The central function of the adrenal glands is to counteract stress by producing several hormones. By countering, I mean neutralizing or buffering. Stress is any outer or inner body pressure. The adrenals don’t know the difference between physical or mental stress; they react both with the same stress hormones. Every type of stress influences these glands—injury, trauma, infection, divorce, financial stresses, job-related stress, annoying people, prescription and recreational drugs, surgery, pain, illness, excessive cold or heat, giving birth, menstruation, staring into computer monitors for hours at a time, eating junk foods, starvation diets, excessive exercise, along with anything else that makes you want to pull your hair out!
13 Signs You Need the Adrenal Reset Diet
1. Weight Gain
The typical Adrenal Body Type includes weight gain around around the mid-section, a “buffalo back”, puffy face and a lot of inflammation and water retention.
2. Acid Reflux
With adrenal issues, you tend to have a higher stomach acid, which leads to acid reflux and indigestion. This overproduction of acid can even cause burning through the stomach, resulting in an ulcer.
3. Urinary Bladder Issues
The urinary bladder is very active at night with adrenal burnout. The valve of the bladder is highly influenced by the adrenals. You may have very little urine in your bladder and feel like you have to go.
4. High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure could also stem from a calcium buildup in the arteries, since you tend to get arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) with adrenal problems. Initially, the top number (systolic) will increase before the bottom number (diastolic).
5. Cravings for Salt
Cravings for salt in the form of cheese, pretzels, nuts, popcorn, or chips in the evening are common. You search the cupboards late at night for something crunchy and cheesy. This is because the adrenals regulate salts in the body. Your body does need more salt, but not in the form of the junk food. With salt and mineral imbalances, fluids can get out of balance, causing you to retain fluid (outside the cells) yet be dehydrated (inside the cells) at the same time.
Water never properly hydrates an adrenal case. In fact, none of your body uses pure water. It’s a combination of salts and water – we call these Electrolytes (electrically charged minerals). Without the right minerals, water cannot move through the body. This leads to water retention, especially in the ankles. As a result a lot of stress is put on the heart, having to push blood through your feet.
6. Inflammation and Chronic Pain
With Adrenal Burnout, Cortisol has stopped working to reduce Inflammation and Pain, which is its main function. It has, pooped out and given up!
7. Lack of Sleep
Certain adrenal hormones are responsible for making you feel awake mentally. Others are responsible for the sleep cycle. Did you know that most of the fat burning in the body occurs only during the deep sleep cycles? So if you’re not getting into deep high quality sleep, there would be no fat burning even if you exercise and eat right!
Each night, your body is supposed to go through four 90-minute cycles of sleep from superficial to deep, but not if “the tiger is chasing you”. You might be thoroughly exhausted but your body just can’t fully let go and turn off. Sometimes you will just wake up at 2:00–3:00 a.m. for no reason and end up lying there for an hour (or hours) thinking. Some people get anxiety in the middle of the night. As a result you are exhausted the next day and it becomes a vicious cycle.
8. Out of Breath and Oxygen Deprived
If the adrenals do not work properly, this can affect oxygen levels, causing you to feel out of breath, particularly when the body is stressed, like while climbing stairs. The lower legs will also feel heavier, as if you were carrying around lead ankle weights. Restless legs syndrome is simply an adrenal problem. With the Adrenal Reset Diet, your body utilizes oxygen more efficiently so you don’t need as much oxygen and your lungs work better as well—double bonus!
9. Lower Tolerance to Stress
It’s how your body handles stress that tells you the condition your adrenals are in. If you have weak adrenals, you do not deal well with stress. The littlest things can irritate you rather easily. This physical adrenal problem can definitely affect your mental state, just like when having a low blood sugar issue. Since the adrenals are survival glands, and survival is a logical and rational thing, anything opposite to logic will be annoying. You have a low tolerance to people making mistakes and errors, incompetent people, etc. You might come in a room and immediately spot something “out of order”.
