Supplement Hacks for Common Adrenal Fatigue Complaints

Adrenal Fatigue is complicated, many of us know this to be true all to well.

The effects of HPA (hypothalmus-piuitary-adrenal) Axis Dysfunction can be vast and varied— so many different symptoms that affect so many different areas of our life. This is part of the reason it can be hard to pinpoint adrenal issues as a root cause and address them properly.

Some of the symptoms are often so common that we come to see them as normal— fatigue, feeling tired in the morning, anxiety, sleep disturbancess etc. While others are less common and a bit more worrying— the heart palpitations, excessive urination, restless legs and on going insomnia.

Today, we want to address some of the most common complaints we hear about in our Adrenal Fatigue Community on Facebook and give you a few supplement tips that you can use to help with them.

Before I dive in, I want to remind you that supplements are just one piece of the puzzle. Without taking holistic action on the dietary, lifestyle and mindset part of things, your supplement efforts may be undermined. For best results, you need to address this from ALL angles.

DISCLAIMER: WE ARE NOT MEDICAL DOCTORS AND NONE OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS BLOG SHOULD BE TAKEN AS MEDICAL ADVICE.
These are basic examples of common supplements known to help support adrenal issues caused by mineral imbalances. Before you start taking any new supplements we strongly encourage you to discuss with your doctor and ideally, work with one of our adrenal recovery coaches to ensure you are taking appropriate steps for the unique needs of your body. Click here to read full website disclaimer.

Supplement Support for Four Common Adrenal Fatigue Complaints

SLEEP

Sleep is one of the main complaints we hear about in our community.
Unfortunately, the irregular hormonal fluctuations that go along with adrenal fatigue can make sleep a real challenge for many of us. Our number one recommendation for addressing this head on is getting advanced hormone testing. Honestly, it’s an investment but the clarity you will receive from understanding exactly what is going on with your hormones and how they fluctuate throughout the day is invaluable. From there you can target your symptoms head on with specific lifestyle and supplements and a good practitioner can help you fine tune a plan for your needs.

Testing a side, when it comes to supportive supplements for sleep here are our top 3 recommendations:

• 200-600mg of Magnesium Glycinate or Threonate before bed to help support deeper sleeps and relaxation.

• .5mg-3mg of Melatonin taken after dinner when it starts to get dark out for those who wake up frequently throughout the night or early morning.

• some sort of nervine tonic— something to calm down your nervous system— you can follow the dosing on the bottle based on what you get, here are some of our favorites: CBD oil, lemon balm, milky oat straw, magnolia bark, passion flower, chamomile, and valerian.

You can try one of the above or a combination of all three.

HEART PALPITATIONS

There can be many causes behind heart palpitations and if you are experiencing this symptom, we highly encourage you to discuss with your doctor. Many adrenal fatigue sufferers experience this symptom and it can be caused by low blood pressure, low blood sugar, anxiety, thyroid issues, diet and caffeine.

These are some supplements you can consider to help support:

• 400-600mg of Magnesium Glycinate or Magnesium Malate to help relax the body and help to stabilize the electrical activity of the heart.

• A daily dose of a quality B-Complex to provide nutrients needed for a healthy nervous system and healthy heart function

• 200mg of CoQ10 (Ubiquinone or Ubiquinol), an important nutrient for heart health and potent antixoidant— great for energy.

FREQUENT URINATION

Frequent urination can go along with having depleted adrenals. One of the hormones implicated with a fatigued endocrine system is aldosterone which controls the amounts of sodium and water in the body, along with our blood pressure. Imbalanced levels of this hormone can contribute to frequent urination.

When it comes to supplements, things like this can help:

• a glass of coconut water daily

• an electrolyte supplement

RESTLESS LEG/ EYE TWITCHES/Leg cramps

When we are stressed, our nutrient need increases. We use up minerals and vitamins more quickly— sometimes we eat foods like sugar and caffeine that also further deplete our minerals and when we are low in certain minerals it can show itself in the form of leg cramps, eye twitches or restless legs at night— all of which are uncomfortable in their own way. Thankfully, rebalancing our minerals can really help calm these symptoms. Here’s where you can start:

• A daily dose of a quality B-Complex to support the nervous

• A daily glass of coconut water

• an electrolyte supplement

• 200-600mg of Magnesium Glycinate or Threonate

You will notice that many of these supplement recommendations are similar across the board for many of these symptoms. Sometimes, just taking something a simple as magnesium can have far reaching effects on different levels of your health in one fell swoop, however, these suggestions will work much better when you combined with a nice clean diet, good self-care and stress management.

Click here to read our post about tailoring your supplement plan based on your stage of adrenal fatigue. 

Do you struggle with these symptoms? If so, let us know what has helped you in the comments below!

