Treating the symptoms of adrenal fatigue is important, but it's also necessary to identify and address the causes of chronic stress in your life that are putting a strain on your endocrine system. Dr. Tina Marcantel, a naturopathic physician in Gilbert, AZ, shares thoughts from her book, Imagine: A Whole Different Kind of Medical Care.
Q: How do you treat adrenal fatigue?
Dr. Marcantel, NMD: The first thing I do is I treat at the physical level. Because when people come into our office, they're tired, they're not feeling good, they have no motivation--so I take care of the physical first
If, in fact, the cortisol is really high and the person's not sleeping well and they're irritable, I will give them some botanicals that help to lower the cortisol levels so they don't wake up in the middle of the night. Most people sleep well with this. Also I give adrenal support to support the adrenal glands and we do that either through supplements or IV therapy over here for adrenal support.
And the other thing, of course, is we want to look at the root cause--what's causing it. Sometimes people need an awareness, through counseling. So we do a lot of counseling here, as well.
Some people come in here and they're blaming other people for the way they feel-- I call it "the blame game." What happens is that if you blame others for the way you feel you give away your power. You disempower yourself because somebody else is making you feel this way. So I have people realize that that can be the key to taking back your power and taking the responsibility and saying, yes, if somebody did something to you, you have to make the decision to free yourself through forgiveness, through the power of forgiveness. To free yourself. And then you'll become empowered again and then you become aware of decisions you make in your life. It's important to know that we are responsible for our own health--nobody makes us feel bad.
We do have a number of counselors that we refer out to. I do a lot of counseling myself over here, as well, because again, it gets to the root cause of the problem.
Sometimes people come in with, maybe, anger or resentment, or whatever, and they have a lot of suppressed feelings. And that's making the adrenal glands shoot out a lot of cortisol. And so what happens is--I give them the analogy of the beach ball. Holding the beach ball under water takes a lot of energy. Well, the same thing also with holding down and suppressing all of these feelings. It takes a lot of energy to do that, and you continue to be in a place of adrenal stress and then, eventually, adrenal fatigue.
So we have to address all those issues, as well. The emotions are there to be expressed; not to keep on thinking about it in a way that will put you in a place of being a victim in your life, but to realize that feelings are not meant to be suppressed, they're meant to be released and then to go on with our lives. So, you know, that's another area we deal with.
One of the things I also encourage with my patients is meditation and prayer because when you're in that place you're in a place of quiet and you quiet the mind. The mind--the thoughts that are constantly racing through our mind can cause a lot of anxiety, as well, and cause adrenal problems. I have patients become very aware of their thought processes. When you sit quietly and meditate, you quiet the mind. When you pray, it's another way that you quiet the mind. I really encourage this with my patients because when you quiet the mind, you feel peace. You can think clearer and it's not just a bunch of thoughts rushing at you.
Dr. Tina Marcantel, NMD
201 W. Guadalupe Rd. Ste. 202
Gilbert, AZ 85233
Office: 480-892-0211
Website: drmarcantel.com
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9 сен 2024
