Frequently Asked Questions
Quick Links to FAQ's:
1. Why won’t my doctor recognize adrenal fatigue as an “illness”?
“Adrenal fatigue” is another name for subclinical adrenal dysfunction,
also called adrenal imbalance. While adrenal fatigue is well recognized in other
parts of the world, there has been some skepticism about it within conventional
medical circles here in the US.
Perhaps part of the mystery lies in the conventional approach to testing for adrenal
function. The current tests that doctors are likely to recommend are very good at
detecting the furthest extremes of adrenal imbalance: Cushing’s syndrome
at one end of the spectrum and Addison’s disease at the other. As described
in our article on the
adrenal spectrum, Cushing’s syndrome, simply put, is when the body
produces drastically high levels of cortisol, and Addison’s disease occurs
when the body’s cortisol production is severely deficient. In each case, the
degree of adrenal imbalance has reached a stage where medical intervention is urgently
necessary, and may even be life-saving.
That said, what’s absent from the conventional outlook is measurement of adrenal
function that falls between the two guideposts of Cushing’s syndrome and Addison’s
disease. Conventional practitioners could use a deeper understanding of these serious,
full-blown adrenal disorders by recognizing that such conditions do not arise overnight.
Less dramatic, “subclinical” manifestations of adrenal dysfunction can
be terribly incapacitating for patients, too — and these warrant treatment
as well. But in the minds of many if not most conventional practitioners, any degree
of adrenal imbalance that isn’t Cushing’s or Addison’s falls “within
normal limits.”
This is so unfortunate, because millions of people today suffer debilitating
symptoms of adrenal imbalance, to the point that their quality of life may
be significantly compromised. We know that overwhelming fatigue, inability to cope
with stress, sleep
disturbances, lightheadedness, recurrent infections,
fuzzy thinking, low libido, marked irritability, and many other symptoms
can and do arise even when the numbers on conventional tests look “normal.”
You may feel unwell and know something is not right, yet have one provider after
another tell you he or she cannot seem to find anything medically wrong with you.
When conventional lab results appear normal, many practitioners move on to other
possible diagnoses, missing the opportunity to heal the underlying causes of adrenal
imbalance. In this circumstance, some women may progress to diseased states, others
may remain in limbo, and still others will continue to decline slowly, but all are
wondering what could possibly be wrong with them. Worse, a practitioner may downplay
or overlook your concerns, or imply that the problem must be psychological by giving
you a prescription for an antidepressant, anti-anxiety, or sleeping medication.
In contrast, the medical model we follow (Functional Medicine) acknowledges and
understands that every disease has a past, present, and future. Imbalance and dysfunction
do not have to turn into medical emergencies or chronic disease states before an
effort can be made to reveal and treat the underlying causes of patients’
symptoms!
Slowly but surely, adrenal health is gaining
recognition as a legitimate issue for women — most likely because so many
people in our fast-paced culture have it — and we hope that your doctor will
soon accept the fact that adrenal imbalance is a real problem that can be easily
addressed via a natural approach. Until then, do not be discouraged. We’re
here to help, and the results we’ve seen are tremendously encouraging.
2. How will I know that my symptoms are related to my adrenal glands if I am not
being tested?
Adrenal imbalance comes with telltale signs and symptoms that indicate that your
adrenal function is compromised. Some of these signs and symptoms are more common
in the earlier stages of adrenal imbalance, such as feeling “tired and wired”
at the same time, while others, such as feeling depressed and overwhelmed, occur
more consistently when the adrenals are fatigued.
Some of the symptoms of adrenal
dysfunction include:
- Difficulty getting up in the morning
- Struggling to get through the day, but perking up after the evening meal
- Trouble coping with stressful situations
- Irritability
- Inability to settle down at night / being a “night owl”
- Waking up in the middle of the night with a “wired” feeling
- Never feeling fully rested after sleep
- Lightheadedness on standing up / low blood pressure
|
- Cravings for salty foods
- Reliance on sugar and
caffeine for a quick jolt of energy
- Midriff weight gain, even though your eating habits haven’t changed much
- Feeling depressed
- Frequent or recurrent infections, and taking longer to recover from them
- Hair loss (commonly seen first at outside of eyebrows)
- Acne
- Cold intolerance
|
If several of these symptoms seem all too familiar to you, you could have adrenal
imbalance. The health of your adrenal glands influences nearly all your body’s
systems, which helps explain the wide array of possible symptoms. When your adrenal
glands are overtaxed and out of balance for a prolonged period of time, you may
begin to struggle with other hormonal imbalance issues, such as hypothyroidism,
increased insulin resistance, or low libido.