All our best,
Danielle + the HYAF Team

Treat Symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue with Magnesium

Whether you’re here because you’ve heard about the importance of magnesium with adrenal fatigue, but you’re not sure why or how to use it. Or maybe you’ve taken magnesium and it didn’t help with your insomnia or other symptoms as promised and you're trying to get more information. Don’t completely rule out magnesium for treating your symptoms of adrenal fatigue just yet. Even if magnesium didn’t help with your insomnia it doesn’t mean you still couldn’t benefit a great deal from this amazing mineral. Today, we are answering 5 important questions about magnesium.

The truth is studies show 50% of Americans are deficient in magnesium.
Magnesium deficiency is not something to ignore since it contributes to many health problems and diseases such as heart disease, stroke, adrenal fatigue, diabetes, fibromyalgia and infertility. Also, it is important to consider that maybe the reason you didn’t notice any benefits was because you weren’t able to properly absorb the magnesium. Absorption of magnesium is an issue and I will address a solution in a minute.

This mineral is powerful, so powerful that hospitals use it regularly for life-threatening and emergency situations like seizures and heart failure. It’s so important that it is a critical “medication” on the crash cart.

Watch this video or continue reading.

WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U97y6P1gjx4

1. Why are 50% of Americans deficient in magnesium?

Even though the RDA requirement for magnesium is only 300 mg a day, some doctors believe this requirement is low.

Most people would benefit from 400 -1000 mg a day. It is said that the average person gets less than 200 mg a day. Why is our magnesium intake so low? First, the American diet is made up of highly processed foods and foods high in white flour, dairy and meat. Each of these common foods have no magnesium.

Second, magnesium is often poorly absorbed and easily lost from our bodies. Sometimes our bodies are able to absorb certain forms of magnesium easier than others, so it’s important to try several forms before ruling it out.

To further complicate the issue, magnesium levels decrease with excess coffee, alcohol, soda, stress, diarrhea, antibiotics, and medications to treat acid reflux, which are common substances we consume in this culture.

Also, to properly absorb magnesium we need quite a bit of magnesium in our diet, plus enough vitamin B6, vitamin D, and selenium to work with in order for us to properly absorb magnesium. 

2. How to tell if you’re deficient?

Do you have difficulty falling asleep? Do you wake up easily?

Do you get cramps or stiffness regularly?

Do you find fluids pass through you easily?

Do you often have cold hands and feet?

Do you get muscle twitches?

If you answered “yes” to most of these statements, chances are you aren’t getting enough magnesium in your diet.

Common symptoms of mineral deficiency are anxiety, adrenal fatigue, acid reflex, infertility, high blood pressure, constipation, migraines, IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), inflammation and insomnia.

3. Why is magnesium so important particularly for adrenal fatigue sufferers?

Magnesium is important in order to achieve optimal health for anyone, but particularly important for those suffering from adrenal fatigue. Here’s why… Stress is a common issue for adrenal fatigue sufferers, right? It’s the root cause of adrenal fatigue, whether we are talking about physical stress, emotional stress, chemical stress or mental stress. Stress causes the adrenals to become fatigued and work less optimally, making it harder for you to handle more stress.

As adrenal fatigue sufferers, we need all the help we can get to counteract the chemical effects that stress has on our bodies, particularly our adrenals. This is where Magnesium comes in.

Magnesium is a relaxing mineral that allows the chemicals in our bodies to come back into balance after the hormone surge of the stress response. The flood of hormones created by the stress response is great for survival but is only meant to be short term. Magnesium can help the body, particularly the muscles relax and heal after the stress response.

Stress isn’t the only thing magnesium is good for. According to Dr. Hyman “This critical mineral is actually responsible for over 300 enzyme reactions and is found in all of your tissues — but mainly in your bones, muscles, and brain. You must have it for your cells to make energy, for many different chemical pumps to work, to stabilize membranes, and to help muscles relax”. We all know that having enough energy to get through the day is one of the top symptoms of adrenal fatigue.

4. Why in theory magnesium can help improve your sleep.

There are receptors in the brain and nervous system called GABA receptors. The GABA receptors are neurotransmitters that the brain needs to switch “off”. And guess what mineral allows these GABA receptors to function properly? You guessed it, magnesium. If we don’t switch our brains to “off” then we remain tense and our thoughts race, keeping us up at night staring at the ceiling. Sound familiar?

I just shared with you why you should consider using magnesium to treat your symptoms of adrenal fatigue. Now we want to help you incorporate this important mineral easily into your diet.

5. How do I use magnesium effectively?

Discover how to use magnesium effectively in our Magnesium InfoSheet. All you have to do is enter you name and email below and we will send the infosheet right to your inbox. The infosheet includes a list of magnesium-rich foods and magnesium supplement recommendations from our team of specialists.

Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. Have you used magnesium? What did you notice? And what has been the most helpful piece of information shared here? This is a healing community and your comments could be just what someone else needs to hear. So take a moment to drop us a line below.

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