Adrenal cocktail for the gut

Adrenal health is vital for good gut health. If your adrenals are depleted, healing the gut can be very challenging. Conversely, supporting the adrenals may be the missing link for gut symptoms that won’t improve.

The three most important factors for supporting the adrenals is 1) Getting enough rest and sleep, 2) Keeping blood sugar balanced 3) Nourishing the adrenals with the nutrients and minerals they need to function. Sodium and potassium are key minerals for adrenal function.

The adrenals lay on top of the kidneys and their job is to produce cortisol and adrenaline, along with other hormones (DHEA). Cortisol is produced in response to physical or emotional stressors. It boosts the immune system in the short term, gives the body energy to fight or flee, stabilizes blood sugar, regulates blood pressure in the short term, and balances water in the body.

Cortisol has positive short term effects on the body. It is meant to be an emergency response. When cortisol production becomes chronic, it lowers immunity, raises blood pressure and reduces energy.

To function optimally, the adrenals need enough potassium, sodium and magnesium. These minerals (especially magnesium) are depleted with stress. If you are stressed you may likely need to supplement all three.

The daily potassium requirement is about 4000 mg per day. Coconut water, potatoes, bananas and avocados all contain potassium, so it’s a good idea to get this mineral from food as well as supplementation.

Sodium is also vital for adrenal balance, but needs to come from the right kind of salt. Most iodize table salt is not a good source. Icelandic salt and Redmond’s salt as two of my favorite sources.

I use an Adrenal cocktail powder that’s a mix of potassium, sodium and whole food vitamin C to support flagging adrenals. You can find it in either capsule or powder form on Fullscript here. If you don’t have a Fullscript account you will have to create a user name and password to view the recommendations there.

Making sure the adrenals have the minerals they need to stay balanced is just part of the equation.

Finding ways to release stress from the body is also key. This reduces cortisol production and keeps the adrenals from quickly burning through stores of vitamin C and magnesium.

Keeping blood sugar stable is a primary way to reduce physical stress and cortisol release. Stable blood sugar helps balance mood and anxiety also. Intense emotional reaction can come from blood sugar swings. Think of a hungry two year old melting down. Or the term “hangry”.

Sugar and simple starches spike blood sugar but skipping meals or under eating causes blood sugar to plummet. Low blood sugar is as stressful as high blood sugar.

Whole food carbohydrates are needed in moderation to fuel healthy adrenal and thyroid function. Very low carb diets can stress the adrenals and steal sodium from the body. Adding just a little bit of carbs in the form of potatoes or sweet potatoes or white rice can stop the stress response. The key here is to add just a little bit. One of the rules of thumb is to have a golf ball size portion of carbs in the morning, two golf balls at lunch and three golf balls at dinner to promote a night time relaxation response and better sleep.

Minerals like magnesium and calcium also help the body manage stress by helping the body relax and calm down.

Adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha, tulsi or rhodiola also help the body adapt to stress. My favorite stress fighting supplement, called Daily Stress Formula by Pure Encapsulations, contains both b vitamins and adaptogens to calm the stress response. It is also available on Fullscript.

If the adrenal imbalance is extreme, you may need to supplement stronger herbs like pregnenolone, DHEA or licorice to stabilize the adrenals.

Lifestyle and dietary care for adrenals

Because caffeine spikes cortisol, replacing coffee with much lower caffeine sources like green tea also helps tamp down cortisol. Or remove caffeine all together.

Eating to reduce inflammation will support the adrenals because cortisol is also produced to tame inflammation. Both inflammation and blood sugar swings are common triggers for cortisol production and release. If these two physical stressors continue for a long time, the body becomes much less responsive to the cortisol. And the adrenals become fatigued.

In a situation with tired adrenals and cortisol resistance in the body, gut immunity (SigA) starts to fall. And it becomes much harder to tackle infections like h. pylori, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, candida or parasites.

Supporting the adrenals is a foundational part of clearing infections and healing the gut. We do this through a combination of lifestyle support, minerals and food.

“Adrenal cocktails” are very popular for stopping the stress response in the body and supplementing vital minerals. Below is my version of a homemade adrenal cocktail to give the adrenals the building blocks to repair and restore.

Homemade adrenal cocktail

This homemade adrenal cocktail contains sodium, potassium and vitamin C. Drink daily or two times a day.

The recipe:

4 ounces of orange juice provides vitamin C. The glucose, b vitamins and potassium in orange juice nourishes the adrenals, stopping the stress response (cortisol release).

¼ teaspoon of salt provides sodium. Not all salt is the same. I use Redmond’s salt.

4 ounces (half cup) of coconut water contains 300 mg of potassium.

Adding a few ounces of fat, like coconut milk/coconut cream or dairy cream if tolerated, helps balance the blood sugar spike from the orange juice and coconut water.

Blend in a tablespoon of collagen powder for extra protein and gut repair.

Warning: don’t buy orange juice in a plastic bottle, because the acidity of the juice leeches plastic into the juice.  Squeeze your own or buy in a glass or paper container.

Testing your adrenals

Understanding that you need to healthy adrenals to repair the gut is the first step of the healing puzzle.

But before you start any healing protocol you may wonder if the adrenals are part of your problem. Seeing the current state of your adrenals can be very motivating to make hard changes.

Gut tests like the GI Map provide useful information about the gut, but don’t test adrenal function. The only marker on the GI Map that hints that something is off with the adrenals is the SigA or secretory IGA marker. If that is low (below 300) addressing the adrenals should be the first step before starting any gut healing plan.

There are several ways to test the adrenals:

There’s a 4 point cortisol saliva tests that take 4 saliva samples throughout one day. Or a 4-point urine test that uses urine samples (the DUTCH test is the most common). Both look at cortisol production for only one day. We assume that day represents a typical day but that may not be the case.

To get a better idea of cortisol patterns in the long term, I suggest a hair tissue mineral analysis test (HTMA). This measures adrenal health over 2 to 3 month period. And also tell us what minerals the adrenals are lacking. This is a far superior adrenal test in my opinion.

I run the HTMA alongside the GI Map to measure the state of the body and mind.

I’ve realized that looking at the gut only gives half the picture of what’s driving gut issues.

The HTMA test tells us if the gut has the right environment to heal. If the adrenals and mitochondria (cellular energy producers) can provide enough energy to heal. Both are supported by minerals, diet and lifestyle choices. The HTMA provides a snapshot of both.

If you’ve run all the gut tests but still can’t make progress, perhaps an HTMA test can help you shed light on what your body is lacking.

Email me at angelaprivin@yahoo.com to dig deeper with the HTMA. And try the adrenal cocktail in homemade or powdered form to give your adrenals some love.