• 21:22
  Dr. Heather Finley: So I have recipes for like Energy for thyroid for better sleep, but that all have different ratios of minerals.
• 21:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: And they're all different.
• 21:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: So some that are hot, some that are cold and just a fun way to kind of switch up the standard adrenal cocktail.
• 21:36
  Dr. Heather Finley: So if you haven't already downloaded that guide, go ahead and click the link in the show notes and download it.
• 21:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's free.
• 21:44
  Dr. Heather Finley: There's lots of links and there's even really easy powders and supplements that you can buy to.
• 21:51
  Dr. Heather Finley: Kind of zhuzh up your adrenal cocktail, however you want.
• 21:55
  Dr. Heather Finley: As well as just recipes with things that you might have in your pantry.
• 21:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: So adrenal cocktails, they're easy.
• 22:00
  Dr. Heather Finley: They're enjoyable.
• 22:01
  Dr. Heather Finley: They can support you during stress, but keep in mind, they're just one piece of the puzzle.
• 22:07
  Dr. Heather Finley: And that's what I want to talk about next is, you know, adrenal cocktails.
• 22:11
  Dr. Heather Finley: They're going to support stress resilience because they're giving you that.
• 22:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: Nutrient repletion for energy and focus.
• 22:18
  Dr. Heather Finley: They're supporting electrolyte balance.
• 22:20
  Dr. Heather Finley: They're aiding in digestion because you need these minerals to make stomach acid.
• 22:26
  Dr. Heather Finley: They can help with afternoon slumps.
• 22:28
  Dr. Heather Finley: They can help with all these things.
• 22:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: And so many of our clients notice a huge difference, but they aren't going to replace making the lifestyle habits.
• 22:41
  Dr. Heather Finley: and the changes that you need to make to support just stress reduction overall.
• 22:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: So you might notice that when you're feeling drained mid afternoon or you're having sugar salt cravings, or you're having just kind of that wired or tired feeling that adrenal cocktails will help you.
• 23:01
  Dr. Heather Finley: You also might notice that adrenal cocktails might make it or might decrease your sugar or salt cravings because when you're stressed, your body burns through glucose faster because cortisol increases your need for quicker energy.
• 23:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: This is why you'll find yourself reaching for sugary snacks or carbs when you're overwhelmed.
• 23:21
  Dr. Heather Finley: That's your body doing exactly what it was designed to do.
• 23:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: So, similarly, stress can lead to sodium loss through the urine, which crav Which increases the cravings for salty foods.
• 23:34
  Dr. Heather Finley: Now let's address just this cortisol based trend.
• 23:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: I mentioned it earlier.
• 23:41
  Dr. Heather Finley: So I want to just clear up some misconceptions floating around social media.
• 23:46
  Dr. Heather Finley: This is the idea that high cortisol is the root of all your problems.
• 23:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: And sure, chronically elevated cortisol can lead to things like weight gain, especially around the midsection.
• 23:56
  Dr. Heather Finley: Sleep disturbances, anxiety, that like puffy face that a lot of people are posting about.
• 24:02
  Dr. Heather Finley: But what most people don't realize is that low cortisol can be just as problematic.
• 24:07
  Dr. Heather Finley: And if not worse, because after prolonged periods of stress, your adrenal glands can be burnout producing too little cortisol.
• 24:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: So this shows up as really severe fatigue, feeling super unmotivated or just kind of like emotionally flat.
• 24:23
  Dr. Heather Finley: Difficulty recovering from illness.
• 24:25
  Dr. Heather Finley: What a lot of people would describe is just like, I feel super burnout or kind of this narrative of like, I used to be the most productive, energetic person that I know, and now I'm like struggling to make it through the day.
• 24:39
  Dr. Heather Finley: I've definitely been in that situation before.
• 24:41
  Dr. Heather Finley: And it's.
• 24:42
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's horrible.
• 24:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: You are wondering like, what the heck is wrong with me?
• 24:45
  Dr. Heather Finley: I used to be able to accomplish, you know, more before 8am than anybody else.
• 24:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: And now I can barely get out of bed.
• 24:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: So adrenal cocktails can be helpful in this situation.
• 24:55
  Dr. Heather Finley: But the question becomes like, how on earth did we get here?
• 25:00
  Dr. Heather Finley: You know, how on earth did we get to the point where now it's not even a high cortisol problem.
• 25:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: It is a complete low burnout state.
• 25:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: I had a client.
