The Truth About Adrenal Fatigue: Debunking Myths

Introduction and Speaker Background 0:00

Welcome back to the mitochondria conversation. I'm your host Laura for Ontario. And in this talk I'm going to be covering the truth about adrenal fatigue and debunking some myths for you. And I'm joined today by Daniela and. She's my lead coach and right hand at bio radiant Health. Hi, Daniela. Hi, Laura. Hi, everyone. I'm so glad to have you back. And to this audience, I want to introduce you as well. You're a mindset empowerment health coach who is also a Pilates instructor with a muscle activation technique certification.

And everything we're doing on this summit is so relevant to you because at age 41, you were diagnosed with breast cancer so young, and this interrupted the breastfeeding of your one year old baby boy. And you had to do a lot of shifts in your health and in your life. And a lot of the things that we're talking about on this summit are actually strategies and things that you've done in your own health. So you understand this firsthand, and you also help our clients with this. So thank you for being here. Welcome.

And I'm so glad you're here to facilitate this discussion on adrenal fatigue. This is going to be a good one. It is going to be a good balance. And it's really is always a pleasure. You know, as when you when something like this happens to you in your life, you learn from it. You really do. And one of the best ways to heal yourself is to is to give back is to create lemonade out of lemons. And so that's one of the reasons why I'm so passionate about this. And I was healthy, in general before that ever happened.

And I'm even more passionate about my health and my mindset now. And so it's it's incredible to be able to do this. And, I feel so fortunate to, to be working with you on all this. And, you know, Laura, I've known you for several years at this point. But I also know that even before I knew you, you for about 20 years now, you've been a nurse practitioner. And, now you are the founder and CEO of Bio Radiant Health, and you've worked with amazing experts in the fields. And one of the gifts that you have is breaking down this complex, complex scientific information into really easily understood concepts.

And I even like to say Laura is famous for her analogies. There just, they really hit home and people are very open. And you don't you don't feel intimidated. You're not intimidating. You're you're incredibly generous about helping people understand what it is they need to learn. And because of yet, you've become this trusted resource for people who want to build back their health. These people want to they need a go to source for, for someone to help them restore their gut health, their energy, and their brain health.

One of the reasons I see your clients staying with you for so long is because you truly are able to help them connect the dots between the all the various operating systems within their bodies and their lifestyle choices, and you're allowing them to see the connection and how it's affecting their bodies and how their symptoms are getting created. And once they understand this, they're healing and they're restoring. Process becomes so much more easier. There's so much more committed. There's so much, more in the by and, people take off.

It's incredible. So, you know, we're talking about this adrenal fatigue and mitochondrial dysfunction. So can you break down the current thinking about the concept of adrenal fatigue and how it may actually be a problem of mitochondrial dysfunction and not necessarily adrenal fatigue? Yes. And that is a crazy concept because and I use air quotes. The term adrenal fatigue has widely been used in the naturopathic

Adrenal Fatigue vs. Mitochondrial Dysfunction 4:08

and functional medicine space for decades, and it's also been widely contested by traditional endocrinology and the endocrinology Society. And all the other medical specialties do not recognize this condition, stating that no scientific proof exists to support adrenal fatigue as a true medical condition. So that's kind of what we're up against, against in the functional world. It's that big controversy thing where one arm of medicine says, no, it's not, and another arm of medicine says, yes, it is.

So this is a huge disconnect between conventional and complementary medicine. And it creates a lot of frustration because when your conventional medicine lab workup is normal, then what do we do? Or how can we explain fatigue? And that's, you know, one of the reasons that adrenal fatigue, you know, came about because it's an explanation and there is some truth in it, but there's more to it. So, I'll comment here that if you are tired, if your brain foggy, if you have lack of motivation, if you have fatigue, you should first have a thorough evaluation with a medical doctor, because conditions and diseases like anemia, you know, sleep apnea, autoimmune diseases, infections, mental illnesses, heart and lung problems, you know, kidney and liver disease, they need to be ruled out because all of those things can cause those exact same symptoms.

