218-SYNCPodcast_HPAAxisFINAL

[00:00:00] Jenny Swisher: Welcome friends to this episode of the Sync Your Life podcast. Today we’re discussing the HPA axis, what it is, why it matters, and what it means if you’re dealing with HPA axis dysfunction. As with a lot of topics within the realm of women’s hormones, Most of us aren’t too up to speed on terms like HPA axis.

[00:01:16] Jenny Swisher: So I thought it was the perfect topic for today’s episode. I am all about hormone literacy, understanding your unique body, menstrual cycle, and hormones, and I want every woman to know how to self advocate and step into her maximum energy. I find that HPA axis dysfunction is more common than you might think.

[00:01:33] Jenny Swisher: Stick with me here as we go through this, as we dive into its role in our energy and health. So what is the HPAxis? Well, let’s start with the acronym itself. HPA stands for hypothalamic pituitary adrenal. Meaning, in layman’s terms, the brain signaling to the adrenal glands. The hypothalamus and pituitary are located in the brain, and the adrenal glands sit above the kidneys.

[00:01:56] Jenny Swisher: The pituitary signals the adrenals when it comes to cortisol production. Now, this is a more complex process than this definition is, right? Like cortisol is a cascade effect, which we won’t go into, norepinephrine and all the different cortisol production pieces, but just know that essentially the brain is signaling that production from the adrenal glands.

[00:02:17] Jenny Swisher: So what is cortisol? Well, cortisol is our survival hormone, our fight or flight hormone. Essentially, it’s what keeps us alive. Your body will always prioritize survival first. We talk about this often on the podcast, so this isn’t new news to you, but as we age as women in perimenopause, our adrenals take on more responsibility in the realm of sex hormone production.

[00:02:37] Jenny Swisher: And regardless of age, when we deal with excess stress in the form of personal stress, relationship stress, job issues, environmental toxins, or even over training and under fueling, our adrenals can play a critical role in that cortisol regulation. So this might be a good time to plug in the reminder of how cortisol actually works.

[00:02:57] Jenny Swisher: Or at least how it should work when we think about the overall pattern, otherwise known as circadian rhythm. Our cortisol should be highest within 30 minutes of waking in the morning, with a slow, gradual decrease throughout the day as melatonin starts to rise by night for sleep. But often in women, we see disrupted cortisol patterns thanks to the aforementioned issues, stressors, perimenopause, and so on.

[00:03:22] Jenny Swisher: What functional medicine calls adrenal fatigue is sometimes rejected as a concept by traditional medicine. But it can most definitely be at play. This is part of my story from my 30s and one that I see several women struggling with. Talking about the nervous system is not new to this show. I just recently did an interview with Kaylee Calabrese, which I will link up for you in the show notes, where we discuss the nervous system more in depth.

[00:03:45] Jenny Swisher: I’ll also link up for you in the show notes other podcasts that are relevant as well. But this, the HPA axis, my friends, is how trauma and stress impacts our hormone health. It may not seem relevant, but it is oh so relevant. This is why when we talk about mastering the fundamentals of hormone balance, your sleep, your supplementation, your fitness and nutrition can get you so far, but if you haven’t mastered your nervous system and regulating that nervous system,

[00:04:11] Jenny Swisher: you could still remain with hormones unbalanced. Every time your body experiences stress, which by the way can be the ding of a phone notification, or it could be a memory of a stressful event, or it could even just be sitting in traffic, your HPA axis signals cortisol production. If we’re living in a constant state of fight or flight, highly anxious or stressed, our cortisol will keep us alive until it eventually depletes.

[00:04:35] Jenny Swisher: My friend Jeff, my apothecary pharmacist, once told me that your cortisol will help you outrun the bear, but after the bear is gone and the threat of the bear is gone, those adrenals will crash. For me, this happened in the form of newborn babies. My oldest was not a good sleeper. She didn’t actually sleep through the night until she was at least a year old.