You may feel you are a “multi-tasker”, but in reality, you are just dispersed with your attention all over the place. You don’t feel as productive because the incomplete projects lack the follow-through. You have a hard time concentrating and feel a bit somewhere else. The reason you procrastinate and do things out of necessity is because you lose focus and concentration mojo.
10. Mental Stress
Our bodies have not yet developed in the evolutionary chain to handle sustained mental stress. Exposure to long-term stress without recovery kills brain cells, especially a part of the brain called the hippocampus. This brain structure is the relay switch to your memory file cabinet. It’s also your brain GPS. So it’s not that the memories get lost, but you can lose access to these files.
You’re talking to someone but then go blank. You look for something, then have to backtrack and try to find out what you were looking for. The hippocampus helps locate your position in space and time.
People with Alzheimer’s will walk aimlessly in the parking lot, trying to find their car or maybe they would just wander around and forget they have a car. They lose their mental mojo because their hippocampus is shrinking. When the adrenals decrease in function, the inability to handle life’s stress increases.
11. Vitamin D Deficiency
Over time, as the adrenal get burnt out, vitamin D becomes depleted and it becomes difficult to hold vitamins in the body. You usually will show low vitamin D in the blood.
The doctor puts you on high vitamin, as much as 50,000 IU, not understanding the whole picture. Any time you take vitamin D3, you must take the vitamin K2. Vitamin K2 works with D3 to keep the calcium out of the wrong places and ensure it stays in the bone. If the body is acidic from chronic stress, the first thing it uses to balance out the acidity is taking the most alkaline element, calcium, from the bones and puts it in the blood. This leads to weak bones and heart disease.
12. High Cholesterol
Your adrenal hormones are made from cholesterol and you may find that it’s hard to keep your cholesterol lowered even with diet. Why?
It is because the body needs this raw material to make more hormones, especially under stress. Cutting your dietary cholesterol will not make much difference. Also, restricting cholesterol can starve the adrenals the raw material it needs to make its hormones. That’s why it is important to cut out the sugar and carbs, not the fat, following a Ketogenic Diet.
13. Low Bone Density
Excessive adrenal hormones can be very destructive on the body’s proteins, especially bone tissue, leading to “thinning of the bones”, which starts out as osteopenia (mild bone loss) then progressing to osteoporosis.
These hormones steal these body proteins and convert them to sugar using them as fuel, and during stress mode the body will go after any type of fuel, even after your own body tissue. You need to eat plenty of protein when you are suffering from Adrenal Burnout.
This is due to a breakdown condition known as “catabolism”, which is excessive destruction of body proteins – muscles, skin, joints, etc. It’s almost as if you are diabetic.
What Does the Adrenal Reset Diet Do?
When you have Adrenal Burnout, your cortisol levels are constantly high as you cannot get out of the “Fight or Flight” state, and that triggers a higher level of insulin in the body, in addition to upsetting the balance of all of the hormones—estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and even the thyroid hormones. As a result, your metabolism slows down, your body is primed to store fat, not burn it, inflammation occurs throughout the body and your body becomes a breeding ground for disease. To reverse this cascade of hormonal chaos, you want to Reset the Hormonal Balance, up-regulate the Thyroid and Metabolism, and start burning Fat for Fuel instead of carbs.
The Adrenal Reset Diet will help do the following:
- Reduce Systemic Inflammation
- Reduce sugar cravings
- Lose fat weight
- Maintain and possibly gain lean muscle mass
- Increase sustained physical energy
- Increase Libido
- Increase HGH (Human Growth Hormone)
- Increase Testosterone in men, and regulate female hormones in women
- Increase Mental Focus and eliminate Brain Fog
- Help your problems feel manageable
- Balance Blood Sugar
- Lower Blood Pressure
- Reduce risk of metabolic disease
- Heal Leaky Gut
- Heal Auto-Immune Diseases such as Hypothyroid
- Restore Vitamin and Mineral levels
What Foods Are Included In the Adrenal Reset Diet?
