EP 22: Stress and Testing Your Adrenal Glands
In this episode, Dr. Agolli and Dr. Burdette continue the series on the Adrenal Glands:
- Why it’s important to determine the adrenals from a functional perspective.
- Why do Doctors focus on saliva and urine for adrenal testing?
- What is hypoadrenalism?
- Symptoms of adrenal inefficiency.
- The questions to ask if you have adrenal fatigue.
- An overview of the 24-hour saliva test for your adrenals.
- Why it’s important to handle stress well.
- The impact stress can have on your health.
- How environmental pollution and toxins impact our adrenals.
Testing adrenal function is best done with urine and saliva rather than with blood because blood cortisol can be bound in a protein, making the amount able to be used inaccurate in the blood1. Saliva and urine cortisol together are considered the best for measuring optimal adrenal function1.
Functional medicine testing is a form of medicine that helps to resolve complex and chronic health issues. It is surging into the mainstream as patients and practitioners seek a better way to approach healthcare. Functional medicine practitioners use functional labs alongside patient history and symptom review to evaluate body system imbalances holistically. The labs are a vital piece to a thorough functional health assessment2.
Functional medicine testing has several advantages over conventional testing. Functional medicine practitioners recognize that test results within standard lab ranges may be insufficient information to understand a patient’s condition. Many patients are told that their labs are “within normal range,” yet they still experience symptoms. Instead, functional medicine practitioners order more in-depth functional labs to get a better look. However, even on routine blood work, functional medicine practitioners evaluate results in a narrower range known as the optimal range to catch certain markers early on. This way of practicing allows practitioners to reverse or stop disease progression altogether,