But when nothing else shows up and you get a clean bill of health, you're going to start looking for reasons not recognized by the allopathic medicine world. And a theory for these symptoms is adrenal fatigue. And that links stress exposure. So chronic stress exposure and adrenal exhaustion. So those things are linked together with that term of adrenal fatigue. And that's a part that is linked together as a possibility or a cause for lack of energy. Now a quick lesson on adrenals, which are two small glands that sit on the top of your kidneys and they produce a whole bunch of hormones like cortisol, for example, which is what we look at with adrenal testing.

And when you're under stress, we produce and release, you know, short bursts of cortisol into the bloodstream. And that helps us have the energy to fight off whatever the stressor is. Because in the beginning of, you know, humanity, before we had our fast paced modern world and sitting in cars, in traffic and, you know, frustration with our kids teacher or, you know, watching the stock market go up and down or whatever was causing us stress. That burst of, of cortisol gave us energy to fight the stressor, which was more like a wild animal chasing you or, you know, fighting for your food or fighting for your life or running from an avalanche.

I don't know, something like that. Yeah. So the adrenal fatigue theory suggests that prolonged exposure to stress could drain the adrenals and leads to an inability, an inability or not ability to produce cortisol and then ultimately not being able to produce it results in a low cortisol state. And the adrenal depletion would then cause brain fog, low energy depressive mood, salt and sweet cravings, lightheadedness, other vague symptoms that all goes along with adrenal fatigue. Now here's the thing.

Damaged mitochondria are also directly connected to the same symptoms, especially fatigue and brain fog and mitochondria are also important as part of the adrenal function, since they begin the process of making the hormones produced by the adrenals. So there's messages sent from the adrenals or from the mitochondria, excuse me, to the adrenals saying start making hormones. So if that system isn't working, then hormones aren't going to be made in normal levels. And so on. A little deeper on the lesson here at the science lesson.

So in order to make hormones first, cholesterol is converted. So this is the good reason for cholesterol. I mean in my class, you know, a week ago one of the one of the people in my class was asking, why is there such thing as too low of cholesterol and what does cholesterol do anyway? So yeah, there is such a thing is not enough cholesterol because you don't have enough. You can't you can't make hormones. So first cholesterol is converted into pregnant alone, which then creates a whole bunch of hormones like DHEA, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and cortisol, which is what we're always looking at with adrenal fatigue.

And I use air quotes because, I mean, it's a thing. And there's also more to the thing than adrenal fatigue is what I'm getting at. So logically, if your mitochondria aren't functioning like they're supposed to, then adrenal hormone production is lowered and can become imbalanced. And if this goes on too long, theoretically you'll move through different stages of adrenal fatigue. So we think of adrenal fatigue like stage one, stage two, stage three, which is that flat line. Stage three until you become so tired that you can't function.

So the big question becomes, is it that your adrenals are broken? Or is it that your mitochondria can't generate energy and send signals? Wow. Okay, so that's right. There's a lot, so much, so much. So let me just let me repeat back of what I'm hearing you say. That it sounds like there might be more to this concept of just a simple adrenal fatigue than we thought, because so much of it may be due to this link to mitochondria health. Is that is that right? Yes. And what we now understand the problem to be is that the signaling between your brain and your adrenal glands isn't working efficiently any longer.

Plus, your mitochondria are no longer generating energy like they should. The summit is full of speakers talking about energy production from mitochondria, and how 90% of our body's energy is produced by the mitochondria. So when you're not producing it, you feel fatigued and brain foggy, and your measurable hormone levels get out of whack because your mitochondria

How Stress Disrupts Energy and Hormone Signaling 10:38

aren't sending signals to the adrenals to make the hormones like they should. So now let's let's sink in the stress piece here, because when we think of the concept of adrenal fatigue, it's linked with high stress levels. Remember adrenal fatigue. We we think about people have high stress level adrenals get out of control and eventually fizzle out and stop making cortisol. That's the theory. But here's the deal. When our bodies are under stress, it changes our mitochondria too, and it makes them not function properly.

