What’s the deal with the adrenal cocktail? Is it worth all the hype? Why are people obsessing over this “orange creamsicle” cocktail that doesn’t even contain any alcohol? You’ll learn all that and more in this article!
The adrenal cocktail is a great way to support your adrenal glands, balance hormone production, and restore vital minerals to your body. Instead of a sugary, caffeine-filled pick-me-up try the adrenal cocktail to stave off fatigue during the afternoon slump.
Your body will thank you, trust me!
A Quick Guide to Your Adrenal Glands
To understand what an adrenal cocktail does, you first have to understand the role of your adrenal glands. The adrenal glands are located right above your kidneys, they work to regulate certain hormones that serve vital functions in your body.
For example, the adrenals release cortisol, aldosterone, DHEA, adrenaline (epinephrine), and noradrenaline (norepinephrine) into the bloodstream to help regulate the body’s stress response.
These hormones control your energy level and respond to stress by increasing your heart rate and blood pressure. They are part of your “fight or flight” response and the activation of the sympathetic nervous system. As long as these hormones remain balanced, your body will function well.
How Stress Affects Your Adrenal Glands
The hypothalamus is the part of your brain that registers stress. It sends signals to the pituitary gland and together they send signals to your adrenals to start producing the “stress hormones.”
Chronic stress keeps your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis constantly engaged. This is detrimental to your overall health. Not to mention, your poor adrenal glands have to work double-time to keep up with the demand!
What is Adrenal Fatigue?
Adrenal fatigue is when long-term or severe stress depletes your body’s ability to make the hormones needed to handle the stress. When this happens, your “fight or flight” system is in an active state all the time, and it inhibits the “rest and digest” system, which is necessary for good health.
Not to mention, chronic stress overwhelms your adrenals with demands for more cortisol, the stress-fighting hormone.
When this happens your adrenal glands can no longer produce sufficient amounts of cortisol. Mistakenly, they prioritize making cortisol over other key hormones, using up the building blocks for those hormones.
At this point, multiple imbalances can result as the body experiences shortages of different key hormones.
Signs and Symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue
If your adrenal glands never get a break, the result is adrenal fatigue and dysfunction. That’s not a good story for the rest of your hormones. Here are the common symptoms of adrenal fatigue as defined by James L. Wilson, Ph.D., in his book Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Syndrome:
- Fatigue, particularly upon waking, with intermittent “crashes” throughout the day
- Poor stress response and mood regulation
- Cognitive issues or “brain fog”
- Increased energy levels in the evenings
- Cravings for salty and sweet foods
- Overuse of caffeine and other stimulants
- Compromised immune system
Adrenal fatigue is when long-term or severe stress depletes your body’s ability to make the hormones needed to handle the stress. When this happens, your “fight or flight” system is in an active state all the time, and it inhibits the “rest and digest” system, which is necessary for good health.
Consequences of Imbalanced Hormones
Hormones are essential for nearly every function in your body like your metabolism, mood, and even your sleep cycle. They affect your body temperature, sex drive, heart rate, appetite, and growth and development.
Hormone production changes throughout your life to meet different demands. However, hormone changes due to stress are different.
Hormones Require Balanced Minerals
Now that you’re an expert on the body’s stress response and hormone imbalance, let’s focus on the adrenal cocktail. You’re probably wondering what in the world this “cocktail” that doesn’t even have any alcohol in it does for your adrenal glands. Well, the adrenal cocktail is essentially a shot of minerals that are important for your body’s normal functioning.
Why minerals you may ask? To maintain a balance in your hormones, you must also keep your mineral intake balanced. For example, to maintain good levels you need a balance of sodium and potassium.
An active transport process of bringing in potassium and removing sodium maintains equilibrium inside your cells. The ideal ratio of sodium to potassium inside your cells is 1:16.
Unfortunately, the majority of Americans don’t consume enough potassium in their diet. This affects the transport mechanism involving sodium and potassium in your cells.
Consequently, your cells get dehydrated and become deficient in sodium and stop functioning adequately. Your adrenal cells also become affected due to electrolyte depletion. The end result of all of this is insufficient hormone levels that, in turn, cause fatigue.
Additionally, the dehydration of your cells and the fatigue that occurs due to low adrenal hormones and low adrenal function can affect thyroid function as well – leading to even greater fatigue.
Adrenal fatigue is when long-term or severe stress depletes your body’s ability to make the hormones needed to handle the stress. When this happens, your “fight or flight” system is in an active state all the time, and it inhibits the “rest and digest” system, which is necessary for good health.
What is the Adrenal Cocktail?
One way to boost mineral levels to support adrenal gland function and hormone production is via the adrenal cocktail! An adrenal cocktail is a drink containing key vitamins and minerals, namely vitamin C, sodium, and potassium.
It builds up the minerals in your body needed to make essential hormones. It also helps balance sodium and potassium ratios feeds your cells and fights fatigue. The adrenal cocktail increases electrolytes in your body to help with processing nutrients, communicating cell to cell, and dissolving nutrients properly.
While many factors go into repairing the body’s stress response, the adrenal cocktail will start by increasing your levels of vitamin C, sodium, and potassium.
When to Drink an Adrenal Cocktail?
There are certain times of the day when the body’s supply of adrenal hormones is normally low. You might recognize these as the mid-morning slump or the afternoon slump. Typically, around 10-11 A.M. and 2-4 P.M. are when you might experience an increase in fatigue. These are the perfect times to drink an adrenal cocktail, instead of a sugary coffee, boost your production of hormones and restore your body’s balance of minerals.
Recipe for an Adrenal Cocktail
Ingredients
- Orange Juice: freshly squeezed or pre-squeezed 100% juice full of vitamin C.
- Collagen Powder: Collagen powder provides essential amino acids and is known to improve the skin’s elasticity and hydration.
- MCT Oil Powder: Regarding adrenal fatigue, MCTs help decrease insulin resistance and maintain healthy blood sugar levels.
- Coconut Milk: or coconut cream; Coconut is a rich source of B, C, & E vitamins and a source of saturated fat. It helps stabilize blood sugar levels and provides energy. You can also use coconut water if you want instead.
- Cream of Tartar: also known as potassium bitartrates. It’s packed with potassium (who knew?).
- Sea Salt: Regular consumption of sea salt can improve adrenal functionality. It also brightens the tart orange juice and sweet, creamy coconut milk and is high in sodium.
RELATED: 10 SIGNS OF HORMONE IMBALANCE THAT MOST WOMEN IGNORE
How to Make an Adrenal Cocktail?
- Combine all ingredients.
Add the orange juice, coconut milk, collagen powder, MCT oil powder, cream of tartar, and sea salt to a jar or cocktail shaker.
- Shake and serve.
Close the jar and shake vigorously. When the ingredients are well-blended pour over ice and enjoy!
Work with a Holistic Health Coach
Want to learn more fun tips and tricks to optimize your health, clean up your diet, and prioritize movement? Curious to learn more health facts like the science behind the adrenal cocktail?
Consider working with a Holistic Health Coach! I love to help my clients get to the root cause of their illness with functional medicine and then support them on their journey to better health. Reach out to me via my contact page to learn more and get started!
Mandy Patterson
