Everything Instagram Told You About Cortisol Is Probably Backwards for Women Your Age

Welcome to Day Three 0:00

Hello. Hello and welcome to day three, Doctor Sharon, still your host here to kick off the day. Welcome, welcome. Super excited. I'm always super excited when it's summer. Hopefully you caught my talk on the first two days. We started with hormones and we went to thyroid. And then I told you we'd talk a little bit about the adrenals today because of the thyroid adrenal connection. And so it's all connected and the adrenals are really important piece of the puzzle. Let's face it, ladies. By the time we get to being on our menopausal journey or perimenopausal journey, our adrenals have probably been through the wringer.

I know personally my adrenals were burnt out by the age of 29 as I was starting medical school, not even from medical school. And so it's just part of being alive. We have stress, we have good times, we have bad times.

Why Adrenal Health Matters 1:01

Hopefully we have more good times and bad times, but our adrenals take the brunt of that. Our adrenals take the brunt of part of why mine were burnt out, because I used to think it was a badge of honor to only need four hours of sleep a night. I am a total eight hour type of girl now and understand the benefits of that. But poor diet, skipping meals, having no connection to the sun, to its rising, to its setting, to its being up in the middle of the day, not eating enough calories, eating too much sugar depending too much on caffeine, having inflammation that's running rampant, all of these things and more.

I mean, we could just we could do the whole summit on stress affect our adrenal glands. So I want to set the record straight about a couple of things this morning for you. And of course, remember at the after party we're going to answer questions. So you better have your notebooks and be writing writing notes and questions. Doctor Ben and I will be going live in a webinar, and we can't wait to interact with all of you. We're super excited to welcome you to our community, so keep your eye out for emails from us inviting you in where you can get your questions answered live.

But in the meantime, adrenals. So number one to test your adrenals the most optimal way. So we talked about a Monday 24 hour wet year in testing for hormones.

How to Test Cortisol Properly 2:34

Well, maybe it was a Monday on day one. We talked about on day one 24 hour wet year in testing for hormones. On day two, we talked about complete blood testing and I gave you some insights as to how I look at those blood levels for thyroid because it's getting the right tests done at the right lab, and then it's getting them interpreted by a physician properly. Then it's getting implementation administered properly and then it's monitoring. So there's four steps is the way I see it as how to support a patient as far as getting levels handled, evaluated treated, etc..

So just because you get the right test done doesn't mean the other three are going to happen. So you need to be looking for someone who's really competent at all four of those areas. So for adrenals, it is not acceptable to just get a cortisol in the blood in the morning. That does not tell you much. First of all, cortisol is most bioavailable in your saliva. So for cortisol we do saliva testing. So now we've taken your urine. We've taken your blood. And now we're going to get your saliva. So best excretion for the best results.

It differs for what we're testing. So we want a four point salivary test which looks at the circadian rhythm. We want your cortisol to be high in the morning for a cortisol awakening response. To get you out of bed and excited to start your day. And then the way I explain it is like a mountain. So you go skiing at the beginning of the morning, you're up on the hill, and as the day goes on, you are gently skiing down the hill until you get to the bottom of the hill and you're tired and you go to sleep.

And while you're sleeping, you ride the invisible ski lift. So bam! In the morning you're up at the top of the mountain again. So that's what a rhythm should look like. And that's why we need four samples. So we can piece together that rhythm. Because sometimes you'll get the samples back and the rhythm looks okay, but it's not really okay when you're looking at them in relationship to each other.

What Cortisol Patterns Reveal 4:49

So it's important not only to see how high is your level at each point, but what is it doing in relationship to each other? It should be highest in the morning and then gradually going down. So if you spike up later in the day, that's not what we're looking for. So that's the way to test it. I also want to bring up here that when when we taught our we taught a class last year, the women were surprised that everyone's cortisol levels were low. And this is what I see. It's very rare that I see elevated cortisol levels through the whole day.

Sometimes I see Olivia cortisol levels or I shouldn't say sometimes, I should say often. I see them elevated in the night because you have a reverse rhythm in your HPA hypothalamic pituitary axis is off, so you're popping at night when you should be low. And that's contributing to why you can't sleep. And then we're looking at things like phosphatidylserine and melatonin and legs up the wall and breathing and all the lifestyle things and good light hygiene to bring those levels down. But typically what I'm seeing is more flat lines of cortisol that you've already gone through, the hyper cortisol that you constantly hear about on Instagram, making you think that cortisol is ruining everything in your life, including making you fat and foggy and all the things.

But more often than not, by the time you're in our age range, that ship has sailed your cortisol. Your adrenals got tired of secreting cortisol. They can't do it anymore. They're like going to the beach with everyone else. And now your levels are low. And so actually, sometimes bioidentical cortisol is what I'm prescribing. Total opposite of what Instagram influencers would imply you. But I'm in the clinic so I know what's actually happening in your body. So it's really important you not just think that your cortisol is high and suppress it with something like phosphatidylserine, because it actually there's a good chance it's low and then you're making matters worse.

So of course we don't guess we test. I know it's so corny, but we test, we don't guess. And we see what's happening for you. Because sometimes you need to raise your cortisol with certain things. Maybe it's with glycerin, maybe with biomedical cortisol, maybe it's with a ginseng, depending upon whether you're hot and cold, whether it's American or Asian or. And then maybe later in the day you have stressful job or stressful relationship and your cortisol does pop up. And then we need to give you something to lower it.

So sometimes we're doing different treatments at different parts of the day because that's what your body needs. We also have to take into account that your cortisol is indicative of your blood sugar. And so blood glucose regulation and your diet

Lifestyle, Blood Sugar, and Adrenal Support 7:43

and getting enough protein and eating frequently enough because those of us who grew up in the 70s, the 80s, etc., we were taught starve, exercise like there's no tomorrow. And that's how to have a good figure. And we know the rules change as we age. And so often I find patients are not eating enough. The weight won't come off because they're not eating enough and they're exercising too much. And I actually think that's kind of like cool, right? Like, wow, I can eat more and exercise less and lose weight, you know, sign me up.

That sounds like fun. So we have to also think about if our cortisol is low because we're not eating enough. So there's lots of different pieces that go in the puzzle. And the puzzle gets solved when we look at a cortisol rhythm and see what's actually happening in your body. So it's fun to listen to influencers, it's fun to listen to information. But at the end of the day, we need your data, your levels to help you feel your best. And so that's what I want to say about your adrenal glands. There's lots more to say, and I will have lots more to say as we get to know each other.

But that's just, you know, I just want to give you some little tidbits before you go off and listen to the tons of interviews we have today and just give you some clinical insights that I see that I know can be of service to you. So thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your attention. Thank you for your your hearts and your spirits and your willingness to want to learn and want to heal and want to be your best because we owe it to ourselves. We owe it to each other to be our best so we can be out there in our world, doing our thing and making the earth a brighter, shiny, shinier, happier, healthier place.

So enjoy today's talks and I will be back tomorrow with hey, don't know what I'm going to talk to you about yet. So tomorrow day for surprise talk in the morning, but I promise it'll be a good one. See you then.