We talked about Adrenal Cocktails to supplement your recovery from Adrenal Burnout, but that is just the start. The Adrenal Reset Diet is a Low Carb, Moderate Protein, High Healthy Fat Diet. This is the basis for the Ketogenic Diet. Foods like avocado, nuts, salmon, organic meat, green vegetables, coconut oil, olive oil, Accelerated Ancient Salt™ are the foods you focus on. You stay away from foods such as grains, breads, sugar, fruit, gluten, pastas, and high sugar desserts.
The rule of thumb is to eat about .8-1 gram of protein per pound of desired body weight, less than 20 grams of carbs, and fill in with fat until you are satisfied.
As you become more “Keto-Adapted” and your Insulin Sensitivity increases, you can get away with more protein without being kicked out of ketosis. As scary as is sounds to not have the sugar and carbs, you will be shocked at how the cravings disappear when you eat enough fat and protein. Furthermore, now that the ketogenic diet has gained so much attention, there are keto substitutes that you can have that will satisfy your sweet tooth and keep you in Ketosis (Fat Burning mode). And, you will start feeling so much better, you won’t want to go back!
An important element of the Adrenal Reset Diet is Intermittent Fasting.
This means you squeeze your eating window down to 4-8 hours. For instance, you finish eating dinner by 6pm and don’t eat until 10am or 12pm the next day. The longer you fast, the more time the body has to Improve Insulin Sensitivity, Reduce Inflammation, and set a cascade of “healing mechanisms” to go to work. After Intermittent Fasting for awhile, your body will begin activating “Autophagy,” which helps to clear damaged cells from the body, including senescent cells that serve no functional purpose but still linger inside tissues and organs. The reason it’s so imperative to remove these damaged cells is because they can trigger inflammatory pathways and contribute to various diseases. Once you start eating after the fasting period, the healing stops so your body can focus on digestion. It cannot do both at the same time. So, if you are eating 6 small meals a day, you are constantly releasing insulin and putting your body in Fat-Storing mode, while shutting off the Reset mechanisms completely. What’s more, as you continually eat throughout the day, your system may lower its metabolic rate as it solely relies on dietary calories for fuel and is unsure of when it will be fed again. When you Intermittent Fast and achieve “Fat Burning Mode” or Ketosis, your body knows it has an unlimited supply of fat fuel from the stored body fat to use and will actually speed up the metabolic rate.
For those who are ready to dive into an Advanced program or with Auto-Immune issues, I recommend following the Auto-Immune Diet Protocol. This eliminates foods that have Lectins and other foods that could be causing inflammation and weight gain. For some sticking to this food list for just a short period of time while the body heals and gains strength will be sufficient and for some following this indefinitely will be necessary for optimum health.
Supplements That Enhance the Adrenal Reset Diet For Quicker Results
Accelerated Fast®™
This switches your body to Fat burning within 30 minutes so that your body has a whole new source of fuel, and immediately can take advantage of the endless supply of fat calories on your body for energy. Without Accelerated Fast®™, it can take up to 4 weeks on a strict Keto diet to get into ketosis and burn fat.
Accelerated Colloidal Silver™
Devitalizes foreign Pathogens (Viruses, Bacteria, Candida) that could be stealing your Energy, causing Sugar Cravings, and taxing your Adrenals even more.
MegaPre™
MegaPre™ is the first Precision Prebiotic™supplement made up of clinically tested, non-digestible oligosaccharide
MegaPre™ reinforces the beneficial microbial changes created by MegaSporeBiotic™ to promote a strong and diverse microbiome.*
MegaSporeBiotic™
MegaSporeBiotic™ is a probiotic blend of 5 Bacillus spores that have been shown to maintain a healthy gut barrier and immune function.
The bi-phasic life cycle of the Bacillus spores allows them to remain dormant in harsh environments until they reach more favorable environments like the human gastrointestinal tract.
Once inside the large intestine, these dormant spores can change into their active, vegetative forms and begin colonizing in the gut.
This unique probiotic blend aims to recondition the gut instead of reseeding with probiotic strains that cannot survive digestion or colonize the gut.
MegaSporeBiotic™ helps control the “bad” bacteria and grow the “good” bacteria. It has been shown to help with E. Coli, Salmonella, H. Pylori and more.
