The Wellness Upgrade on Elevate Springfield featuring Kyleigh Melvin: What is adrenal dysregulation?

Summary

Explore the complexities of adrenal burnout, cortisol regulation, and stress management with herbalist Kyleigh Melvin. Learn practical tips to regulate your body's stress response and improve overall health.

Takeaways

• Adrenal burnout is often misinterpreted; it's more about dysregulation than failure.
• Cortisol levels should be highest in the morning and taper off; testing times matter.
• Managing stress involves diet, sleep, movement, and herbal support.
• Consistent sleep schedules help regulate cortisol and improve health.
• Breathing techniques like physiological sighs can calm the nervous system.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to Elevate Springfield, where we'll dive into strategies and stories that help you rise to your full potential. Each episode, we'll talk about how you can take intentional steps to elevate your life and your business while making a meaningful impact on those around you. Along the way, we're gonna bring in the change makers from our community that are already elevating. We'll bring the actionable strategies, you bring the discipline and follow through, and together we can elevate Springfield. Alright, let's go, Springfield. Time to 10x, time to level up. Hey, you are listening to the Elevate Springfield Podcast coming to you from the Big Dog Construction Studio in beautiful downtown Springfield. Robert Farrell here, certified 10x coach, speaker, and mentor, here to bring you actionable strategies. You bring the discipline and follow through. And together, we're gonna Elevate Springfield. Say, if you're not elevating your health and wellness, you're not gonna be able to elevate in all other areas. This is the baseline. You know I'm passionate about it, and you know that's why I brought this segment to elevate Springfield. We want to thank our friends over at Shudokan Karate Club here in Springfield. Sensei Dennis and his team over 50 years in the Springfield area. Traditional karate teaching self-discipline, confidence, community, traditional, powerful, real. That's Shudokan Karate Club here in Springfield. Check them out. Shudokan karate springfield.com. We're gonna get right to our guest after the break.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

When I first walked into Shudokan Karate Club, I was just looking for a way to get stronger. But what I found was so much more. Here we train in traditional karate, the real stuff. Passed down through generations. Every punch, every kata has purpose. I've learned self-discipline, confidence, and how to protect myself. Not just in class, but in real life. It's not about being aggressive, it's about being prepared. This is more than a club, it's a way of life. Join us at Judocon. Traditional, powerful, real.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

And we are back joining me in the studio, fan favorite. It's Kylie Meldon from the Primitive Prairie. How are we doing, Kylie? Good. How are you doing? Fantastic. If anybody is just now seeing you on here for the first time out of like 12 that you've been on, remind everybody what you do.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

All right. I'm a board certified natural wellness practitioner and a clinical herbalist at the Primitive Prairie. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

All right. Well, we're going to get into something that, quite frankly, I know very little about. Okay. So adrenal burnout. I know quite a bit about a lot of health and wellness stuff, but this one. So you haven't heard this gotten into this one much yet. So adrenal burnout, what are we talking about?