If you want to know more about your specific adrenal hormonal patterns, we encourage
you to find a healthcare practitioner whom you trust, ideally one who recognizes
adrenal imbalance, so you can discuss your symptoms and possible adrenal stress
index testing. You can also take our
Adrenal Health Profile or read our related articles, to better understand
your adrenal function. The good news is that you can treat and heal adrenal imbalance,
affording your whole body better resilience and the energetic foundation it deserves!
3. Why don’t you offer on-line saliva test kits for adrenal imbalance?
We use saliva tests routinely in the Women to Women Healthcare Clinic, and find
them invaluable for ascertaining 24-hour patterns in a woman’s adrenal hormone
output. This is most appropriate for a level of treatment that requires a clinical
setting, where we’re able to establish an ongoing practitioner-patient relationship.
We are working on it, but have not yet found a practical way to offer these tests
on-line. If you’re interested in using saliva testing to learn more about
your 24-hour adrenal cycle, we encourage you to consult with a trusted healthcare
practitioner familiar with adrenal saliva testing, who can assist you with interpreting
your results and determining your next best course of action.
Most functional medicine practitioners are familiar with
adrenal imbalance and can help you with clinical evaluation and testing.
For help in locating one near you, visit the website of the Institute for Functional Medicine. Or, you
can call us at Women to Women’s Healthcare Clinic
to set up a telephone consultation. We have helped women throughout the world, and
we can help you, too. And if you can make the trip, we’d be delighted to meet
you in our office. New patients are always welcome!
4. What is the difference between hormonal imbalance and adrenal imbalance?
Our bodies produce many different kinds of hormones, but let’s face it — when
most people think of hormones, they think of sex hormones! So it follows that when
we say “hormonal imbalance,” we are generally referring to the imbalance
in the ratios of our sex steroids: estrogens, progesterone and testosterone.
It can be a bit confusing, because the adrenal glands also produce and secrete hormones
— including sex hormones, but also “stress hormones” (which, by
the way, manage a lot more than stress). What’s more, because adrenal imbalance
can disturb estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone levels, symptoms of these two
different imbalances are often similar. These overlapping symptoms can be extremely
problematic for women who are under a lot of stress — especially when they
reach midlife. At this stage, symptom strength may be magnified by menopause, so
it can be harder to trace those symptoms to a single source.
How does that happen? Our adrenal glands are primarily responsible for our response
to any and all forms of stress, a mechanism crucial to our survival. But these glands
also have an important but lesser known secondary role: balancing and producing
sex hormones. As our ovaries enter “retirement” in middle age, the adrenal
glands help replenish and sustain our supply of sex hormones. But as we approach
menopause, this secondary adrenal function may be compromised, especially if we’ve
spent years living on the “brink” of stress. Over the years, a high-stress
lifestyle causes the adrenals’ functional reserves to be steadily directed
toward producing “survival” hormones such as cortisol. This generally
reduces production of our “feel-good” sex hormones and this is how women
end up feeling so “spent,” with such intense symptoms of hormonal imbalance!
Adrenal imbalance and hormonal imbalance
are also connected by areas of the brain known as the hypothalamus and
the pituitary. Both help control feedback messaging loops within the endocrine
system, receiving and relaying information about whether to increase or decrease
hormonal output by the thyroid, adrenals, ovaries, and other tissues. When women
are under a great deal of long-term stress, these feedback loops at first cause
the hypothalamus to call for more and more adrenal cortisol, a situation called
cortisol dominance. But over time, this demand saps the energetic reserves
of not just our adrenal glands but of other important glands, too, including the
ovaries. That results in further imbalance and can generate even more symptoms.