• 25:11
  Dr. Heather Finley: And I've had many clients who was constantly tired by 3pm.
• 25:17
  Dr. Heather Finley: She was always craving salty foods, feeling like she just needed coffee constantly.
• 25:22
  Dr. Heather Finley: She was drinking like four or five cups of coffee a day.
• 25:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: She was a mom of, I think, three kids.
• 25:27
  Dr. Heather Finley: She was just wondering, like, how on earth did I get here?
• 25:32
  Dr. Heather Finley: She, did not feel like herself at all.
• 25:35
  Dr. Heather Finley: She felt just emotionally flat.
• 25:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: And when we ran a Dutch panel on her to look at her cortisol levels, she was completely flat lined.
• 25:45
  Dr. Heather Finley: So she didn't have that spike of cortisol in the morning that we want.
• 25:49
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then that dip throughout the day for sleep, she just had a flat line, which is a very distinct sign of burnout.
• 25:57
  Dr. Heather Finley: So as we kind of looked into what was going on, You know, she was managing a lot.
• 26:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: She had a lot of what I call glass balls.
• 26:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: Like these are the balls in your life that you can't drop your family possibly your career.
• 26:12
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then, you know, oftentimes in our lives we have rubber balls.
• 26:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: Those are the ones like you can drop for your period of time, but they'll bounce back up.
• 26:20
  Dr. Heather Finley: She had a lot of, Glass ball, she had aging parents, et cetera.
• 26:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: So a lot of things she was juggling.
• 26:25
  Dr. Heather Finley: And on top of that, she was not eating enough.
• 26:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: She was running an insane amount of miles every day.
• 26:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: And her body just couldn't keep up anymore.
• 26:36
  Dr. Heather Finley: And so we had to make some serious adjustments because there were a lot of glass balls that she could not drop at that time.
• 26:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: So we had to.
• 26:45
  Dr. Heather Finley: Number one, make sure she was getting enough food trying to get as much sleep as she could promoting a restful sleep by getting rid of blue lights, et cetera, at night.
• 26:55
  Dr. Heather Finley: And actually decreasing her exercise load for that period.
• 26:59
  Dr. Heather Finley: We added in adrenal cocktails like one or two a day.
• 27:02
  Dr. Heather Finley: She felt a noticeable increase in her energy.
• 27:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: She didn't need that, you know, third or fourth coffee anymore.
• 27:09
  Dr. Heather Finley: Her sugar cravings.
• 27:11
  Dr. Heather Finley: decreased.
• 27:12
  Dr. Heather Finley: Then we eventually did more customized mineral support based on her testing.
• 27:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: But a lot of it started with just those lifestyle changes that she had to make as she evaluated, okay, what's going on in this season of my life and what can I actually drop for now that's not going to shatter.
• 27:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: So if you are thinking of using an adrenal cocktail, here's how you can do it effectively.
• 27:35
  Dr. Heather Finley: Number one, start small and adjust as needed.
• 27:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: So start with one a day, ideally during a time when you often feel low on energy.
• 27:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: If you're dealing with significant stress or fatigue, you can increase this to two per day, like mid morning, mid afternoon or morning and you know, with lunch and just listen to your body.
• 27:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: If you feel jittery, bloated, whatever it might be, you might need to tweak the recipe or just start with a smaller amount.
• 27:59
  Dr. Heather Finley: Sometimes when you really start pushing minerals too quick, you can feel worse before you feel better, but you don't have to do that if you go slow.
• 28:08
  Dr. Heather Finley: Ideally pair it with a balanced meal to keep your blood sugar stable.
• 28:12
  Dr. Heather Finley: So while adrenal cocktails are really key in nutrients, they don't replace a full meal and pair them with meals that include protein, fats, fiber to stabilize your blood sugar.
• 28:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: Have it with a snack, whatever, and then experiment, keep it interesting, swap out the different juices for vitamin C sources, use coconut water add cinnamon, make it hot, make it cold, whatever you want.
• 28:36
  Dr. Heather Finley: Download the mineral guide just from some ideas.
• 28:39
  Dr. Heather Finley: And timing is everything.
• 28:40
  Dr. Heather Finley: So typically they work mid morning, mid afternoon, when you feel stressed or fatigued it wouldn't necessarily be something that you would want to drink like right before bed, unless it was more of kind of like a sleepy girl mocktail, which I have recipes for that in the guide that are like higher in magnesium and things that are going to help your body.