SPEAKER_01 3:10

So I do hear that more with women. And I don't know why, because, you know, men can deal with that too. And I'm actually going to say something that people are probably going to be shocked to hear me say. So there's, we talked about the divide before between like allopathic and naturopathic medicines, mainstream medicine and holistic. So mainstream, we can use that word because it's easier to keep track of. So mainstream medicine, they do not recognize adrenal fatigue. And I can actually see why. So it's going to be one of those rare times. I'm like, I actually see where they're coming from. So I don't like the words adrenal fatigue or burnout either. And people come to me about it a lot because on wellness podcasts and TikToks, they talk about it all the time, especially with women and their cortisol levels, but it can apply to men. But the issue is when you think fatigue, you think something's like wornout or burnout, you think it's done. Right. If your adrenal glands are not working, that's kind of serious and that's very rare. So it's like, well, and but people think that when they come to me, they're like, oh, I have adrenal burnout and my cortisol's stuck on high. In their mind, it makes sense because it's labeling how they're feeling. Have you ever heard people say like wired but tired? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And insomnia, afternoon crashes, early morning grogginess, gaining weight in their midsection. And so they have all of this in just heightened state of fight or flight. A lot of people come to me and say, I've suck in fight or flight. I have adrenal burnout. And they'll pair those together. And what it is is I would prefer to say adrenal dysregulation because that's that's what it is. There's a lot of things dysregulated in your body, and we need to regulate them. And when you word it like that, then people that come to me can start saying, Oh, well, I can manage it then, because you can regulate it. You're not a goner. Right. You'll be okay. We can regulate this. So that's a step I take. And what that pertains to when people say adrenals is they're thinking of, they're thinking of their body's stress response. And in today's society, I think most people think they are in a chronic state of constant stress. However, there are going to be stressors, but there's way to ways to help your body cope. And one of the things is when people come to me about their cortisol levels, they're not wrong in thinking that their cortisols are out of whack, their cortisol levels. A lot of people don't know this, but your cortisol levels, and this is an issue actually with people getting their hormones tested. And I'd like to note this because when I tell people that, they'll be like, oh, I didn't know that. My doctor tested it first thing in the morning. So if you get up and you rolled out of bed and went and got your blood work done, your cortisol levels should be a bit high because you're getting up and your cortisol levels are saying it's time to go because this is that stress hormone. So it's like we're gonna start getting things moving, we're gonna get some adrenaline pumping, you're gonna get up for the day, you're gonna have a blood sugar spike and you're gonna get going. And then it should taper off to start telling your body to wind down. What happens though is when people have this surge of adrenaline, whether it's from stress or whatever, they are going to see their cortisol jump up. That can dysregulate everything. It's all, I always tell everybody your body's fully interconnected here. So your cortisol starts rising at the wrong time of day. It's not gonna go down when you're supposed to sleep, it's gonna be up in the middle of the night. And this is like one of those which came first, the chicken or the egg thing. So it's like now your circadian rhythm's out of whack. And the longer that's out of whack, your cortisol levels are gonna be high at the wrong time and low at the wrong time. Um, so I always tell people, you need to think of stress, and it's it's hard because people don't even think of their bodies like this anymore. But if you think of our ancient ancestors, and you hear this a lot when I when you hear stress, a lot of people say your body thinks you're running from a tiger. I don't know if you've ever heard that. Yeah. So your body cannot differentiate what type of stress it is encountering. So it could be your boss emailing you and saying, I need to see you in five minutes, and you're like, you go into a panic. And what happens, it's called an HPA axis. And the reason this is important is you're looking at calming that down and canbalizing that. And the HPA axis is your hypothalamus communicating to your pituitary gland and then your adrenals which sit above your kidney. So yeah, HPA.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

HPA, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

So what's happening is your body has this moment of stress and it's preparing you to run. It's just preparing you to run. It's going to start sending out blood to your muscles, things that would make you run, your cortisol, adrenaline rushing, blood sugar spike for a little bit to get you going. And when people are in a constant state of stress, they are going to always have that heightened. And I think that's where people are like, well, yeah, how do I get out of that constant state? Like everything stresses me out. Look at the world we live in. And what you need to do is try to minimize, I think people are bringing it on themselves more than they realize. And one of those is the cortisol levels again with your sleep, with your sleep wake cycle. You need to be going to bed within the same hour every night and waking up within the same hour every day, at least 80% of the time. But another one, and this is one people never think of with stress, is when I say any your body cannot differentiate stress, another one's food. And people are like, they don't think food can be a stress to your body. But let's say you wake up, your cortisol was high, that's normal. And then it's like 10:30, 11, and you're like, man, I'm kind of getting that late morning tired feeling I'm gonna have a sugar-filled latte and a glaze-covered donut. All right. So what happens? You have a blood sugar spike, your cortisol is up again, and people don't even and your body now is stressed. It's like, okay, what's going on here? Why is my blood sugar spiking? Right. And people don't think they're doing that to themselves all day long. And really, the more you can stabilize that HPA access through a better diet, uh, better sleep, the more calm your body's baseline will be. And I think people have a really hard time seeing that connection.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Yeah, they probably don't even think about it that much unless it's brought up to especially the food.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

People are gonna be like, no, food would not stress me. Right, right. It's like, yes, your body doesn't.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Some of them think it it's might be a calming thing. Yeah. Well, they always, you know, yeah, and eating.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

