Adrenal glands and circadian rhythm, the key to optimal health
After nearly 16 years of clinical experience and having performed the analysis of more than 5,000 analyses, I have come to understand what is happening behind the vast majority of pathologies and functional disorders, as well as the limitations of all those people who are in the sports world and do not reach their goals and objectives.
I'll sum it up in just 4 words:
Cortisol, DHEA, melatonin, and oxytocin : 4 substances that, if you manage to keep them in balance, will always keep your physical and mental health at its best.
Currently, there is a therapeutic reductionism that leads us to address health problems based on symptoms, developing dietary, medication, and even supplementation strategies that focus on the symptom rather than the cause.
It doesn't matter if it's through conventional medicine (with the red pill) or integrative medicine (with the green pill), if your focus is on the consequence and not the cause, nothing will change.
The adrenal glands direct all systems and organs, whether directly or indirectly. The vast majority of changes that occur in your body have to do with their function or hypofunction. Keep this in mind to focus on what's important, not what's irrelevant.
I'm going to give you several examples so that you can understand in greater depth the importance of these glands, and how they are related to other systems:
Digestive problems
I could say that more than 70% of the people who have come to my office were presenting digestive disorders, both at the gastric, microbiota and intestinal level, and each and every one of them had come from other specialists (conventional and non-conventional) who had given them treatments directed at the symptom and not the cause.
Do you have problems digesting macronutrients?
I give you digestive enzymes
Do you have problems at the microbiota level?
I give you probiotics
Do you have microbiological and/or parasitological problems?
I give you antimicrobials and antiparasitics
This entire approach, in the vast majority of cases, had been neither effective nor positive, and the people had become chronically ill, being treated from an integrative perspective, taking an incredibly high amount of supplements that were not addressing the cause.
Do you want to know what is behind more than 90% of digestive problems?
Adrenal stress, the dysregulation of cortisol production, is what destabilizes your digestive system and your other systems and organs.
It is biochemically impossible to maintain good digestive function (gastric acids, enzymes, hormones, bile salts, etc.) if your autonomic nervous system (sympathetic-parasympathetic) is constantly altered.
The problem isn't the food itself; it's your biochemical state, conditioned by your emotions, which prevents what you eat from feeling good or your microbial populations from being in their specific locations.
I've observed that when you restore adrenal balance, the person can eat any type of food again, and their overall health returns to normal, without having to overload themselves with digestive enzymes, prebiotics, probiotics, or antimicrobial/antiparasitic substances.
“Get your adrenal function in order and your digestive health will be at its best.”
Problems at the level of oxidative stress and internal contamination
There is no worse pollutant for our cells than an excess of free radicals, which generate excessive oxidative stress and cellular aging.
These molecules are worse than any toxic, be it a heavy metal, pesticide, phthalate, or toxic waste from the cell's own metabolism.
When your cortisol levels are elevated, the production of these free radicals can increase by 10, 20, or even 50 times, so imagine the toxic load that adrenal dysregulation can cause.
I have observed that when a person reduces their stress levels and their phase 3/4 adrenal gland reverts to phase 2/1, not only do the levels of heavy metals and non-metallic toxins decrease, but oxidative stress does as well.
Problems at the energy level
In order to function properly, our cells need molecules called ATP (adenosine triphosphate), an energy currency that helps us maintain our physical and mental health.
Do you want to know what consumes the most ATP?
High stress, given that every time our adrenal system is triggered, our own cellular intelligence understands that it's in a fight-or-flight situation, and produces a series of biochemical changes that consume countless ATP molecules. This stress is therefore diminishing your cellular economy, leading to a worse state of health.
Do you want to know what our body does when it has high ATP demands?
It uses a large amount of tryptophan (an essential amino acid) to create it, leading to a lower production of serotonin and melatonin, since that tryptophan has several metabolic routes, one towards the production of ATP and another towards the production of that hormone and neurotransmitter, so our mood will be more downcast, depressed, with constant alterations on an emotional level and even affecting the quality of sleep.
Do you know what happens when a person's stress levels decrease and they move from a 3/4 adrenal phase to a 2/1 phase?
Your serotonin/melatonin production is higher, you have more energy (because there are fewer ATP demands), and your physical and cognitive health is at its peak.
Immune problems
I am increasingly seeing more people in a state of immunosuppression, with very low levels in all leukocyte populations, being treated for different causes (viral, bacteriological, parasitological, etc.) believing that the problem of this low immune system was caused by the microorganism/parasite, when in reality these living beings had been able to proliferate and express themselves because chronic stress had weakened their immune system.
