Stress in my world and the hormones who influence them... the follow article.

Remembering back a bit on my previous hormone testing that was done in 2020 after I started having severe and daily headaches you see the hormone test that follows:

Here were the symptoms and the way I described myself back then;

“My symptoms were fairly advanced. And yes, doctor’s do make the worst patients that is what took me so long. I noticed a change in my menstrual cycle and was getting headaches almost daily, but most of all I was waking up tired. This is a big deal- because if you know me, I am a life-long morning person; but suddenly I was still waking without an alarm around 5:30am but I was tired and didn’t want to get out of bed. This for me was unheard of!!

I knew my stress had increased since I was starting to grind my teeth some at night but I didn’t fathom I was as low as I my results showed.”

What I took:

Supplements:

1. Adrenal support: ashwhagandha, glandular, and eleuthera. This was also taken at lunch 1-2 capsules since I was trying to get the adrenal hormone to be highest in the morning and lowest in the evening. Hormone pills should never after 3pm since this can keep us awake.
   

2. DHEA both are taken in the morning. There are multiple forms so talk to your doctor about which form is right for you.

After taking supplements for 9 months see these new results:

What you will notice immediately is that my morning Cortisol is now in the green range and has reached an optimal range. You will also notice that most of my day is either in the optimal range or the sub-optimal range but not bottoming out in the blue anymore. This shows a great improvement over all. You will also notice that my DHEA is also within range and let me tell you - while I was not perfect at the time of the results, I was feeling tons better and was even finding it much easier to get out of bed in the mornings and I had gotten my headaches mostly under control by December so it only took about 5 months to get better results not the whole 9 months. After these results this is how I changed my hormone regiment:

Supplements:

1. Adrenal support: 2 caps daily at lunch only to boost the second half of my day but none in the morning since this was already doing well.

2. Stopped DHEA as it was no longer needed.

3. Started a B-Complex to support my stress hormone and continue to improve energy also took at lunch to help with afternoon energy.
   

I will tell you that these were a tough few months, taking the supplements was the easy part; changing my lifestyle was the hard part and here are my changes. I recommend doing testing before adrenal or hormones are taken so that you don't throw off your existing hormones.

I started in August right after I sent the kids back to school

1. Exercise class 2x per week – I chose Orange Theory which does focus on High intensity training. With my low energy this wasn’t possible so I used this for my self talk; “Just stay in the Class.” I also managed my Splat points which tells you if you get your heart rate up and I tried to only get about 8 points which is very low compared to what most people can achieve. But I found if I went over this level, I had trouble having enough energy to work.

2. Juicing – I drank green juice and you can do this yourself or you can buy the juice. I didn’t drink the fruit juice kind, I did the gross green stuff and believe me I know some people love it, but that isn’t me so I plugged my nose and down it went.

3. Got to bed like an elderly person – I would get into bed around 8:30-9pm and would read for a brief bit and then try and knock out. This was tough since I basically would put the kids down say good night to my husband and head to bed.

4. Went Vegan – The reason I went vegan was to avoid any exogenous hormones that naturally occur in animals even organic animals. All living creatures produce hormones and I went plant based to help manage my own hormone issues. The hardest part was the inconvenience at restaurants if you didn’t choose a vegan specific restaurant and my own personal embarrassment about being vegan since I didn’t want to be known as a vegan evangelist.

Well as time has progressed my health has improved but I still am working hard on the lifestyle changes. It took almost 2 months for exercise to not be painful, meaning I would be so exhausted that I would dread the class. I share this fact because many people start exercising and want results immediately, but that isn’t possible and health is a daily pursuit. It takes time a lot more time than anyone ever wants. Choose your health everyday and just take the next right step, loving it at first is not a requirement for success; it certainly wasn’t for me! Good Luck!