I'm eating my feelings, you bring that alone. It's like, and they're never usually eating like a salad when they say but and then another thing is um there's things you can do in those moments, though, to kind of bring a calm to that HPA axis too. So the other thing would be if we think about our body as how it's supposed to function, not in this modern world, but hundreds and hundreds of years ago, if we think of it getting ready to run, our hormones work on a feedback loop. So it's opened up this loop. It's it's sending blood out everywhere, it's having your blood sugar going up, it's it's releasing adrenaline, your cortisol's going up. And what it wants you to do is move. It's preparing your body to move. So if you're able, get up and walk that out, walk it out till it comes to a close and get it out of your system. Um, another thing is the physiological sigh. I don't know if you've heard of that, the per parasympathetic sigh. And you know, if you look at like baby crying, they do it by nature. They're they do the two little shallow breaths and then the long exhale. Yeah, you can do that.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

And you if uh Brennan, when Brennan Malam was in here, I think. Oh, did he? I think he talked about that and did that and did that with us.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Yes. And it is, it actually, even if like people listening to it right now, it's odd you do feel a sense of calm immediately. And it's things like that actually will bring some calmness. And so what makes it hard on not on me, but when people reach out and they're like, My cortisol's stuck on high, I have adrenal burnout. What do you have? Like I don't, I'd be lying if I said I had an herb to fix because some people do. They're like, I have a cortisol herb. I'm like, what does that mean? What is that? Um, there are adaptogenic herbs, and they're called that because they actually help your HPA axis stabilize. Um like wood bettany is one of them. So I do. I have a cortisol tincture and I call it unwind because it's gonna help that stress response. It helps your body adapt to it. So there are herbs that kind of help with that, but it's once again, you got to put in the work to help your cortisol levels not be out of whack anyway at other times of the day and kind of not let your body feel like I mean, because you're gonna have stress in times you shouldn't even have stress just because of what you're eating, your sleep-wake cycles. Interesting studies I've been hearing about lately is they're talking about long-term anxiety and depression starting in people's childhoods. And I often wonder if it's not this dysregulation starting at such a young age. It's setting the stage, you know, not having a normal sleep-wake cycle, not eating real food. We always come back to those.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

It always goes back to that, really.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

That's why they're called the foundations of health, though. It it always goes back to that. So no doubt about it.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

The the sleep, I think a lot of people don't realize how important it is, like you mentioned, within that same hour, going to bed and waking up at that how that can be more important sometimes than what time you're going to bed, as long as it's the same.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Well, yeah, because your whole system's waiting for your body's like, okay, is this the time we get up? So I raise your cortisol now. You know, you know, people get used to not even setting alarms. When you're when your body's right, you don't really need to set alarms because your cortisol will start to rise on its own and you'll get up. And I mean, happiness, serotonin is released while you're sleeping, and it's it's one of those things people just don't realize how important it is. But I always drive it with children because I'm like, that's where it starts. You're setting the stage for the rest of their life. I think, yeah, sleep is totally and it's almost everything between gut health and sleep. I'm always like, those two.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Yeah, you get those two. You're you're going a long way. If you can get right on those.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

It's funny the the no alarm thing. That's I'm at that point where I wake up most mornings about five minutes before my alarm. Yeah, I still keep my alarm on just because I'm a little anal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I don't want to sleep through it, but I most mornings I wake up a few minutes before my alarm.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

That's awesome. That's when I know it's even with my kids, especially my oldest, because she's asleep. That one, she's one that likes to have a lot of sleep. Like she's always been my, and I always know things are are right as rain when she gets up at like within the same five minutes every day. I'm like, yeah, I'm doing good job. But it is, it's like, okay, because I know her body's on a schedule now and her body gets it, and her body's getting up at the same time, and it makes me feel good. So I'm like, all right, we're setting the stage for success here.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Um, but it is, it's all related. And so I can't take away what stresses you out. But there is a way to kind of regulate your body's stress response. And that's what's important because then you might identify you feel like you're in chronic stress state because of all these other factors with your foundations of health. And then you can identify when it's actually important to be stressed, and then you can use a couple tools like the breathing or go on a walk and walk it out. Your body wants you to move right now. It's it needs to do something with this, it's prepped you to run from the tiger.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Yeah, it's I mean, it all goes back to our primal selves. Yes, exactly. It really does.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

It is, it's that state of how your body has adapted to deal with this, and it's all connected. And like I said, so that food you eat, just remember that sugar, your body thinks that's a tiger, which is like insanity, but it's yeah, it's crazy, but that's what it is. Yeah, that's so that's how it sees it, and it's going to raise your blood sugar and be like, let's let's go. Like, what's happening? Oh my goodness, what's happening in here?

