Caffeine is a normal part of many people’s day-to-day lives. That morning cup of coffee or green tea, that energy drink while on the road, that soda throughout the workday, perhaps even that nutritional bar you snack on has energy-boosting caffeine in it. It’s no secret that caffeine can be addictive, but can it impact your adrenal glands? Is it okay to rely on caffeinated beverages on the daily, or is such dependence doing more harm than good?

Here is what you need to know about caffeine and your adrenal glands. 

What Is Caffeine?

Caffeine is a natural stimulant found in many natural sources, such as seeds, nuts, and leaves. These sources are then processed in order to produce caffeinated beverages, such as coffee, tea, soda, and energy drinks. Because this stimulant is naturally occurring, many people can consume it in their daily lives even if they don’t gravitate toward a morning cup of coffee, such as in chocolate treats or in over-the-counter painkillers.  

What Are Your Adrenal Glands?

Your adrenal glands are little triangle-shaped glands on your kidneys. They’re part of your endocrine system and are responsible for many crucial bodily functions, such as your metabolism, your blood pressure, and cortisol production (aka, the stress hormone). 

How Are Caffeine And Your Adrenal Glands Linked?

We just touched on how your adrenal glands are responsible for cortisol production. This is a hormone that is released during times of stress so that your body has the energy and focus to handle the situation. You see how it’s called a “stress hormone”. While some stress can be helpful in letting you know when to back off of something or helping you navigate through a tenuous situation, too much stress can backfire, making it difficult to focus and sending your body into overdrive. 

Enter caffeine. Nowadays, over 80% of adults in the United States consume some caffeinated beverage on a daily basis. It is used by students, by office workers, by athletes before a workout, by truck drivers to stay awake, and more. It’s one of the most commonly used ingredients in the world. 

Caffeine affects different people very differently due to genetic factors and individual tolerance levels. This is why a cup of coffee that does nothing to help one person wake up in the morning may cause someone else to be unable to sleep properly for days on end. It can increase your body’s cortisol production – aka cause your adrenal glands to work harder than normal. 

Is Caffeine Bad For Your Adrenal Glands?

Yes and no. This very much depends on the individual and consumption levels. What does wonders for one person could be incredibly harmful for someone else. It is best to monitor your individual response to caffeine and to adjust your intake levels accordingly. When in doubt, it’s always best to consult with your doctor about your specific circumstances. 

The Good

Caffeine can be good for your health in many different ways, such as temporarily boosting your mood (so much so that it has been linked with decreased risk of suicide), potentially improving your brain function, possibly increasing your metabolism (hello, adrenal glands), enhanced athletic performance, protection against diabetes, improved digestion, and more. 

Generally speaking, caffeine is safe and can even be healthy when consumed in low to moderate amounts, although it is very habit-forming. 

The Bad

However, too much caffeine can lead to adverse health effects. It is possible to fatally overdose on caffeine. It’s important to monitor your body’s response to this natural stimulant and to ensure that you do not have too much.

Too much caffeine can lead to increased stress levels, which causes your adrenal glands to work harder. It can also lead to: anxiety, insomnia, digestive issues, muscular breakdown, addiction, high blood pressure, rapid heart rate, fatigue, and frequent urination.

The Lowdown

Essentially, caffeine impacts your adrenal glands by stimulating cortisol production. Whether or not this is harmful depends on your unique genetic factors and tolerance levels, as well as how much you consume. 

Scientists generally agree that low-to-moderate levels of caffeine can have impressive health benefits for many people. However, too much can lead to unwanted side effects and health issues. 

As such, it’s important to take stock of your specific energy levels, heart rate, sleep, and stress, and to consult with a doctor when in doubt. If necessary, reduce your caffeine intake in order to stave off unwanted side effects. 

Overcome Extreme Exhaustion With Regeneration Health

If you find yourself reaching for a caffeinated beverage on the reg in order to combat extreme exhaustion, there could be an underlying health concern that needs to be addressed. Regeneration Health can help you get to the root cause of your exhaustion and make the necessary changes in order to enjoy a healthier lifestyle. 