Another example you can see of how the problem is currently being addressed from the consequences and not from the cause.
I have been able to see how people with decreased immune potential recovered all their leukocyte populations by regulating and improving their adrenal function, once again reverting a 3/4 adrenal phase to a 2/1 phase.
Reduce your cortisol levels and your immune system will be at its best and fully functional.
Well, so far I've talked about how cortisol is what causes disruption in all of these organs and systems, but there are three other hormones missing, which are closely related.
DHEA ( dehydroepiandrosterone)
The mother hormone of all hormones and the one that puts the brakes on cortisol, it's called the anti-aging hormone. Do you want to know why?
Because nothing causes more aging than excess cortisol, and that hormone is what puts the brakes on cortisol, and its levels decrease incredibly when stress becomes chronic.
High cortisol = low DHEA
The third hormone is one of the best known and is the protagonist of most sleep treatments and therapeutic approaches.
Melatonin
Who doesn't know or hasn't heard about this hormone?
A hormone that helps us fall asleep and regulate sleep, ensuring it is of the highest quality. When its levels are low, all phases of sleep (REM and non-REM) are disrupted, leading to a loss of the ability to repair the body and mind during the nighttime rest periods.
I would like to explain how the therapeutic contribution of this substance is just as reductionist as the other substances I've mentioned at the digestive and immune levels.
Do you want to know the main reason why melatonin levels are low at night?
Here you have the culprit: "Excess cortisol," since this hormone puts a stop to melatonin production. That is, when our body tries to increase its production at night, cortisol prevents it, leading to insufficient levels.
If the problem lies in this circadian imbalance between melatonin/DHEA and cortisol, why don't we regulate this adrenal axis so that melatonin can be produced at night and the person can access deep, restful sleep?
That should be the ideal approach: regulating and balancing adrenal function so that cortisol levels are at their optimal levels throughout the day, and at night, as it decreases, it can give way to its friend melatonin, which can contribute to quality sleep.
And as in the other sections, here too I have been able to observe how when the person moves from a 3/4 adrenal phase to a 2/1 phase, they can sleep deeply and with a quality of rest in which body and mind can recover from the entire day of physical and intellectual activity.
Remember that when we sleep, a series of changes occur in our body, in which each and every cell recovers from everything that happened during the day. The quality of sleep we get will determine whether we can return to our peak physical and mental performance when we wake up, or whether we are in limited condition, and at best, we can go through life with a very poor level of health.
And now I'd like to introduce you to the last substance that's part of this circadian rhythm, which, along with DHEA, puts the brakes on cortisol: oxytocin.
Oxytocin
It's a hormone/neuropeptide that has many functions in the human body, but this time I'd like to talk about one of its functions in relation to the circadian rhythm, so you can fully understand the full complexity of adrenal function.
This hormone has the ability to modulate the activity of the hypothalamic/pituitary/adrenal axis, since it has the capacity to inhibit the release of adrenocorticotropic hormone and cortisol, the hormone we have been discussing and which is responsible for a large part of health problems.
“It is biochemically impossible to have high levels of cortisol and oxytocin at the same time; when one is high, the other is low.
“That's exactly what's happening in over 90% of the population right now (I've had over 700 adrenal stress tests confirm this).
Do you want to know what exactly happens when there is an imbalance between cortisol and oxytocin?
Not only everything I've explained in this article (digestive-microbiota/gut problems, difficulty sleeping and getting quality sleep, decreased ATP-energy production, increased oxidative stress and free radicals, immune problems), but that excess cortisol and decreased oxytocin are what lead us to become more emotionally disconnected from ourselves and others.
When we achieve high levels of oxytocin, we can find a greater state of calm, peace, and tranquility within ourselves, and all these internal sensations are what help us to be fully healthy (there can be nothing better for our biochemistry than providing it with these internal states).
Close your eyes and try to imagine for a moment the last time you were able to enjoy a complete state of calm and tranquility, that moment in which you don't need to be doing anything extraordinary to feel alive (this is a product of dopamine combined with cortisol), and in which you can find happiness in anything in life, given that you are fully connected to yourself and what is happening around you.
At that moment, there is no future or past; you are fully connected to the present because there is no stress that leads us to worry about what has happened or what has to happen.
All of this that I'm explaining to you is provided to us by these two hormones, one leads us to worry and the other leads us to a state of connection with the present, and that is synonymous with connection with everything that is happening in our emotional life (both with ourselves and with others).
