Trouble sleeping at night and low energy levels during the day?

Trouble falling or staying asleep is NOT an Ambien deficiency. Cortisol and Melatonin are the two hormones involved in our Circadian Rhythm or sleep/wake cycle. Cortisol (produced in the adrenal glands) is what wakes us up in the morning which is triggered by light and stress, and melatonin (produced in the pineal gland and the gut) is what helps us sleep and is triggered by darkness. Cortisol peaks around 6 a.m., starts to decline throughout our day and bottoms out around 9:00 p.m. Melatonin kicks in at around 8-9 p.m. and peaks out at around 4 a.m. This is the the normal sleep/wake cycle. Identifying and working on improving the underlying cause, rather then treating the symptom is key to having optimal levels of these two hormones and feeling energized throughout our day.

If some type of stressor is triggering the release of cortisol before bed then we will have problems falling asleep and staying asleep and if the adrenal glands are becoming fatigued because of chronic stress then we will have low energy during the day. A stressor could be some obvious things such as finances, marital problems, loss of a loved one, sleeping with the TV on, computer or caffeine before bed and so on.....It is the less obvious ones that seem to be the most problematic. Some examples are, poor diet, alcohol at night, eating foods that spike insulin levels before bed (blood sugar problems), medications, gut problems (bugs, yeast, virus). All of these stressors can spike cortisol levels at night making sleep a problem.

What steps can you take to help alleviate difficulty sleeping and having energy throughout the day? Start by finding out where your cortisol and melatonin levels are through specific testing. Find a practitioner that does saliva testing to measure cortisol levels at these different times of the day and at night. With saliva testing, cortisol is measured upon waking, at noon, afternoon, nighttime, and total daily output. It is important to look at this pattern of cortisol in order to identify the underlying cause of the elevated cortisol or lack of. Most doctors use blood testing which tell us little about cortisol or melatonin levels. It is one measurement of total cortisol at that moment the blood is being drawn and most people get stressed at the site of a needle which will give a false reading anyway.

Chronic Neck & Back Pain from your job?

Most jobs today require prolonged time in front of a computer. During this time specific muscles are continually engaging becoming chronically tight, restricting blood flow, and causing a build up of lactic acid (a by product of muscle contraction) in this area. This leads to a condition called Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). The result is damage to muscles, tendons, and nerves of the neck, back, shoulders, forearms, and hands, which causes pain, weakness, numbness, and potentially leads to impairment of motor control. Without intervention, companies can see a decrease in employee productivity and increasing absentee and workman comp claims.

Muscle Therapy techniques such as Trigger Point, Muscle Release Technique (MRT), and Deep Tissue work will help break up adhesions, introduce fresh nutrient rich blood, influencing healing and helping to break muscle compensation patterns that contribute to chronic tight muscles and pain.

Without a healthy gut, the body cannot be healthy

The mucosal barrier is the body’s first line immune defense. A Healthy Intestinal Mucosal Barrier allows nutrients from the outside environment in and the unhealthy things out.
 

Secretory immunoglobulin or SIgA is the most abundant antibody in the gut. It accounts for 75-90% of the mucosal antibodies. These antibodies normally recognize and neutralize pathogens such as fungi, bacteria, viruses, and yeast. SIgA also recognizes and processes proteins in foods such as gliadins (wheat proteins), soy, cow’s milk, and egg. If the gut is working normally there will be adequate amounts of these antibodies. High levels of antibodies may be an indication of the overgrowth of bacteria, or a food allergy which consequently lead to severe intestinal permeability or leaky gut. This can also put a significant load on the liver. Without intervention, Intestinal permiability can lead to auto-immune diseases such as MS, type I diabetes, hypothyroidism, RA, lupus  and neurological dysfunctions such as gluten intolerance, Celiac disease, Autism and ADHD.

The connection between adrenal fatigue, weight gain, and CFS

When under chronic stress the adrenal glands become fatigued and in order to conserve energy the body down regulates energy production. One of the ways it does this is by decreasing the amount of T-3 and T4 and increasing Thyroid Binding Globulin (which binds to free T-3 and T-4 leaving less to enter cells for energy production). Another pathway the body uses to down regulate energy production to enhance survival is to shunt remaining T-4 to the production of inactive reverse T-3 (rT-3) which acts as a braking system and opposes the function of T-3. This may continue even after the stress has passed and the adrenals go back to normal function. In short, lab tests may show “normal’ T-3, T-4 but the symptoms of hypothyroidism remain. This is secondary hypothyroidism.
Hypothyroidism signs and symptoms may include unexplained weight gain, fatigue, dry skin, depression, impaired memory, thinning hair, changes in menstrual cycle.......