So stress does more to us than just hurt our adrenal, so to speak. So when your mitochondria are hurting their size and shape changes, we call that morphology. That's the scientific term for this. Plus it can also change how our mitochondria generate antioxidant enzymes that actually help to protect the mitochondria. So when you have short term stress it's manageable by your body. But if that acute stressor is longer than just a few minutes or a few hours, if it goes on for weeks, months, years, our mitochondria can start to become damaged and become dysfunctional.

So lots of stress is harmful to our system, and the mitochondria can't keep up and our energy production drops. Antioxidant production drops, which means our body can't protect itself anymore. And so that's when we really start to feel that exhaustion overwhelm, moody, anxious, depressed. So let me go just a little bit deeper here. You mitochondria regulate almost all aspects of our stress response. So that means an increase in hormone production like cortisol is happening because the mitochondria said so because the mitochondria sent off a signal to start the process.

So their sending a signal from the brain to the adrenal saying we're in trouble. We are getting chased right now. Make cortisol and let's get the heck out of here. So when we're under stress, there's a bunch of other things that also happen in our body. So our blood flow patterns change, our blood pressure can go up, our heart rates, our heart rate increases, our breathing gets heavier, and then digestion and kidneys turn down because we don't want to be digesting food while we're being chased. We don't want to be making urine while we're being chased.

And your mitochondria are responsible for signaling that hole. Entire thing. Everything is run by the mitochondria. So when we have chronic stress, the mitochondria get fatigued, the signaling goes haywire. And the systems that make all this happen don't work efficiently any longer. And when the mitochondria aren't working and signaling properly, cortisol levels can actually go super high. And we see this sometimes on adrenal testing. Before we see a blowout, we see that they're high. And all these years we've been blaming low energy and fatigue on cortisol and adrenal fatigue, when really it's mitochondria dysfunction.

Wow okay. All right. So okay if the regulation here is incredible of this Andrea. It's just it's really at the root okay. So let me ask you this. Can you talk about what's really happening. And when you do like we have clients that come to us and they and they want an adrenal test. What's happening when you do an adrenal cortisol test on someone who shows up with super low levels of cortisol, you know, we sometimes hear this called end stage adrenal fatigue or flatlined adrenals. Is there more to it than that?

Yeah. So it's not that they're not making cortisol at all. They're just not showing up on on the functional test. They're showing a low level on functional tests. So we've already established that our mitochondria become dysfunctional with chronic stressors. So, chronic stressors like I mentioned, you're sitting in traffic, you're watching the stock market, you're fighting with your spouse, your teenagers, you know, acting out your, neighbor's dog keeps peeing on your lawn. Who knows what's going on, but they're no longer able to generate the energy.

We need the mitochondria. And they're not able to create those antioxidant enzymes anymore. And we get more and more cell damage, and more and more things break down. And communication signaling from the mitochondria to the adrenal stops working properly. And then we can't make enough cortisol anymore. So even if your body needs more cortisol, your mitochondria can't send the signals to make it. And it's not that your adrenal gland is incapable of producing it, it is capable of producing it, but it's the signals that aren't being sent to make it.

And that's when you feel exhausted, overwhelmed, anxious, depressed, and brain foggy. And even something like going grocery shopping, unpacking groceries, and getting dinner on the table feels exhausting and overwhelming because your body's energy production systems are just not able to keep up with your body's demands because it's a signaling problem. Okay, so messaging signaling dysregulation okay, okay. Can can you now explain why traditional adrenal protocols why are they still helping the symptoms.