So, if we manage to reduce cortisol levels, we will not only improve all the aspects of physical health I've mentioned, but we will also be able to achieve a better emotional state, and that is something of vital importance today.
The adrenal axis and circadian rhythm are everything; remember this every time you are about to undergo an approach, treatment, or therapy directed toward a symptom.
Now the big question: What can we do to ensure our circadian rhythm is at its best and most fully functional?
Have regular schedules for meals, bedtime, and waking up.
We have a cellular intelligence in which when we establish schedules and make them routine, during those hours our cells understand that they must carry out a series of metabolic processes because it is time to eat, go to sleep, or get up.
How many of you have been getting up at the same time for a while now, and often don't even need to set your alarm because you wake up automatically?
Your body wakes you up because it understands it's time. Your incredibly balanced circadian rhythm is helping you maintain those healthy lifestyle habits, which will allow you to live many years of good health and quality of life.
The same thing happens with food: if you eat at the same time, your cells will produce enough gastric juices, hormones, and enzymes to ensure the entire process is as efficient and high-quality as possible.
Mealtime disorder and bedtime disorder are among the factors that most affect the circadian rhythm, disrupting the production of cortisol/DHEA/melatonin and oxytocin.
It provides all the substances your adrenal axis and nervous system need to function properly.
Both the adrenal glands and the nervous system need certain substances and nutrients so that all their functions can develop normally (production of hormones/neurotransmitters, transmission of the message of these hormones/neurotransmitters through cellular receptors, metabolism and elimination of these metabolites, etc.) that is, there are countless metabolic routes with respect to this adrenal/nervous axis, in which the enzymes are dependent on specific nutrients, and if only one of them is missing, an imbalance in the body will occur, a loss of homeostasis (internal balance).
What exactly should we provide our body and mind to ensure our adrenal axis is at its best, thus ensuring the hormones that determine our circadian rhythm are in the best possible state of regulation?
Below I detail the most important ones, which directly and indirectly help regulate the adrenal axis:
- Vitamins: D, C, all B group (especially B3, B6, B12), P (antioxidants).
- Minerals: sodium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, zinc, copper, selenium, lithium.
- Amino acids: Phenylalanine, tyrosine, glutamine, taurine, glycine.
- Water: H2O (there is nothing that makes the adrenal axis and nervous system suffer more than a low level of hydration.
I have observed throughout my clinical experience that many people were presenting insufficient levels of these substances, both from food and water.
The idea is to maintain a healthy diet rich in these nutrients, in order to provide everything we need at the adrenal level. The problem is that often (even with the best diet in the world) we don't meet our biochemical needs, so supplementation will be essential to cover all these nutritional demands.
Regarding water, it's something I'm seeing more and more patients and athletes experiencing subclinical dehydration, and this has a huge impact on each and every one of our cells, particularly the nervous system.
We drink little water, and what we do drink is demineralized, with a dry residue close to distilled water. That is, not only do we not hydrate enough, but we also don't get anything of interest from that water.
Do exercises that help you balance your autonomic nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic)
That is the key to achieving a balanced adrenal axis, since one activity or another can lead to an increase in one or the other.
I have been able to observe through all my clinical experience and all my experience in the world of sports/martial how behind many of the sports limitations (poor performance, fatigue, low energy, increased catabolism, etc.) were coming from poor exercise planning.
The vast majority of people tend to believe that the more exercise they do, the better, and often, excessive exercise can be even worse than a sedentary lifestyle. Below I will explain why, as well as the relationship that the adrenal axis has with sports activity.
There is a fine line between what is beneficial and what is harmful, and this line is often easily crossed.
What substances are mainly produced when we exercise?
Adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol are hormones that help us cope with the physical stress we are putting on our body and mind.
Our biochemistry can't tell whether what you're doing is purely for pleasure or because you're in a fight-or-flight situation, so it sets in motion a series of reactions that prepare the body for war—this is the reality.
I've seen that just as emotional stress can lead to adrenal imbalance, physical stress can also lead to this, affecting every part of the body.
Knowing what exercise or activity to do and the intensity with which to do it is the key to making sports beneficial and contributing to your improved health and quality of life.
I've seen over the past two decades how the vast majority of people try to curb their life stress by focusing on sports, but from a not entirely positive perspective, given that they were doing activities very intensely.
So, the big question is: What kind of exercise or activity should I do to get my body and mind in the best possible condition and also focus on adrenal health?