If you’re on the fence about which form of imbalance might be dominating your
life, refer to the following lists for guidance.
- Irritability and mood swings
- Worsening PMS
- Headaches
- Sleep problems
- Irregular periods
- Heavy bleeding
- Problems with uterine fibroids
- Hot flashes and night sweats
- Breast tenderness, cysts, or nipple discharge
- Decreased libido
- Joint pain or stiffness
- Vaginal dryness
- Dry eyes
- Skin changes
- Heart palpitations
- Urinary incontinence
|
- Difficulty getting up in the morning
- Never feeling well-rested, even after sleep
- Nocturnal waking
- Anxiety, nervousness, mild depression
- Lightheadedness on standing
- Low blood pressure (hypotension)
- Salt cravings
- Reliance on sugar and
caffeine to bolster flagging energy
- Problems coping with stressful situations
- Frequently feeling angry and frustrated
- Struggling to get through the day, but feeling better after an evening meal
- Frequent infections
- Abdominal weight gain
- Hair loss
- Acne
- Cold intolerance
- Lack of mental focus, decreased productivity, absentmindedness
- Feeling like everything’s “too hard”
|
In our experience, women who note a lot of overlap between these two sets of symptoms
will be able to more effectively heal the overall imbalance by addressing the adrenal
dysfunction first. This from-the-top-down strategy is effective because our adrenal
glands help balance our sex hormones, so healing your adrenal issues may also resolve
your overall hormonal imbalance.
5. How do I choose between the Personal Programs for Hormonal Imbalance or Adrenal
Health, when many of my symptoms seem to match both?
Sometimes women who want to learn more about their symptoms and why they feel the
way they do complete both our Hormonal
Health Profile and our Adrenal
Health Profile and wonder which type of imbalance predominates. Because
the roots of hormonal imbalance can often be traced back to adrenal imbalances —
particularly when a woman is under chronic stress or is transitioning through midlife
— we generally recommend those with overlapping symptoms start first with
our Personal Program for Adrenal Health.
After healing your adrenals, you may find that much of the hormonal imbalance contributing
to your symptoms has resolved as well. We always keep the “big picture”
of a woman’s hormonal balance in mind, and have carefully designed these programs
to dovetail nicely when a woman needs both. So if you need extra support, the elements
of both programs can be used together safely and effectively in order to restore
and maintain your overall hormonal health.
See FAQ #4 for a quick overview of how
hormonal imbalance and adrenal imbalance are interconnected, or read our
other articles on adrenal health. Then
give us a call at 1-800-798-7902 if you’d like more information!
6. Is it okay to take Women to Women’s Herbal Equilibrium while taking Adaptisol?
We have designed our Personal Programs for Hormonal Imbalance and Adrenal Health
so they work well together when necessary. It is safe to take them at the same time.
Each woman is unique, and the Women to Women team of Member Advisors, Wellness Coaches,
and Nurse–Educators has the training and experience to help you tailor the elements
of our Programs to meet your individual needs. Give us a call or
contact us to learn more about our Personal Programs and how we can customize
them especially for you.
As always, however, please inform your healthcare practitioner of any herbs and
supplements you are taking — this is particularly important if you are taking
any prescription medications.
7. How can I be sure my symptoms aren’t related to a thyroid imbalance?
Hormones are the body’s chemical messengers, carrying instructions from the
brain and endocrine glands (like the adrenals and the thyroid) to other parts of
the body. As “watchdog” organs of the endocrine system, the adrenal
and thyroid glands are tightly linked. When functioning well, they support one another,
but dysfunctional messaging between the two is disruptive to both organ systems,
and adrenal imbalance can often be at the root of thyroid imbalance. So your
body’s symptoms may indeed be related to a thyroid imbalance, though
resolving the adrenal imbalance will certainly help.
Cortisol is one of several hormones released by your adrenals when you
are under stress. When cortisol levels are chronically elevated, this stress hormone,
as well as the hormone from the hypothalamus that stimulates it (corticotrophin-releasing
hormone, or CRH) can inhibit yet another hormone, called TSH (thyroid-stimulating
hormone). Cortisol also can interfere with the conversion of the thyroid
hormone T4 into T3. T3 plays a major role in regulating metabolic activity in your
body, and a lack of it can cause fatigue and additional symptoms.