One of the root it's actually a mitochondria problem. Little devil's advocate right. So this is crazy. We write adrenal protocols for people based on cortisol and DHEA levels. We're looking at what adrenals are doing and we're giving a protocol. So if it's a mitochondria problem why does it help some people get better. Well so think of it this way. When somebody is presenting with what we classically call adrenal fatigue, they're exhausted. They're overwhelmed. They're stressed out. They probably aren't taking care of themselves.

They're not eating healthy. They're not exercising, they're not drinking enough water. They're not practicing self-care. They're not sleeping well. And what do we do in an adrenal protocol? We start supporting the HPA hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis, which is a messaging system between your brain and your adrenals. And we support it with things like soothing adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha and antioxidants like lipoic acid. That also helps with blood sugar regulation. And then we make their protocol full of lifestyle things as well.

Why Adrenal Protocols Can Still Help 17:28

We say, okay, supplements aren't going to get you there alone, so we need you to be sleeping. So we support and help them with a sleeping routine and a sleeping plan. And then we get them eating healthy things and exercising gently. Because when your mitochondria are flatlined, if you exercise hard, it's going to hurt you. So we have them exercising gently. We have them hydrating and we might even give you some liquid pregnant alone. Remember when I explained how, cholesterol, pregnant alone hormones, though?

That's cascade. So we might give you some liquid pregnant alone, which converts straight to cortisol. So if your cortisol levels are low and I give you that, it's going to give you a boost. And most people are going to feel better right away as the system starts to reset itself. So this is a good place to get a quick win. An adrenal protocol gets you kind of off the floor or off the ceiling, whichever direction you are. If your cortisol levels are too high, or if your cortisol levels are too low, it's going to give you a win.

Because once you start feeling a little better, then you can do the deeper work. However, if you feel down and out again when you stop the adrenal protocol, then you know you have deeper mitochondria work to do like detoxing, gut health fixing, fixing nutrient deficiencies, all those types of things. So yeah, adrenal protocols can make us feel a lot better. But if it's a mitochondria decline at the root of it, it's not going to solve it long term. Got it. So I mean, yeah, because it sounds like the adrenal protocols are just, lots of healthy lifestyle protocols or habits, which is obviously going to support them.

But I see what you're saying. Yeah. If things don't really improve and sustain that way, that's an indicator. Yeah. And I'll add one more thing, Daniela. So when I, when I run, adrenal tests on people, it's never done without other things at the same time. So I've never just offered my audience who wants an adrenal protocol? I always do it along with other things like organic acids testing or gut testing or. So I have a bigger picture of what's happening, and what my clients don't realize is always simultaneously as I'm supporting them.

I'm running a mitochondria mitochondria protocol underneath what they're doing. And it is just yes, it's ninja style. And so I'm supporting those mitochondria because I mean, what I just explained here, could you imagine if I explained that to every client, they'd be like, Laura, I don't need to know all that. I just, could you just help me feel better so I ninja run the mitochondria protocol underneath what we're doing. But if I'm running, an adrenal protocol, I want to know what's happening with mitochondria.

Because if your mitochondria are flatlined, if you're in a hypo metabolic state, if I give you an adrenal protocol, it's not going to help you. You have to fix those mitochondria as well. So I just wanted to add that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Laura. So, what I'm hearing is if someone's done a basic adrenal reset protocol with the lifestyle changes and the supplements support, it can be really helpful. But if you're not getting the results and improving, as you said, then there's probably that deeper mitochondrial damage that needs to be repaired.

Right. Okay. And then we need to get down to the root cause of the problem. And that's, that's all what you're about. So can you tell us what is this root cause. What what could be harming your mitochondria. Yep. So there's two things you don't have control over. And everything else you do when it comes to mitochondria harm the first thing is aging. Every year you're a year older. We cannot stop that. We cannot stop time. And we do have decline in mitochondrial populations as we age though as you're learning why you watch this summit, there's a lot you can do to maintain high levels of mitochondria populations, no matter what age you are.