[00:04:54] Jenny Swisher: Burning the candle at both ends as an entrepreneur, gym owner, personal trainer, and new mom was fine. I mean, I was the girl in the coffee graphic tees. I was always caffeinated. It was fine until it wasn’t fine. In 2017, when my daughter was going on two years old, the months upon months of exhaustion caught up to me.

[00:05:14] Jenny Swisher: And I went into adrenal fatigue. According to Dr. Jolene Brighton, and this is important to establish, she says, quote, While many people use the term adrenal fatigue, it is important to understand that the adrenal glands do not actually give out or become tired in HPA dysfunction. And your doctor may tell you that your symptoms, along with adrenal fatigue, aren’t real.

[00:05:34] Jenny Swisher: There’s nothing wrong with using the term to describe how you feel, and it is helpful to know that what you’re experiencing is referred to as HPA axis dysfunction. In the research, in other words, and I’ll, I’ll kind of contribute this here as a little aside. If you’re calling it adrenal fatigue and your doctor says that they don’t recognize that as an actual diagnosis, perhaps try referring to it as HPA axis dysfunction.

[00:05:58] Jenny Swisher: The term adrenal fatigue implies that it’s adrenal only. But as we know, the symptoms come up when the HPA axis is not working correctly. It could look like overproduction or underproduction of hormones, dysregulated daily cortisol rhythm, imbalances in cortisol metabolites and other patterns. As a side note, Brighton goes on to say that in this same article, which I’ll link up for you in the show notes, she says another study even found there to be a dysregulated stress response along with a blunted cortisol response in those using hormonal contraceptives.

[00:06:28] Jenny Swisher: A blunted cortisol response is when there is a lower cortisol response to stress, which is correlated with depression in some cases. Now this is important because I find that , I see this often in women who have used hormonal contraceptives. So I wanted to make sure that I mentioned that as well, that you’re not crazy, that there actually is a component of this that could be at play for you too.

[00:06:48] Jenny Swisher: So what are the symptoms of HPA axis dysfunction? Well, there are a lot. So let’s dive into them. Things like changes in blood pressure, dizziness withstanding, altered immune function or autoimmunity, poor cognitive function, like memory issues or brain fog, sleep disturbances, not feeling rested from a night’s sleep, mood changes including anxiety, low libido, weight gain, cravings for sugar or salt, thyroid health changes, changes in sex hormones and menstrual cycle, depression, depression, depression, depression, depression.

[00:07:18] Jenny Swisher: Light sensitivity and of course poor stress tolerance. Many women who struggle with HPA axis dysfunction will mention a significant change in their libido. Their rested ness and their energy. If you’re waking up tired or you feel like your check engine light is flashing because you feel so off, but doctors are telling you that everything is normal, well, it could be.

[00:07:38] Jenny Swisher: Your nervous system is not happy with you. I have a podcast episode all about adaptogenic herbs, which I will link up for you so that you can take a deep dive into that as well. Those are often used to treat HPA access dysfunction, but I just wanna mention this as sort of a caveat. Using herbs or supplements for this and not treating the underlying stressor, the underlying issue themselves, like over exercise, lack of sleep, relationship stress, whatever, that’s going to be counterproductive.

[00:08:05] Jenny Swisher: We can’t just band aid things with an adaptogenic herb blend. We’ve got to make sure that we’re addressing the nervous system and addressing that stress. Dr. Brighton and other doctors in this space of women’s hormone health that I look up to talk often about ways of healing HPA axis dysfunction. Some of these ways include number one, optimizing your blood sugar.

[00:08:24] Jenny Swisher: We know that blood sugar and cortisol oppose each other. So getting your blood sugar in a regulated state is key. Doing fed over fasted workouts for crying out loud, hopefully you’ve heard me say this before. I’m like a broken record. We’ve got to be doing fed workouts over fasted workouts. It’s putting too much havoc on our cortisol system and our blood sugar regulation.

[00:08:44] Jenny Swisher: It’s just, it’s time we get over that and start to eat for fuel and eat for our workouts. Doing too much HIIT training, right? Can, can disrupt blood sugar, making sure that we’re fueling enough throughout the day, especially with protein and healthy fats can go a long way in this optimization of blood sugar.