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Right. Now I'm glad you brought up those adaptogenic herbs because I feel like those, and said what they were, because I feel like that's become a little bit of a buzzword too. Adaptogens. Yeah. There's so many supplements out there. It's like, yeah, we've added adaptogens to this or that.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

When I sell it to someone, I think I just had a consult Sunday and I told the girl, I said, you know, you could use this mid-morning and it will help you if you're having additional stress. Like I said, you can't control what stresses people out, but you're setting yourself up for failure if you don't have those foundations of health again. It just all goes back to them because you're just helping your body keep that baseline.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

What about it? Even my, I mean, my mushroom coffee says it has adaptogens in the body. It does, because it's probably the mushrooms. Yes, yeah, it is. Right? Is that what it is? It says there are adaptogens in it. Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

But so I've been transitioning some to mushroom coffee, not completely, but I have it in the afternoon because once again, when you're learning about your cortisol levels and your adrenal system, you know, it does come back to like if you are always in a heightened state, you do need to work with somebody to cut sugar and coffee. I love coffee. Like that would just, but I've done better by, you know, I have my morning couple cups, and then in the afternoon it's a mushroom coffee, which is way lower caffeine. It's a mushroom coffee, and I'm trying. Right.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

No, I'm the same way. I mean, I've we've talked before. My I don't I don't do any sugar like at all, except for you know, fruit, of course. But but coffee's my thing. And I I know I know I need to probably get rid of some of the coffee intake, but I know.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

And it's like I want everybody to love the life they're living. I don't want people to cut out chocolate. If I love chocolate, I'd I'll admit it, but it's it's also like get ready to do something after it. Get it out, you know. You're you're you're spiking your blood sugar. Let's let your body move. I always think that should go hand in hand. Like they always say burn off your sugar. That's an that's a thing. It's a real thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Because your body is now in stress. It's it's it's heightened now, your your pulse is up and all of that, and it needs to do something with it.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

So no, I have I have gone to decaf for it for a decent amount of coffee, too. Just to get rid of it. Just to get rid of some of the caffeine at least. Yeah. So I can still enjoy a cup of coffee and then I just love that.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

I know.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

I just so I have been doing a little bit of that. Yeah. Maybe that'll be my next thing I need to do.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

I know people, I one of the most outgoing, like vibrant people I know has never drank coffee. And I'm just like, ow.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Right. And that's uh I don't I don't feel like I need it to pep me up or anything, but I just I don't know. I just like it. Yeah, I know. I guess I can't.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

And I will say in the herbal world, chicory root is a coffee substitute. If anybody it tastes like coffee, it smells like coffee when you're making it. So just to be mindful.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

So how do you so when you make it, when how do you make a tea type thing? I mean, almost like you're gonna be a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Yeah, I guess she could make it like tea. Yeah, yeah. You could, I don't really drink it like that. I put it in teas, though. Like make herbal teas, and it's one of the ingredients. I always tell people it's gonna bring us earthy coffee taste to the tea. But I have teachers, I've had teachers in the past, because a lot of my teachers don't drink coffee, and they will actually like grind it and use it as coffee. Like they will make it like you make it. Yeah, that's what I was wondering.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

If you could do that, if you could grind it and do I mean, I mean, I guess you'd it does smell just like coffee.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

So I was like, I could see that, I could see it.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

I mean, but with that too, I mean, I guess it's plentiful enough to where you can you buy enough of it and you just grind it up, but it seems like it's like it'd be expensive because I know how much it costs for my big jar of it that I have at home, and I'm like, if I ground that up, it'd be so expensive. Yeah, drinking an$80 cup cup of coffee there or something. I don't know that that's probably the wisest thing to do.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

