Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom (119 page)

Improves energy and vitality, sleep, mental clarity; reduces PMS symptoms; helps the body recover more quickly from acute stress such as insufficient sleep, excessive exercise, or emotional trauma

So as you can easily see, an imbalance between your cortisol and DHEA levels can leave you susceptible to fatigue and all manner of ill nesses, as well as many menopausal symptoms. Levels of DHEA de cline in some women with aging, and replenishing this hormone to normal body levels may have many benefits. However, use of the hormone isn’t right for everyone, and once adrenal function is restored, our bodies often have the ability to make enough of this hormone on their own.
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To test your current levels of cortisol and DHEA and to see if they are in balance, I recommend that you have your health care provider order a test known as the Adrenal Stress Index or the Temporal Adrenal Profile, which involves taking serial saliva samples over a twelve-hour period. Adrenal function also can be measured by doing a simple blood test for DHEA (the optimal level for women is 550–980 ng/dl). (Laboratories that can do the saliva testing with a doctor’s prescription include Genova Diagnostics, 800-522-4762;
www.genovadiagnostics.com
; and ZRT Laboratory, 503-466-2445 or toll-free at 866-600-1636;
www.zrtlab.com
.)
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It is not necessary to have your salivary cortisol and DHEA levels measured to benefit from my suggestions for restoring your adrenal glands to full capacity, but I find that most women are more motivated to change when they can see their results on paper, especially if the initial results are not optimal. Once you know that your adrenals are in need of R&R, there is a great deal you can do to help them recover. If you don’t want to have the test done at this time, for whatever reason, just follow as many of the following suggestions as you can without stressing yourself further.

Adrenal Restoration Program for a Healthier Menopause

Recharge Your Batteries with the Power of Your Thoughts
and Emotions

Studies have shown that your natural ability to produce DHEA can be increased by learning to “think with your heart.” This is simple: It means choosing thoughts that feel better. So, for example, if you’re stressed about something, turn your attention to your heart and think about a puppy, an adorable child, a fabulous meal—anything that feels good and brings you pleasure. Make this a habit. It will change your life! (To get you started, I recommend reading
Ask and It Is Given
or
The Art of Deliberate Creation
[Hay House, 2006], both by Esther and Jerry Hicks, or visiting their website at
www.abraham-hicks.com
. A full range of very helpful CDs is available there.) The Institute of HeartMath in Boulder Creek, California (call Heart-Math at 800-450-9111 or visit HeartMath’s website at
www.heartmath.com
), has developed a system of heart-focusing techniques that are taught through training programs and books. A study of one HeartMath technique, called Cut-Thru, showed that with sincere practice it could help alter the harmful physiological and emotional responses to emotional stress. The study demonstrated that after one month of using the technique there was a 100 percent increase in the subjects’ DHEA levels. Study participants reported significant increases in caring and vigor and significant decreases in burnout and anxiety. The technique helps dissipate emotional static and can help heal emotional patterns of worry, hostility, anxiety, and guilt.
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“Thinking with your heart” takes practice, but if you faithfully learn to start thinking with your heart and pay attention to areas of your life that bring you joy and fulfillment, over time you will evoke biochemical changes in your body that will recharge your batteries.

H
EART
F
OCUS
E
XERCISE TO
D
ECREASE
S
TRESS
H
ORMONES

1. Stop yourself and observe your emotional state.

2. Name what is bothering you—you might even write it down or say it out loud to yourself or a friend.

3. Focus on your heart area (put your hand there if it helps you focus).

4. Shift your attention to a happy, funny, or uplifting event, person, or place in your life that you appreciate, and spend a few moments imagining it.

5. Bring something to mind that allows you to feel unconditional love or appreciation—usually a child or a pet—and hold that feeling for fifteen seconds or more (again, it helps to hold your hand over your heart).

6. Notice how changing your thoughts and your perception has changed how you feel. See that you have the power to shift out of the downward spiral of negativity you may have been caught in.

Make a List of Your Most Important Activities and
Commitments

Let everything else go. Before saying yes to a new task or commitment, ask yourself this question: “Will doing this recharge my batteries or deplete them?” If the activity will deplete them, then don’t do it.

Get Enough Sleep

Sleep restores adrenal balance more effectively than any other modality. Many women, including me, require eight to ten hours of sleep to function optimally. Get to bed by 10:00 p.m. Getting to sleep on the earlier side of midnight is much more restorative to your adrenals than sleep that begins later in the night, even if you sleep late the next morning to get in your full amount of sleep.

Allow Yourself to Accept Nurturing and Affection

If you didn’t learn how to do this as a child, you may need to practice it. Every morning before you get up, spend a minute or two reveling in a memory of a time you felt loved. Do the same at night. Imagine your heart being filled with this love. Dwell on the things you really like about yourself.

Concentrate on activities and people that are fun and make you laugh. This stimulates healthy immune function. Make pleasurable activities priority—every day. Don’t wait until later. “Later” rarely comes.

Get regular massages as well. Way more than merely an indulgent way to relax, massage is just plain healthy. It actually decreases cortisol and increases serotonin (the feel-good hormone), dopamine (a neurotransmitter that increases energy levels), and the natural killer cells that boost immunity, according to research by Tiffany Field, Ph.D., director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine. (By the way, don’t think you need a professional massage to get these benefits. Dr. Field’s studies are largely based on twice-weekly, twenty-minute massages given for one month by significant others.) Massage therapy helps a host of midlife issues, including endometriosis, fibroids, cramps and heavy periods, arthritis, chronic fatigue, and insomnia, just to name a few.