First of all, before talking about what type of activity would be appropriate, I would like to talk to you about what time of day would be a good time to exercise.
Our circadian rhythm is set up to allow us to be active first thing in the morning, meaning training or exercising in the morning would be ideal.
It's a biochemical reality: our body produces cortisol in high quantities in the morning so that we can perform the activity we need to do as best as possible.
From midday onwards, cortisol levels decrease, giving way to melatonin in the afternoon/evening.
This is the first point you should keep in mind: do sports or physical activity in the morning until 5 p.m. at the latest. After this time, your body needs a rest.
“It goes against our nature to do activities after that time, and I've seen how many people who exercise in the afternoon and at night not only affect their overall health, but also their quality of sleep.
Now comes the issue of the type of activity, both the one we should do and the frequency and intensity.
Just as we don't all need the same type of diet, the same goes for exercise. Find the one you need, as well as the intensity at which you do it, and that will be the cornerstone that will lead you to improved health.
In general terms, I could say that carrying out 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes of exercise a day (well planned and carried out) would be ideal, with small breaks of 1 minute between exercises, series or any type of movement in which you see yourself carrying out.
It's very important to take those short breaks while doing the activity, because if we don't give our bodies a chance to rest a bit and get enough oxygen, we enter an anaerobic state in which not only will cortisol levels rise significantly, but we'll also generate increased inflammation, oxidation, and repercussions at the cellular level.
It's not a bad thing to enter an anaerobic state (it's important and necessary), the problem is when you're entering it very frequently in short periods of time. There's nothing that punishes the adrenals more than that situation, given that it understands that you're at war and will put in motion all the necessary mechanisms to face that battle.
This situation, day after day, leads to adrenal damage (adrenal stress) and, if sustained over time, to adrenal fatigue (what is called overtraining).
More and more people are coming to me with phase 3 or 4 adrenal syndrome due to having carried out excessive exercise and intensity (a clear example would be what happens in CrossFit). Going into war mode one day would not be a problem, but if you do it constantly, your adrenals will pay the consequences.
In conclusion
So, I've been able to show you three crucial points for achieving adrenal balance: regular routines, specific nutrients, and appropriate activity or exercise.
I'd like to explain something I've been able to observe in recent years, and it has to do with the therapeutic approach being implemented to improve the adrenal axis and thus reduce phase 3 of chronic stress, which a large part of the population finds itself in.
There has been no progress in this regard. We have been using the same substances for over three decades to improve stress, through adaptogenic plants (ashwagandha, rhodiolla, eleutherococcus, etc.), which are supposed to regulate our adrenal function, reduce stress and improve the circadian rhythm.
I have been able to observe how in more than 50% of people, not only were these plants not helping them reduce stress, but they were also generating a load on the liver detoxification level, so they were providing something that was actually harmful rather than beneficial.
When a person is under a very high level of stress, this situation is often accompanied by an excess of toxins, which the liver must process in phases I and II.
If this person has high levels of toxins and is not metabolizing and eliminating them well, the last thing we should do is provide another substance that generates a greater detoxification load. This is why adaptogenic plants make them feel increasingly worse.
At the orthomolecular level, there are nutrients and substances that help regulate adrenal function without generating a greater load on this hepatic phase. In fact, they not only have a high adaptogenic potential (they will improve the circadian rhythm), but they also have the ability to improve these detoxification phases (Phase I and Phase II).
So, wouldn't it be smarter to provide everything necessary to achieve a balanced adrenal axis while simultaneously helping the liver in its detoxification phases?
That's the key, and that's what I considered when determining which substances would be appropriate for achieving an optimal adrenal axis and a stable and balanced circadian rhythm.
After more than 13 years of clinical research and after realizing all this that was happening, I made the decision to create a product that had a high adaptogenic potential, so that when the person took it, they could get their adrenal axis into balance, and that the hormones I explained previously (cortisol, DHEA, melatonin and oxytocin) were in their best possible state.
We are biochemistry, and our biochemistry determines everything, even our emotions.
If you put all the cellular machinery that determines this biochemistry in order, your physical and mental health will be at its best.
Remember everything you've read in this article, put into practice each and every one of the things I've explained to you, and you'll see how everything changes.
And if, in addition to applying all these recommendations, you introduce Energyprodetox into your life, I assure you that your health and quality of life will be spectacular.
Below is a link to a 31-page guide that will tell you the story of EnergyProdetox, the story of a revolutionary supplement that's changing the lives of everyone who tries it.