• 28:59
  Dr. Heather Finley: wind down, but just make it part of your routine.
• 29:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: So if you tend to forget, set a reminder pair it with your meals so that you just remember to have it, you know, with lunch or whatever it might be.
• 29:11
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then just keep in mind that this is a great first step.
• 29:13
  Dr. Heather Finley: So adrenal cocktails are, you know, very standard kind of one size fits all with the sodium, the potassium, the vitamin C, but they're not necessarily going to completely fix your, mineral deficiencies.
• 29:28
  Dr. Heather Finley: And what works wonders for one person might not fully address another's unique imbalances.
• 29:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: So for example, someone with low magnesium levels might feel better with an adrenal cocktail, but still experience fatigue or muscle cramps or poor sleep.
• 29:41
  Dr. Heather Finley: sleep because magnesium is needed in their adrenal cocktail.
• 29:45
  Dr. Heather Finley: Conversely, someone who's sodium sensitive in a really high kind of stress pattern sometimes sodium can actually jump up.
• 29:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: They might need to adjust the amount of salt to avoid feeling bloated.
• 29:56
  Dr. Heather Finley: So personalization is key.
• 29:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: We've worked with so many clients that kind of fit the narrative of like Afternoon fatigue, constant sugar cravings.
• 30:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: They're like, I'm drinking adrenal cocktails.
• 30:07
  Dr. Heather Finley: They're kind of helping, but I still don't feel good.
• 30:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then we run HTMA testing, which is hair tissue mineral analysis testing.
• 30:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: And we see all the other minerals at play.
• 30:18
  Dr. Heather Finley: So we see low magnesium or potassium or a high calcium to phosphorus ratio, which can further just impact energy and how somebody is feeling.
• 30:28
  Dr. Heather Finley: So with information from an HTM, a, we can create, create a tailored plan that, you know, Is going to be a bit more comprehensive than just a standard adrenal cocktail recipe.
• 30:41
  Dr. Heather Finley: So the testing can be a super powerful tool that just helps us get to the root of what's going on.
• 30:47
  Dr. Heather Finley: Many of, you know, we open the HTMA bundle which is the HTMA test and then the consult to go over your results four times a year.
• 30:56
  Dr. Heather Finley: It includes, like I said, the test and then the recommendations and kind of protocols, et cetera.
• 31:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: This is perfect for you if you are trying to tackle your fatigue, your stress, your hormone imbalances, your gut issues, nothing's working because minerals are really foundational to every system in the body and hopefully as you've understood from this episode, stress is really at the root of it all.
• 31:22
  Dr. Heather Finley: Although, you know, a lot of times we think of our stress as like, I need to just meditate more or I need to do something that's going to be super time consuming.
• 31:32
  Dr. Heather Finley: Those things can help, but minerals can make your body more resilient to stress as well while you're working on implementing some of the lifestyle pieces.
• 31:41
  Dr. Heather Finley: And you may have also tried a lot of different things for your gut issues or your hormone issues, but if your body doesn't have the raw materials to make what it needs, then you kind of get stuck in this vicious cycle of not healing.
• 31:54
  Dr. Heather Finley: So.
• 31:54
  Dr. Heather Finley: The htma bundle is opening on February 10th.
• 31:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: Spots are limited obviously because this is a one on one thing.
• 32:01
  Dr. Heather Finley: We always sell out same day, set your alarms.
• 32:04
  Dr. Heather Finley: If you've downloaded the mineral guide, you are on the wait list.
• 32:07
  Dr. Heather Finley: So you would get the email letting you know when the spots are open.
• 32:11
  Dr. Heather Finley: But just to kind of wrap this up, adrenal cocktails are simple.
• 32:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: They're effective.
• 32:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: They can help support stress resilience.
• 32:19
  Dr. Heather Finley: They're effective when they're also paired with healthy lifestyle and stress management.
• 32:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: Testing your minerals is key.
• 32:25
  Dr. Heather Finley: That's what we would prefer for more like longer term support but adrenal cocktails can be a great place to start and just giving your adrenal glands some nourishment and some self care love.
• 32:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: So I hope that this episode was helpful.
• 32:40
  Dr. Heather Finley: Share it with a friend.
• 32:41
  Dr. Heather Finley: If you feel compelled, I would love a rating and review so that more people can find this podcast and I will catch you next time on the next episode of the love your podcast.
• 32:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: Thanks for tuning in.