Whether you are suffering from adrenal fatigue, depression, anxiety, or another health concern, our functional medicine approach will strive to help you overcome it naturally. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you keep your adrenal glands healthy. 

Your thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland in your neck that is responsible for producing your thyroid hormones. These control how your body uses and stores energy. If you have thyroid issues, they can impact your entire body, from your weight to your blood pressure to your body temperature and more. Whether your thyroid is underactive (hypothyroidism) or overactive (hyperthyroidism), thyroid issues can have long-lasting impacts on your health. 

It’s important to treat thyroid issues and to manage them properly in order to help yourself live a normal life. Here is what you need to know about the potential causes of thyroid issues, whether you can reverse them, and what your treatment and management options are for living with thyroid issues.

What Causes Thyroid Issus?

Thyroid issues occur when your thyroid either produces too much or not enough of the thyroid hormone. Since your thyroid plays such an important role in many different parts of your body, hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism can both be serious conditions that you need to have monitored and treated. 

There are several different conditions and risk factors that can lead to thyroid problems.

Hypothyroidism can be caused by:

• Autoimmune disease
• Thyroiditis
• Removal of part or all of the thyroid gland
• Iodine deficiency
• Non-functioning thyroid gland
• Medications, such as lithium
• Radiation treatment
• Damage to the pituitary gland
• And more

Hyperthyroidism can be caused by:

• Grave’s disease
• Thyroiditis
• Too much iodine
• Thyroid nodules
• Noncancerous tumor of the pituitary gland
• Thyroid cancer
• And more

Can You Reverse Thyroid Issues?

Naturally, if you’re diagnosed with hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism and it is impacting your life, you’ll want to know if your condition can be cured. There are many different treatment options for thyroid issues and things that you can do to manage your condition, but unfortunately, science has yet to find a cure for them. 

Hyperthyroidism can be corrected with surgical removal of the thyroid gland, however, this can often result in the development of hypothyroidism. 

Fortunately, with proper treatment and management, many people with thyroid problems can live a full, healthy, normal life. 

What Treatment Options Are Available For Thyroid Issues?

Whether you have hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism, there are many different treatment options available to you. It is important to stay on top of your thyroid condition, as they can turn quite serious if you do not. 

The main treatment option for hypothyroidism involves thyroid replacement medication, which adds the thyroid hormones back into your body. You typically need to take your medication for the rest of your life, but it controls your thyroid problems and allows you to find relief from the symptoms of hypothyroidism.

There are several treatment options for hyperthyroidism, such as:

• Anti-thyroid drugs, that stop your thyroid from making hormones.
• Beta blockers, that control your symptoms.
• Radioactive iodine that damages your thyroid so that it won’t produce high levels or hormones.
• Surgery to remove the thyroid.

How Can You Manage Thyroid Issues?

Thyroid problems can be managed in much the same way as many other issues can: through leading a healthy lifestyle. While not a substitute for the necessary medical treatment, a healthy lifestyle can improve your thyroid function.

Diet

Your diet can help with your thyroid issues – and it can worsen them. If you have thyroid problems, it’s important to consult with your doctor about your diet in order to determine any necessary adjustments. For instance, it is possible for nuts to improve your thyroid health, and it is possible for soy products to inhibit it. In order to determine whether or not you need to make any dietary changes, you will need to talk with your doctor.

Exercise

Exercise can improve some of the symptoms of thyroid problems. People who have hypothyroidism often struggle with fatigue and depression, which can make it difficult to move their bodies. Exercise can reduce some of the symptoms of hypothyroidism, such as joint pain, weight gain, and more. 

If you have hyperthyroidism, you already have an increased heart rate, even when you are not exercising. As such, you will want to be careful when exercising and consult with your doctor about an exercise plan that is right for you. Certain exercises, such as weight-lifting, can help to normalize your metabolic rate, but it is best to consult your doctor before starting an exercise plan with hyperthyroidism.