So when you take care to support adrenal balance, your stress hormone levels will
even out, which can help restore better function to the thyroid as well. One of
the basic principles of functional medicine is that there are web-like interconnections
between all of our internal organs and systems. This continuum can be disturbed
along multiple pathways, which can lead to imbalance and disease, but those same
multiple paths can provide many mechanisms for healing as well.
To learn more about how stress impairs both the thyroid and the adrenals, read our
article on hypothyroidism and menopause
— and take a look at the illustration that shows how messaging between the
two can lead to either healthy or unhealthy responses.
There can be many underlying causes of thyroid imbalance, and it is best to discuss
your situation with a trusted healthcare practitioner. See our other articles on
thyroid health to learn more.
8. What are the benefits of taking adaptogenic herbs for adrenal imbalance?
Many of the plant-based extracts and ingredients we include in our adrenal support
formula have adaptogenic effects, which allow a phytotherapeutic formula to support
your body in different ways, depending on your changing internal environment. For
centuries, and more recently through evidence-based research, adaptogens have been
recognized for their ability to stimulate our innate healing mechanisms to respond
to our bodies’ unique and ever-changing needs.
We have formulated our phytotherapeutic supplements based on what has worked for
generations to heal and support the adrenal glands. And there is a steadily-growing
body of peer-reviewed literature available now, from scientists who are investigating
plant-based formulations and reporting their laboratory findings regarding the molecular
effects of herbs at the cellular level. It is this research data along with the
long history of each herb’s traditional use that we have referred to in order
to formulate our herbal combinations.
Over time, our bodies have adapted to plant-based phytochemicals, allowing our systems,
especially the endocrine system, to communicate with the compounds in these plants.
Herbal medicines often produce a gentler physical response because they address
imbalances “upstream” at the source — and this can help head off
potential symptoms before they occur. Stronger, conventional medications usually
do their work further down the line where symptoms are “presenting,”
but this doesn’t help eliminate the problem that’s causing those symptoms
in the first place. Herb-based formulas generally have fewer undesirable side effects
as well.
For more information on the effects of adaptogenic herbs for adrenal support, read
our article on phytotherapy
for adrenal health — and if you’re interested in the science
behind our formulas and the information we provide, make sure to check out our reference
pages — there are links at the base of most of our articles!
9. Will this Program help heal my adrenal imbalance, or will it just give me more
“energy” temporarily?
The Personal Program for Adrenal Health
is designed to do both concurrently: to help you repair adrenal imbalance at the
cellular level while providing you with the nutritional, energetic, and emotional
support you need while you are healing.
But true healing doesn’t come magically from a bottle. Lifestyle changes are
crucially important for you to heal adrenal imbalance — and to address the
conditions that got you there to begin with. In all our years of helping women heal
from this imbalance, we’ve learned that women with overtaxed adrenals especially
need better quality sleep, and more of it, in order to effect change that lasts
and benefits your health in the long-term. As women concentrate on restoring adrenal
function, they will also consider how to slow down the pace of their daily lives
and honor the reality that we all have limits. Pushing yourself too far, for too
long, always has consequences.
Dietary adjustments are another effective means of supporting healthy adrenal function
and improving well-being. Women suffering from adrenal imbalance may have
irregular eating patterns or skip meals altogether, or they may use
caffeine in excess just to get through the day. Convenience foods (many
filled with sugar and fat) and processed meals don’t supply the essential
nutrition needed for adrenal health. Our easy-to-follow dietary guidelines and Essential Nutrients are
an important factor in feeling better and restoring and maintaining optimal adrenal
health.
The components of our Personal Program complement one another, to provide symptomatic
relief, restorative support at the cellular level, and emotional guidance to help
you feel better — right now as you begin the healing stage. And the Program
creates the foundation you need in the future as you continue to foster ongoing
adrenal health. Most women begin to feel better within days, but the nature of this
healing is gentle and progressive, so your journey to total wellness may take some
time.
10. Does the Personal Program for Adrenal Health help with insomnia? Can it improve
my sleep?