But there's no way that an 80 year old is going to have the same amount of mitochondria as a 25 year old. It's just not so that piece, you don't have control over the other piece you don't have control over is your genetic predisposition. So you do not have control over the genetic predisposition you were born with. However, you do have control over whether those, epigenetics are turned on or off. So how you express your genes, your your genetics are like a light switch that can be turned on or off with lifestyle.

So if you're doing things that harm your body, that genetic switch might be turned on.

Root Causes of Mitochondrial Damage 22:18

That makes you all of a sudden you're at risk for or all of a sudden a disease shows up. A genetic disease shows up that you never had before. That switch can stay off if you live a healthy lifestyle in most cases. So you do have control over gene expression. You just don't have control over the predisposition you were born with. Okay, so then that leads to everything you do have control over. Okay. First and foremost is poor diet. So sugar, processed food, non-organic food containing pesticides, herbicides matters.

What you eat. And I mean, I could talk for a whole I did talk for a whole entire talk about food. We did do a talk all about what to eat, when to eat. So go listen to that talk, because I go deep into this, nutrient deficiencies cause problems. So nutrient deficiencies can occur because of leaky gut. They can occur because of toxicity. They can occur, because of eating disorders. I mean, there's lots of reasons that nutrient deficiencies can happen, and because our food sources are depleted of nutrients as well.

And then sedentary lifestyle. So this is a problem. Mitochondria want you to move. They need you to move or do. There's a lot of talks on this summit about my daughter Mrs.. And hermetic stress. That's good for good for you. And I did a talk on hermetic stress. I went and did a talk on hermetic stress. So go find those talks. But exercise actually is good stress for your mitochondria. And so if you're not exercising then you're not going to have as healthy a mitochondria, chronic stress, which we just talked a lot about sleep deprivation which is also a reason for mitochondria decline and then infections.

So think viral like Epstein-Barr hepatitis herpes or bacterial. So we get bacteria infections in our gut microbiome. People have chronic urinary tract infections. We can get infections in our body that are smoldering. And we don't know they're there. And then fungal infection. So think of Candida and then parasite infections which I love to talk about parasites. I've had too much of an opportunity to talk about parasites on this summit. But when you work with me and my gut programs, we talk a lot about parasites.

They're everywhere in the environment, even in first world countries. And parasites also are not just in your gut, but they can go everywhere in your body. And there's hundreds of species of parasites, so they cause mitochondria decline and then environmental toxins. So everything from your cleaning and body and beauty products. And if you didn't catch the, the, the interview I did with Daniella, where we went through my kitchen and my bathroom and looked at all the products that I use, several that Daniella uses to keep ourselves and our families healthy.

It's lowering that environmental toxic load that's so critical. And then things like radiation and electromagnetic fields, we've got talks about that on the summit. So find those dogs, other things in the environment, heavy metals and mold and mycotoxins. We've got talks on mold and mycotoxins as well. And then all of this that I just explained, just that whole list of things, it leads to leaky gut and it leads to chronic inflammation, which both of those are leading factors in mitochondrial damage.

So if you didn't hear my talk on day one about leaky gut and the link between mitochondria and leaky gut, go listen to that, because it's very eye opening and spells it all out for you. So Daniella, that's the reason that's the root causes that we have that are underlying and hurting our mitochondria. You know, I mean, and you talking about the two things that we don't have control the genetics, or the. Yes, the genetics that we're given, not the expression, but the genius that we're given and the age.

I mean, it makes me want to, you know, run and and do all these protocols that you're talking about because that sort of, the back door helps give you some sort of traction to maybe not exactly be able to completely control, but somewhat help shift things more. I mean, you know, creating a safe environment for our bodies to have this expression to turn off the genes that aren't cooperative and, you know, knowing that I can do something today to help my aging and lose less mitochondria as I age. I mean, I cannot you know, game on.