[00:08:59] Jenny Swisher: We know that blood sugar regulation makes up 80 percent or more of hormone imbalance root causes. And so if we can really nail this down, it can help our cortisol. Number two, stress reduction. Things like breath work, meditation, pausing for breaks. Going out for a walk in nature, sitting down while eating.

[00:09:18] Jenny Swisher: These are all ways to lessen our stress, as are self care practices that are individual to you. Number three, making sure that we are consuming proper micro nutrients. Yes, you heard that correctly, micro nutrients. Everyone wants to know the perfect formula for macro nutrients, but girl, your micro nutrients matter way more.

[00:09:37] Jenny Swisher: Micro nutrient deficiencies are common given our society’s desire for convenience. Making sure that we’re getting enough fruits and vegetables and rainbow foods, right, to really fulfill those micronutrients are crucial for hormone balance and crucial for cortisol. Number four, adaptogenic herbs that I already mentioned, but I want you to add in some other things too, supplement wise.

[00:09:58] Jenny Swisher: Magnesium and omega 3s can also help your brain in so many ways. I will link up some podcast episodes that I did on magnesium and omega 3s as well. Number five, proper hydration. Water without electrolytes is really just means you’re going to be peeing a lot at night. You’ve got to make sure that you’re getting enough magnesium, potassium, and sea salts in your diet in order to properly hydrate and absorb that water.

[00:10:22] Jenny Swisher: Your brain needs water, but it needs electrolytes too. Number six, therapy, let’s normalize therapy, emotional support, and the ability to talk through and process emotions and stressful events can be pivotal in your healing journey. As can supportive friendships. Now what’s not mentioned there is getting rid of the unsupportive friendships, which sometimes is as important.

[00:10:47] Jenny Swisher: So let’s talk also about testing for HPA axis dysfunction. This is a question I get often. What tests should I do to figure out if this is going on for me? Well, my top suggestions here are to work with a knowledgeable functional medicine doctor who is familiar with a 24 hour. cortisol, saliva panel, testing cortisol through saliva over the course of 24 hours to look at your total circadian rhythm is exactly what we want to be looking at.

[00:11:10] Jenny Swisher: A simple cortisol blood test is just simply not accurate. I also like to throw in the consideration of in a DHEA level test as well, which ideally would be done through the urine, but we can sometimes get a good glimpse through blood levels as well. So DHEA test in addition to the 24 hour cortisol saliva panel.

[00:11:29] Jenny Swisher: But the reality is this. Our HPA access can be a very fragile thing, especially for women over 35 whose bodies are literally transitioning from ovarian reserve to adrenal hormone production. These also happen to be the years of life where we have growing children, aging parents, and many of life’s stressors all at once.

[00:11:49] Jenny Swisher: We call this the sandwich generation. Mastering the fundamentals of hormone balance, which I teach in my course. And making your nervous system regulation a priority can help you keep your HPA axis happy and calm. Giving ourselves grace as women can be difficult, but often it’s exactly what we need. Our bodies do a lot.

[00:12:09] Jenny Swisher: If you’ve never seen a visual image of our sex hormones over the course of a month, it looks like a bunch of rollercoasters superimposed on each other. Let alone perimenopause, which is the upside down, backwards in a dark tunnel rollercoaster that literally no one warns you about. Understanding our hormones Understanding how our emotions, traumas, and stress factor into the equation can help us understand and better apply the practices that we need to feel good.

[00:12:35] Jenny Swisher: I always say, when women know the why, they will apply, and so here we are. Now you know. Now you know what the HPA axis is, and now that you know better, you can do better. Give yourself grace. Take the nap. Sit down to eat your lunch. Do your meditations and your self care. See the therapist. Take a deep breath often.

[00:12:55] Jenny Swisher: Your HPA access will thank you for it. Thank you so much my friends for tuning in. I hope this served you in some way. I hope you’ll share it out with your friends and family. Until next time, we’ll talk soon. Bye bye.