The everyday function of your adrenal glands is directly connected to your sleep-wake
cycle. The adrenal hormone cortisol is released in a 24-hour pattern according
to your circadian rhythm, the cycle of a full day’s biological activity.
One of the primary functions of cortisol is to help wake you up first thing in the
morning, when cortisol levels are meant to be at their highest.
In turn, cortisol levels will ideally drop as the day wears on, gradually reaching
their lowest levels when it’s time for you for fall asleep at night. But ongoing
stress and the adrenal imbalance this can cause can shift this daily rhythm off-kilter,
making it difficult for you to settle down at night. For many women, the cycle can
even become inverted. In this frustrating scenario, you’re alert and wide awake
at night, but fuzzy-headed and exhausted during the day.
The comprehensive, multilayered approach of our
Personal Program for Adrenal Health is designed to recalibrate your adrenal
function, reset this 24-hour rhythm, and allow your body and mind to calm down so
you can stay asleep at night. With an all-natural selection of herbs, minerals,
and additional targeted nutrients, our products help defuse stress, enhance proper
communication between all your body’s systems, and protect your cells against the
damaging effects of fatigue, inflammation, insulin resistance, and accelerated aging.
For women with chronically elevated cortisol levels who have difficulty with sleep,
our product Serinisol is particularly helpful. We formulated Serinisol with a calming
passionflower, calcium, magnesium, and phosphatidyl serine to help reduce anxiety,
down-regulate the stress response, and support restorative sleep.
But no matter what combination of products your individual symptoms may call for,
we offer personalized support to help you address any specific issues that are challenging
your adrenal balance and ability to sleep well. We have the experience and knowledge
to help you take the steps needed to put your adrenal health back in balance, so
your adrenal glands can pulse out their full complement of hormones in a regular,
timely fashion that is in-sync with your natural sleep-wake cycle.
Resetting your diurnal sleep-wake cycle so you’re alert in the day and asleep at
night may take a little time. But as you begin to notice deeper, more refreshing
sleep, your body’s innate healing mechanisms will be going to work each night, helping
you awaken feeling restored and energetic. To learn more, see our article on the
effects of adrenal
imbalance on sleep.
11. How will the Personal Program for Adrenal Health help level out my stress and
cortisol?
There are several components to our Personal Program for Adrenal Health, each of
which plays an important part in evening out cortisol levels and promoting healing
from the damaging effects of stress.
-
With the Personal Program for Adrenal Health, we match your individual symptoms
to one of three corresponding protocols designed to optimally balance stress and
cortisol. Our natural supplements are specifically formulated with adaptogenic herbs,
minerals, and other natural molecules to reduce the negative effects of stress on
your body, bolster your immune system, quell the inflammatory cascade, stabilize
your blood sugar, reduce anxiety, lower cortisol levels, and support restorative
sleep. To find the best protocol for you, take our
Adrenal Health Profile.
-
Our Essential Nutrients support adrenal
health by providing the targeted micronutrition crucial for a woman who
is under physical and psychological stress. We recommend that women combine this
consistent daily nutrient supplementation with our diet and lifestyle adjustments
to help bolster their emotional and physical responses to life’s stressors, and
to help minimize the damaging effects of stress at the cellular level.
-
Following the Adrenal-Friendly Eating and Lifestyle Plan outlined in our Personal
Program for Adrenal Health allows your adrenal glands to restore an ideal pattern
for daily stress hormone production, so you feel much more vital and resilient now
and going forward. These modifications help build the foundation for more complete
healing, as outlined in our article on
eating for adrenal support. Remember, you want to improve the conditions
that brought you here in the first place.
-
And last but not least, Women to Women’s experienced team of Advisors, Wellness
Coaches, and Nurse-Educators is always just a phone call away. You can rely on us
to provide additional guidance and tips on how to minimize stress in your life,
and to help you adjust your program to suit your unique situation.
All of these components will work together to decrease your stress levels and moderate
the demands being made on your adrenal glands, allowing more appropriate stress
hormone production and restoring your resilience. To learn more, see all our articles
on adrenal health.
12. How long does it take to heal adrenal imbalance? Will I need to stay on the Personal
Program indefinitely?