It's exciting. It is. It is. And you've done a lot of these protocols, but we're still working through stuff. Yeah, absolutely. And I always feel like there's always more there's always more. There's there is. So that's the thing. We're never done. Right. So just when you think you're done, something happens. I mean, I was I was in the peak of my health when I got Covid last August, and it took me out. It was wild. And who knows, it might have something to do with my genetics. It might have something to do with the strain of Covid I got.

But there I went, just down. And thank goodness I know how to how to build myself back up again. But it took a long time and, it took a long time to get my brain back. Took a long time to get my brain back and just think about how much harder and how much more it would have taken you down. I know, not I know, do you think about that? I know, I know, so I mean, things happen though, right? We get exposed, we get exposed to toxins. We we travel, we get exposed to things there. You might get a parasite site infection.

You might go on a trip and get a parasite infection and end up with leaky gut all over again. And oh my gosh, then we got to go fix that again. So you know it's it's it's never done right. There's maintenance and there's never done. But but I find these this conversation and all these conversations incredibly empowering because you know how to get back on the horse because this is an educational, empowered view where you know that you can manage things, you know what to go to. You know, you can find a resource, you know, you can educate, you know, you can start taking this and you can support yourself.

We don't ever know what's going to happen and how, and things are going to come at us, but we can rest well and sleep soundly knowing that we have resources and the motivation and the commitment to move forward and support ourselves. Absolutely wonderful. Well, so, Laura, for this summit, I know you've created this amazing

21-Day Energy Reset Program 28:38

live 21 day journey coming up, and this is aimed to support our viewers to become energetic and focused so that they can match that level of ambition that they have so can you share a little bit more about this program and how to get access to it? Yes, and I just gave you a long list of all the things wrong with your mitochondria, potentially. And so this, this 21 day journey with me is going to be foundational in how we fix our mitochondria real damage. Now, there's lots of talks all over the summit explaining how to fix mitochondria, including all the many talks that I've done on this summit.

But sometimes you need someone to help guide you and put it all together. So that's what we're going to do in this 21 day program, is we're going to put it all together, and we're going to guide you through it to life. Group coaching calls per week. So that's six touch points with me as you implement the strategies that I teach during the course. And I'm going to coach you on the steps to take so you can wake up every day feeling purposeful and energetic. So you have focus when you're working on important tasks.

So your brain is working well, so you have the energy to keep up with your family mentally, physically. So you can have weekends together and have fun and not have to have a recovery rest weekend and you'll know what foods to eat in which to avoid. So you can have maximum energy levels and you'll know what products to keep in your home that will help you in your long term success. And you're also going to have a clear understanding of the sneaky things in your home that are zapping your energy. You'll know what roles, what role sleep plays in your recovery process, and I'll help you build a personalized plan to get the amount of sleep you need.

And you'll also have a clear understanding of which supplements will support your energy and how long you should take them. That's whether you live here, or abroad. But if you live in the United States, I'll also have optional curated supplement protocols to speed up the process for you. And I've put together the best products on the market to give you the fast results. And simultaneously set the foundation for long term healing for your inflammation and your leaky gut and chronic symptoms. And everything I do is with the purpose of permanent results, not temporary hacks.

We want to get you feeling better. And so I, I encourage you to join me on the 21 days. It's you can go to easy Energy reset.com to learn more and get access. That's easy energy reset.com. And you know, I always invite you as you're going through this summit to find the people who can support you best, find your practitioners, find the people who have the solutions for your unique situation. Because that's why we put these summits together. We brought together, you know, there's 70 speakers on this summit total between, the live event and the bonus, talks.

And so get access to that and listen to all the resources here. Take the time for yourself to do it, get permanent access to it so you can watch it over and over again and share it with your friends and family and loved ones too. So thank you, Daniela, for facilitating this talk about adrenal fatigue and the myths about it and what we always said it was, but what it really is. I know it's crazy. I know it is fascinating. So thanks for being here. Thank you. All right everybody, take good care. Bye now.