It also helps with mood swings because touch aids in releasing the stress we all store in our fascia and muscles and gets the parasympathetic nervous system back in line. I know women who have gone from breakdown to breakthrough on the massage table, crying and getting rid of pain that’s been stored up for years.

I also have a theory that massage can help normalize weight, in part because it helps bring pleasure into your life. When you don’t experience pleasure on a regular basis, you’re more likely to turn to sugar and alcohol to feel good.

Support Yourself Nutritionally

Follow the guidelines in chapter 17. Eat a whole-food diet with minimal sugar. Avoid caffeine and junk food as much as possible. Make sure you’re getting enough protein—eat some at each meal and snack. Avoid fasting or cleansing programs, which can weaken you further. Check your vitamin-mineral intake, too. Vitamin C is essential for the blood vessels supporting your adrenal glands: Take 500 to 2,000 mg in divided doses over the day. Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) is involved in energy production via ATP in the adrenals and elsewhere; take the rest of the B complex along with it in a good-quality 25 to 50 mg supplement that includes at least 800 mcg of folic acid per day.

Magnesium is crucial to the regulation of more than 325 enzymes in the body, the most important of which are involved with the body’s ability to create, store, transport, and utilize energy. In short, to experience optimal energy, you need optimal levels of magnesium. It is estimated that the majority of people in the United States, if not most people on the planet, have suboptimal levels of magnesium, in part because of depleted soils and the refining of foods.
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Excretion of magnesium in the urine increases when cortisol is too high, so it’s easy to see why chronic stress also leads to magnesium depletion. Magnesium supplementation has been found to increase the adrenals’ ability to make DHEA (see below). For that reason, magnesium is absolutely critical for restoring adrenal health. Take 300 to 800 mg a day in divided doses (use magnesium fumarate, citrate, glycinate, or malate). (See the supplement recommendations in chapter 17, “Eat to Flourish.”) The research of Norm Shealy, M.D., Ph.D., has shown that transdermal magnesium is highly effective for raising DHEA naturally. (To order this and other supplements from Dr. Shealy’s company, Self-Health Systems, call 888-242-6105 or visit
www.normshealy.net
. Transdermal magnesium is also available from
www.puremagoil.com
.) Zinc is useful as well; take 15 to 30 mg daily. MSM (methylsulfonyl methane) in combination with vitamin C has been shown to raise DHEA. Dr. Shealy has developed a nutritional formula specifically for raising DHEA, known as the Youth Formula.

Your regular multivitamin-mineral supplement may have all of the nutrients I’ve listed here. Just add more of what is low in your current supplementation regimen.

Try Herbal Support

Siberian ginseng is often quite helpful for adrenal function because one of its components is related to pregnenolone, a precursor for DHEA and cortisol. Take one 100 mg capsule twice per day. If it tends to be too stimulating, take it before 3:00 p.m.

Licorice root contains plant hormones that have effects similar to cortisol. For low-cortisol states, take up to one-quarter teaspoon of 5:1 solid extract three times a day. Or simply drink licorice tea. Traditional Medicinals is a good brand.

Consider Hormonal Support

If your lab report comes back showing that you have decreased DHEA levels, try the steps listed above first. It’s always ideal to restore adrenal function naturally. If you are not successful, you may consider supplementing your program with DHEA until your adrenals have recovered. High doses of DHEA over long periods of time can change the normal daily variation in cortisol levels, and I don’t recommend them for most healthy women. However, physiologic replacement doses of DHEA (enough to bring levels up to normal) can help your own adrenals get a rest and start to recover faster.

DHEA is available as a skin cream, a pill, or a tincture. The best brands are pharmaceutical grade (look for “GMP” on the label). (The tincture needs to be made up by a formulary pharmacist.) Each form has a somewhat different effect, but whatever the form, you should start with the lowest dose possible and build up gradually until you notice a difference in your energy. Most women need no more than 5 to 10 mg twice a day; some will need up to 25 mg once or twice a day. Your DHEA levels should be tested again three months later, and if they have been restored to normal, you can begin taper off the supple mentary DHEA.

Progesterone also helps balance the effects of too much cortisol. Use one-quarter to one-half teaspoon of 2 percent progesterone cream once or twice a day on the skin. It also raises DHEA levels.

An occasional individual may also need cortisol supplementation, which can be prescribed for a limited amount of time by your health care provider.

Exercise

Light to moderate exercise is very helpful. But if you feel depleted afterward, you are doing too much. Pushing yourself beyond your limits weakens your adrenals even further, so start slowly—even if it’s only walking down your street and back. Then build up slowly. (For more information on DHEA, see
Life Beyond 100: Secrets of the Fountain of Youth
[Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2005] by C. Norman Shealy.)

Vitamin D and Sunlight

Vitamin D, which is both a vitamin and a hormone, affects every cell in the body. Optimal vitamin D levels (from 40–100 ng/ml) are essential for optimal adrenal function as well as bone and breast health. (For a discussion of vitamin D, see
chapter 10
, on breast health, as well as chapter 17, on nutrition.) Take 2,000 to 5,000 IU per day. Natural sunlight can also be very helpful for restoring adrenal function, as long as you don’t overdo it. I recommend at least ten to twenty minutes of exposure over as much of your body as possible during morning or after noon hours, avoiding midday sun. (Note: In northern climates—those having a latitude around the mid-30 degrees or higher—you cannot get enough UVB radiation to make vitamin D under the skin between mid-October and mid-March.) Do this at least three to four times per week in the appropriate season. This type of exposure, if you are sure not to burn your skin, will not increase your risk of skin cancer. It’s also an excellent way to help boost levels of vitamin D. In the winter, you can use a tanning booth for less than ten minutes once per week.