Each and every woman’s body and life path are unique, and the length of time it
takes to recover adrenal balance depends upon her unique health history, physiology,
and personal circumstances, as well as on the choices she makes as she progresses
through the healing stage. In our experience, we’ve found that for true healing
to take place, it will take approximately six months.
After this period, you may decide to stop taking your adrenal health supplements
and simply continue the Essential Nutrients and eating plan. High-quality natural
supplementation such as our daily Essential Nutrients, along with a deliberate diet
of fresh whole foods — being mindful of including quality protein sources with each
meal and snack and limiting refined carbohydrates — will strengthen your body’s
foundation and provide the conditions optimal for creating adrenal resilience and
overall wellness as you go forward.
You may, however, find it useful to resume a course of Women to Women’s Adaptisol,
Serinisol, and/or phosphatidyl serine from time to time as you face life’s ups and
downs. This gentle support is easy to resume and dovetails readily with the core
elements of our Personal Program.
So give us a call, or check out our article on
natural treatments for adrenal imbalance if you’d like to learn more.
13. How will I know that the Personal Program is working for my adrenal imbalance?
Your symptoms of adrenal imbalance
will begin to dissipate. You will notice you have more sustained energy, more regular
and restful sleep, and fewer cravings for sugar,
caffeine, and salt. You should also notice that you respond more calmly
and with more flexibility to life’s everyday stressors.
Some of our Personal Program Members report feeling much better after just a few
days on the Adrenal Health Program. For those whose physiological imbalance is more
entrenched, it may take a few weeks or longer. This is why we created our programs
to last 60 to 90 days — to ensure that those who need extra support can get it.
Either way, if you are like many women, as soon as you begin to feel well again
you may be tempted to shoulder new responsibilities or resume all the old ones.
Please resist the temptation to do too much! Learning to set healthy boundaries
and getting much-needed rest and relaxation on a regular basis are key elements
for restoring and maintaining the long-term health of your adrenal glands. You don’t
want your body to fall back out of balance.
14. What’s the difference between the adrenal supplements my doctor is giving me
and what you offer?
One primary difference is the superior quality and research behind our adrenal support
formulas. Adaptisol, Serinisol, and Essential Nutrients are effective, science-based
supplements that are carefully balanced to target your symptoms while supporting
healthy adrenal function. Our phytotherapeutic and nutraceutical supplements are
manufactured under stringent external certification guidelines known as the
NSF GMP, and our research-based dosing guidelines ensure that you get appropriate
amounts of the active constituents in each serving.
Adaptisol contains four herbs with a range of adaptogenic properties
that have been valued throughout the world for centuries. Recent evidence-based
research has documented the ability of these gentle but powerful herbs to tap into
your built-in healing mechanisms while responding to the changing needs of your
body.
Some of the reasons we chose these specific herbs for Adaptisol:
- Astragalus root — traditionally used to support the immune system and help protect
the body from most kinds of stress.
- Cordyceps — helps promote overall health and immune function.
- Eleuthero (also known as Siberian ginseng) — helps with fatigue by enhancing energy
levels and mental clarity, and also boosts immune system response.
- Rhodiola — used to reduce fatigue while bolstering the body’s response to physical
stress.
Our adaptogenic formulation is designed to help stabilize a woman’s natural stress
response, allowing for a more adaptive up- or down-regulation of the stress axis
as a function of her individual pattern of daily stress hormone production. Adaptogens
have no harmful side effects and are known to increase resistance to a range of
physical, biochemical, and psychological stressors.
Serinisol is a proprietary combination of calcium, magnesium, phosphatidylserine,
and passionflower. It was formulated to gently reduce anxiety, diminish an overactive
stress response, and support restorative sleep.
Here are some reasons we chose Serinisol’s ingredients:
- Vitamin and mineral supplementation, particularly magnesium and calcium, has been
shown in research to help counter anxiety and perceived stress, as well as facilitate
sleep.
- Phosphatidylserine is a fundamental component of our brain and nerve cell membranes,
and helps foster a more adaptive stress response, among other benefits.
- Passionflower has a long history of use for calming anxiety and treating insomnia.