MegaMucosa™
The mucosal system is a very important part of the human immune system. The mucosal system in the intestines contains 150 times more surface area than skin, which makes it an essential element of the immune system that supports healthy immune function.
MegaMucosa™ is the first complete mucosal support supplement of its kind, formulated to support a healthy mucosal barrier. MegaMucosa™also contains dairy-free immunoglobulins clinically shown to support a healthy immune system in the mucosa and a state-of-the-art flavobiotic shown to support microbial diversity and short-chain fatty acid production.*
MegaMucosa™ includes: Immunoglobulins: ImmunoLin is a dairy-free immunoglobulin concentrate that supports healthy digestion, detoxification, and intestinal barrier function.
Amino Acids: There are four key amino acids that play an important role in the production of the intestinal mucosa: L-proline, L-serine, L-cysteine, and L-threonine. These four amino acids have been shown to support mucin production and maintain mucin synthesis in the colon, resulting in a thick and healthy mucosal barrier.
Citrus Polyphenols: MicrobiomeX® is a citrus extract with naturally occurring polyphenols that support digestive health and healthy gut barrier function. A clinical study using 500mg of citrus fruit extract found a significant increase in short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) composition, suggesting that citrus polyphenols may help modulate the microbial composition in the gut.
ION* Gut Health (formerly RESTORE)
Heals Leaky Gut that is partially caused by Adrenal Stress, which leads to Malabsorption, Inflammation, Gas, IBS and a whole list of problems.
Ola Loa
Ola Loa ENERGY is a delicious all-natural effervescent multi-vitamin-mineral-amino powder that provides quick recovery for stress, sports and the rigors of daily life. It is the first multivitamin-mineral-amino acid supplement to combine advanced nutrition research into a convenient “drink your vitamins” delivery system. Ola Loa ENERGY is recommended as a once a day multi-vitamin, great for natural energy production and anti-oxidant protection. Providing hard to get nutrients like TMG, NAC and CoQ10, plus vitamins A through K, 1000 mg of Vitamin C, 90 mineral complexes and 6 amino acids, Ola Loa’s nutrients are pleasing to taste and provide almost instant benefits.
Accelerated Cellular Detox®
Soaks up the toxins and helps with Bloat, Ulcers and Digestion- all symptoms of Adrenal Burnout.
This combination of 6 organic ingredients helps soak up the toxins from years of toxicity and from the daily exposure to heavy metals, alcohol, processed foods, and food poisons. Additionally, it is enhanced with SCALAR frequencies to further detox the body from insecticides and heavy metals– unlike any other detox supplement. Furthermore, it helps with bloat and regularity, which is the first step of detoxing the body, as constipation is the cause of over 80 percent of disease. It promotes liver and kidney health as it lessens the burden on them for detoxification.
Net Acid
Reduces Acid Reflux. As your body is stressed you produce too much stomach acid. You can control the Acid Reflux as you get your stress back under control.
Vitamin D3 with K2
Replenishes depleted Vitamin D and K2 stores.
True Calm
Support for coping with Stress and Fatigue, while supporting a healthy nervous system. It also enhances physical and mental ability to fight stress and is a natural strong Adaptogenic in action.
Accelerated Ancient Salt™
This provides the right balance of Sodium and other Minerals without the chemicals, plastics and radiation in most salts.
Accelerated Ancient Salt™ is a scalar technology enhanced mixture of five precious ancient seabed and sea salts from the Andes Mountains, Himalayas and the U.S that is rich in minerals, without excipients, stabilizers, conditioners, chemicals or preservatives.
Accelerated Ancient Salt™ holds a strong negative charge with scalar Technology used to enhance its frequency and ability to help “pull out” positively charged toxins, parasites and undigested fats. Through the use of basic quantum mechanics combined with high purity of raw materials, a scalar field is developed. This process optimizes Detox and rehydration.
Sara Banta
Sara Banta is a Stanford University Graduate with a Degree in Economics and Psychology, and a certified Natural Supplement Expert & Graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Sara is the Founder of Accelerated Health Products and host of the health & wellness podcast, Accelerated Health Radio.