Do You Struggle With Thyroid Issues?

Regeneration Health can help! Thyroid issues can often be worsened by aspects of our daily lives, and making changes to your diet and lifestyle can help you manage them. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you manage your condition.

Have you ever felt like traditional medicine was just treating your symptoms rather than the root cause of them? The unfortunate truth is that while the United States may be a leader when it comes to innovations and the GDP, but when it comes to healthcare, Americans tend to be very unhealthy. This is due to a number of factors, such as our poor quality of food in comparison to other developed countries to how absurdly expensive seeing a doctor and getting treatment can be, with how the United States healthcare system is so focused on profits that analysts say “curing diseases is bad for business”. 

With how inaccessible healthcare can be and how it tends to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause of issues, it’s no wonder that even though the United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, Americans tend to have poorer health and shorter lifespans than people in other developed countries. 

This is where functional medicine can come into play and help. There are many benefits of functional medicine, not the least of which is how it’s focused on uncovering the cause of your symptoms and helping you to achieve better health. Here is what you need to know about some of the benefits of functional medicine. 

What Is Functional Medicine?

Functional medicine is a patient-centered, science-based approach to medicine. It changes the types of questions doctors ask in order to learn not just about your symptoms, but potential causes. This is why visits with functional medicine doctors can last up to an hour, as they walk through your lifestyle, stressors, diet, habits, and more with you in order to get a holistic view of your health and what works and doesn’t for you. 

Functional medicine is not anti-traditional medicine, but rather, patient-focused. This means that if you need medications or other traditional medical treatments, functional medicine is open to you using them. What matters with functional medicine is doing what is best for each individual patient in order to find what works for you, specifically, so that you can prevent potential health problems and not just manage current health issues, but recover from them. 

Benefits Of Functional Medicine

Functional medicine is focused on understanding each patient’s individual needs. Thus, there are many benefits of functional medicine, from customizable treatment options to better patient-doctor relationships to treating disorders rather than just the symptoms. Here’s what you need to know about some of the benefits of functional medicine. 

#1. Personalized Treatment Plans

One of the primary benefits of functional medicine is how your treatment plan is customized to your specific needs. Functional medicine understands that every body is different, and thus, the same treatments won’t work for everyone. You deserve to have your healthcare personalized to your specific concerns and needs. 

That’s why functional medicine doctors will ask you about your lifestyle, diet, and more, so that they can get a good idea of potential causes of your specific health concerns as well as what treatment plans would work best for you.

With personalized treatment plans, you can work towards recovery from your issue, rather than just symptom management. Because functional medicine takes a comprehensive account of your health, your treatment is customized to your unique needs, for optimal efficiency. 

#2. Better Patient-Doctor Relationships

Another one of the key benefits of functional medicine is a better relationship with your doctor where you can feel heard and listened to. Many people express frustration with the current American healthcare system, with how you wait for an hour to see your doctor only to talk to them for about ten minutes before you’re sent on your way. 

Functional medicine believes that in order for you to obtain the best possible treatment, your doctor needs to understand your concerns and why you have them. This is why appointments with a functional medicine doctor last longer, because they really spend their time with you in order to get as much information as possible about your personal history and details that could be impacting your health. 

#3. Treating The Cause, Not Just The Symptoms

In order to get well, you need to understand why you’re having symptoms in the first place. One of the key benefits of functional medicine is how it strives to do just that. In some cases, your doctor may guide you through a lifestyle and dietary change in order to achieve better health and treat the root cause of your symptoms.

Functional medicine works to help you achieve wellness and to get and stay healthy by working with your individual circumstances and needs in order to create a personalized treatment plan that targets your specific concerns. 
Regeneration Health is an experienced functional medicine healthcare provider. If you’re experiencing health concerns such as adrenal fatigue, hormonal imbalances, difficulty losing weight, and more, we can help. Contact us today to schedule an appointment.