Being stuck in fight or flight all the time is hard on the body.
The crazy thing is, you may not even feel that stress is in an issue for you!
You may even be addicted to it as a way to keep your energy up.
Jules is a client of mine who owns a successful business but finds herself working 24/7.
She doesn’t even remember a day when she wasn’t working.
Even when she was on vacation, she would be taking calls and checking emails.
The only thing that would get her to stop was this weird cyclical energy crash she’d have right after her period each month.
She’d have two days of migraines and hiding out in her blacked out bedroom in silence.
Then she’d be up and running full speed again.
This happened every month for years before she came to me.
She had every migraine medication known to man.
And quite a few MRIs.
No explanation.
What really got her to see me was her weight was going up despite, “doing all the things” to keep it in check!
When I asked her about stress, it wasn’t on her radar, she suspected there was something up with her hormones.
Turns out her cortisol levels were all elevated – the entire day and going into the night.
I asked her how she slept.
She looked at me like I was nuts.
Turns out she attributed her 4 hours of sleep or so a night to being a night owl and not winding down from work.
Jules told me – I do better on less sleep!
Her fight or flight valve was wide open making massive amounts of cortisol!
Depleting her progesterone levels.
Progesterone helps with calm and sleep.
A little progesterone topically each night with some magnesium and a little extra magnesium around her cycle helped but not completely.
Then I added 2 topical creams Adrenacalm during the day and BeSerene before bed.
That seemed to take the edge off even more and decreased the migraine intensity.
Quite often headaches after periods are iron and nutrient related but those labs were normal in her case.
While racking my head about what to do next I got an idea from my doctor mastermind group.
A stress reset!
What’s this?
Research has shown that micro-dosing Ganoderma mushrooms with a blend of L-theanine and melatonin and a few other calming herbs can help reset the nervous system.
The protocol is recommended for 7-10 days.
That’s it.
Because I just learned about this last week – I haven’t tried it.
I wanted to share it with everyone because I think there’s something to it.
It’s not uncommon for me to see clients that seem to thrive on being in stress mode.
Then they have crashes that show up as intense health issues…
- dizziness
- gut issues
- chest pain
- elevated blood pressure
- catching colds, flu or virus
Or I see cortisol and blood sugar levels that will not go down despite whatever interventions are added.
Cortisol resistance is often the pre-cursor to blood sugar imbalances.
So many clients of mine tell me that they don’t seem to notice feeling stressed but all their labs show otherwise.
Can you have low cortisol and be stuck in a cortisol resistant state?
Yes, this is a more severe state.
The body has gone beyond it’s limits to produce cortisol and is now struggling to make sufficient levels.
The adrenal glands are what make cortisol and this is a state of more severe adrenal imbalance.
It’s the place where one may be seeing…
- swelling in the legs or ankles
- puffiness under the eyes
- increased blood pressure or heart rate
- blood sugar issues
How do you know if you have cortisol resistance?
- test saliva cortisol
- hemoglobin a1c
- fasting glucose
- fasting insulin
What is the research saying about Ganoderma lucidum mushrooms and melatonin for stress?
Ganoderma simply lowers cortisol!
Ganoderma mushrooms have been found to be effective for anxiety, sedating the nervosa system, protecting the nervous system, seizures and depression. – research HERE
The best part about these mushrooms it that they helps you get into parasympathetic chill mode.
The more time in this mode, the less the body will be prone to getting stuck in fight or flight.
Why is this important?
More time in chill mode = less inflammation, cancer prevention + improved health!
THIS is WHY I’m all about doing what you can to train the body to be in parasympathetic mode more often.
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Instructions Included
Traveling soon? Looking to detox or reset your gut? Try one of Dr. Krause’s Fullscript plans.
This is why I love breath work and talk about it a lot.
What about melatonin?
Melatonin buffers the responsiveness of the hypothalamus and pituitary in the brain.
There are melatonin receptors on the adrenal glands!
Melatonin has been getting a bad rap for a long time and the most recent research on it being bad for your health is misguided.
Your body makes melatonin naturally.
If you know your melatonin levels you can find your sweet spot for melatonin.
Melatonin is an antioxidant and taking high doses of melatonin does not make you sleepy.
It restores you and resets your nervous system.
Melatonin can protect your brain from chronic stress impacting your cognitive function.
And it protects you from increased stress and inflammation. (research HERE)
Melatonin has a lot of benefits beyond sleep support:
- it protects the nervous system
- supports healthy inflammation by moving you into parasympathetic chill mode from fight or flight
- improves arterial and vein wall function and supports healthy blood pressure levels
- synchronizes daily rhythms as well as regulating the cardiovascular system
- supports healthy inflammation pathways and stimulates glutathione, your natural antioxidant production
- helps your mitochondria take out the cell trash
- calms the mind and allows the body to rest
How do you use melatonin and ganoderma mushroom spores to reset your nervous system?
Take 7-10 days to…
- relax as much as you can
- eat as closest to nature as possible
- stop all alcohol, tobacco & caffeine
- take Ganoderma Mushroom Spores (like Organo – 2 capsules every hour while awake)
- take Dr. Bob’s Stress Reset or Stress Release Drops – 1-2 drops every hour
Turns out Dr. Bob’s Stress Reset is a popular product and it’s sold out right now.
The Stress Release drops are available but they do not have melatonin in them.
Is there an alternative to this?
I haven’t tried this out, but based on my personal experience and the research that was presented on cortisol resistance I would vote for trying out the following – a protocol proposed by Dr. Bob Rakowski…
Ganoderma Mushroom Spores – 250-500 mg every waking hour
Liquid L-theanine – 100-200 mg every hour
Liquid melatonin -1-2mg an hour
Keep in mind, these are pure suggestions as I have not tried this out.
To offer something similar I created my own protocol to test out – check it out HERE.
I was really excited about it and wanted to share BUT really bummed out when Dr. Bob’s was out of stock.
I will be trying out his protocol as soon as it’s back in stock and in the meantime I’ll be testing out the 3 things I mentioned above.
Because stress is such a factor when it comes to health I want to crack the code on this!
So stay tuned for more information and if you have questions, hit reply.
Summer’s almost here?
Do you have sunscreen and skin care ready?
Memorial Day is next week!
And that being the official start of summer, I decided to team up with Fullscript to offer a summer skin care and supplement sale!
For 2 days only – Starting tomorrow, Thursday the 18th and Friday the 19th you can can an extra 10% off your supplements and skin care!
Looking for suggestions?
Check out my skin care protocols!
1) Summer sunscreens and such – HERE
2) Skin rejuvenation – HERE
On Friday I’ll be going into 3 “old school” therapies that I think need a second look for overall health.
Here’s to your health,
Dr. J
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