But but people mix it with like mushroom coffee to get more of the coffee flavor and not caffeine. Yeah. So I've seen people do that. Somebody asked me to, they're like, Would you make chicory root and mushroom coffee? I'm like, oh now I'm getting to a whole nother.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

I might have to try that though, because yeah, I the mushroom coffee, the only thing I I mean, I don't like the taste of it as much as just a regular cup of coffee. It's not as good.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

I'm I'm doing it because I'm and then I feel like I do need to add like a creamer to it to just feel like I'm drinking some sort of fancy coffee, which is not I don't want to add additional creamer to it. So I get it.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

I'll have to try that chicory root thing.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Maybe most expensive coffee in Springfield. How about that?

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Make a make a small batch of that.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

I know.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Okay. Well, I guess the adrenal burnout thing, I guess I I knew what you were talking about. I just didn't know that it was a called adrenal burnout.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

It is, it is on like it's starting to become a buzzword. And it's most people come to me and just say, My body's stuck in fight or flight, and I have adrenal burnout. And I just feel like that makes it sound like it's failing and it's not failing. You're just so your sleep's out, everything's out of whack, everything's dysregulated, every and you can always regulate what's been dysregulated.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

It's just gonna be work. Nobody likes it, it's just gotta work.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

Like we like we've talked on previous episodes.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

You gotta do it.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Sometimes the health and well, the holistic health and wellness route is a little more work, but it's worth it. It is, it is definitely worth it. So outside of the foundations of health, give them just one or two things they could do to regulate this more.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

All right. So if we're not doing the foundations of health, which are my favorite, so fine. Or you could do the foundations. No, but it would be so like so sleep, your sleep wake cycle is so important because it's so tied in with the cortisol and other hormone production. So that is so important. But if we're going outside of that, it would be pr practicing those calm down techniques. Obviously, exercise. Exercise is is great for keeping that stress response down. But move your body when you feel it coming on before you go meet your boss after you got that email that that freaked you out. Go, go walk for a little bit, get it out of your system. That physiological sigh is a great instant. You're trying to calm this blood flow reaction happening throughout the body and this spike happening. And it's all interrelated, it's all communicating with each other. So once you calm your heart rate, it all is kind of getting the message. And that's why that's a wonderful mechanism right away. I would do that probably first.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

So love it. And of course, focus on those foundations as well too. Get that done always.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

So all right. We'll remind everybody where they can go to learn more about you, check out any of your upcoming classes, anything you got going on.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

All right. I'm always gonna post the classes on Facebook. I've added a tab for them as well on my website. I guess I should have said that. Some of them you can register through my website and then Facebook, Instagram, and the primitive prairie.com.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

There we go. Well, appreciate it as always. Good stuff today.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

All right, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

All right, we're gonna let Kylie get back to elevating Springfield, but for the rest of y'all, we'll be right back. Hey, Springfield, when it comes to reliable, high-quality roofing, you don't want to leave things to chance. That's why you should reach out to Acosta Angeli Roofing, your local roofing expert serving Springfield and surrounding communities, from quick, dependable repairs to full replacement, from residential to commercial. They are your trusted pros. Call them today at 217 993 2748 or visit their website to book your free quote and inspection. Don't wait. A little leak now could lead to major damage later. Trust the local experts, protect your home, and get peace of mind with Acasta Angeles. Roughing. Well, thank you for joining us today, everybody. Appreciate you making us a part of your day. Hope you're enjoying these quick hits of actionable strategies here on the wellness upgrade on Elevate Springfield. Thank you and again to Shudokan Karate Club. A take what you learn today. You bring the discipline and follow through and together. That's right, y'all. We're going to Elevate Springfield. Be great. Looking for expert tree care with hometown integrity? Look no further than Sangamon Tree Service. They're your trusted local pros, delivering quality workmanship, exceptional customer service, and fair, honest pricing every time. Whether it's trimming, removal, or storm cleanup, their team brings professionalism and care to every job, big or small. Call the name your neighbor's trust, Sangman Tree Service, or visit them today at SangmanTreeService.com. Sangaman Tree Service, rooted in quality, built on trust.