Scientists believe it can increase the availability of a “relaxing” chemical called
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), with a lower potential for side effects than prescription
sleep medications.
Our Personal Program for Adrenal Health
is another defining factor because it is so comprehensive. We’ve combined eating
and lifestyle modifications with our medical-grade nutritional foundation and natural
adrenal formulas to match your unique symptoms and help support healthy adrenal
function. Our Personal Program provides personalized support and attention from
our experienced team of Member Advisors, Wellness Coaches, and Nurse-Educators,
all of whom undergo extensive, ongoing training. It is important for you to note
that our Programs are not designed to replace the care of a medical professional.
To learn more about adaptogens and phytotherapy, see the
FAQ 8, or read our article on
natural treatments to restore energy and adrenal health in women.
15. Why don’t you offer DHEA or “desiccated adrenal extracts” in the
Personal Program for Adrenal Health?
We do not include these ingredients as components of our on-line Personal Program
because we feel that DHEA and desiccated (dried) adrenals should only be used in
a controlled clinical setting, where a woman’s total health status can be
evaluated, discussed, and monitored. She and her practitioner can then determine
if she needs these more powerful forms of adrenal
support.
Adrenal extracts and DHEA can be very helpful in certain situations, and we do prescribe
them when appropriate to our patients at Women to Women’s
Healthcare Clinic. But we think women should only use them while under the
care of an experienced medical practitioner.
DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) is a steroidal hormonal precursor, or “mother”
hormone to cortisol, testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone. For each woman, there
is variation in the way DHEA is converted into these other hormones, depending on
her personal biochemistry. It is possible to disrupt that delicate balance by adding
additional hormones inappropriately. (To learn more and review a chart of the steroid
hormone pathways in the body, see our article on
DHEA and adrenal fatigue.)
Adrenal cell extracts are dietary supplements containing extracts of adrenal
glands, usually derived from cows. Their action is intended to support, fortify,
and restore normal adrenal function. They are a valuable — but very powerful
— form of therapy — that is most appropriately applied in the clinical
setting.
Both DHEA and desiccated adrenals can be of great help as part of a rescue treatment
plan for adrenal dysfunction. But neither goes the full distance in resolving underlying
imbalances for the long-term. We’ve found that supporting the stressed adrenal
axis with targeted nutrients, lifestyle changes, and adaptogenic herbs has a consistent,
gentle effect that promotes complete and lasting healing.
16. What are the benefits of joining the Personal Program?
Purchasing the Personal Program makes you much more than a customer to us – it makes
you a Member. Because you’re unique, we invest a lot in personalizing your Program
to your needs. You give back as part of our community, supporting our website and
publications.
As a Member of the Personal Program, you get many benefits, including:
- Personalized support: Delivered as you want – by phone, by e-mail,
or on-line via My Personal Program, our Members-only
section of the website.
- You’re in control: Want to adjust when or how often you’ll get
your automatic resupply? You can make changes on-line to suit your needs at
My Personal Program. Want to reorder a supplement? You can do that on-line,
too!
- Ironclad guarantee: Did the Program not give you the results you
expected? Our money-back guarantee has you covered – no questions asked.
- Easy for you: We’ve designed the Program so that you can start
wherever you’re most comfortable – with nutrition, exercise, detox, or stress reduction.
Start big or start small – the point is to start.
- Supplemental formulas: The Program is designed to meet your body’s
unique needs. You can modify your Program at any time with our special product formulations
designed to work synergistically with your Program.
- My Personal Program: Our Members-only section of the website features
a collection of tools Members have requested to enhance their Program experience.
Learn more about these tools.
- Convenient resupply so you never run out: We know how busy our
Members are, and that you don’t need another chore on your to-do list – like remembering
to re-order your supplements. That’s why we make it convenient for you. Each month,
or according to the schedule you design, you’ll receive your supplements automatically,
ensuring that you never run out. There’s never any purchase obligation, you can
cancel at any time, and you can modify your shipment schedule – it’s simple, convenient,
and easy for you.
To learn more about Personal Program membership benefits,
click here.
|
Do you want to:
Need to know more before you order?
|
Last Modified:
12/05/2011