Tag Archive for: brain fog

5 Signs Your Adrenals Are Running on Empty

As we move into the last few months of the year, life often seems to speed up. Between work deadlines, school schedules, holiday planning, and a calendar full of events, many people push their bodies and minds to the limit. This extra strain can take a toll on the adrenal glands, the small but mighty organs responsible for producing hormones that help regulate stress, energy, blood pressure, and metabolism.

In holistic medicine, there is a term often used for this state of overwork and exhaustion: adrenal fatigue. While it is not an official medical diagnosis, it describes a pattern of symptoms linked to long-term stress and depleted adrenal function. If you are feeling “off” as the busy season approaches, or like you’re living in “fight or flight” mode, your adrenals may be trying to tell you something.

1. Persistent Fatigue

If you feel exhausted even after a full night’s sleep, or you experience a sharp drop in energy mid-afternoon, your adrenal glands could be struggling to keep up with your body’s demands. You shouldn’t need to load up on caffeine and sugar just to survive the afternoon! Chronic fatigue that does not improve with rest is a hallmark sign of adrenal exhaustion.

2. Difficulty Handling Stress

You may notice that things which once felt manageable now leave you feeling overwhelmed, irritable, or anxious. Healthy adrenal glands help you adapt to stress, but when they are overtaxed, resilience is harder to maintain.

3. Sleep Problems

Adrenal imbalance can disrupt your natural cortisol rhythm, making it hard to fall asleep, stay asleep, or wake feeling rested. Some people experience the “tired but wired” sensation where the body is exhausted but the mind is still racing at bedtime. In other words, you feel up when you should be down, and down when you should feel up!

4. Cravings for Salt or Sugar

The adrenal glands influence sodium and blood sugar balance. When they are depleted, you may find yourself reaching for salty snacks or sweet treats more often. These cravings are your body’s way of trying to restore energy and mineral balance.

5. Brain Fog and Poor Focus

If your thinking feels cloudy, or you struggle to focus and remember details, it may be a sign your body is prioritizing survival over cognitive sharpness. Stress hormones can directly impact brain function when they are out of balance.

Supporting Your Adrenals During the Busy Season

If these signs sound familiar, it is important not to ignore them. The holiday season can be joyful, but it can also add layers of stress that push already tired adrenals even harder. Left unaddressed, adrenal imbalance can impact immune function, hormone health, digestion, and mood.

At Longevity Health Center, we offer holistic therapies and high-quality supplements designed to help restore adrenal function, balance hormones, and improve resilience to stress. From acupuncture and nutritional counseling to targeted adaptogenic herbal support, our team is here to guide you back to feeling like yourself.

This fall, give your adrenals the care they need. Schedule your visit to Longevity Health Center and enter the holiday season with more energy, balance, and peace of mind.

Staff Blog

Longevity Now Offers Organic Acids Testing

By Savannah Bailey, Integrative Health Practitioner, Longevity Health Center

Organic Acids Test (OAT)

The organic acids test is an advanced, quantitative, at-home urine test that evaluates 76 organic acid metabolites, biomarkers that reflect key metabolic processes in the body. Since organic acids are byproducts of cellular activity, they provide unique insights into how well various systems are functioning, long before imbalances might appear on standard bloodwork.

What the OAT Measures:

The OAT provides quantitative data on:

Intestinal Microbial Overgrowth: Detects waste products of yeast, fungus, and bacteria indicating imbalances that can drive digestive and immune dysfunction.
Oxalate Metabolism: Identifies oxalate-related issues (often yeast, mold, or diet related) that can contribute to kidney stones, inflammation, and joint pain.
Mitochondrial & Energy Function: Evaluates Krebs cycle intermediates and amino acid metabolites to reveal how efficiently your body is turning food into cellular energy (ATP). If your mitochondria are sluggish, you may feel tired, weak, or foggy no matter how much rest you get.
Neurotransmitter Metabolites: Evaluates the metabolism of phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan, providing keys into mood, focus, and sleep regulation.
Pyrimidine Metabolites & Ketone and Fatty Acid Oxidation Markers: Provides insights into folate status, cellular turnover, and mitochondrial utilization of fatty acids for energy production.
Nutritional & Vitamin Status: Highlights deficiencies in key vitamins, antioxidants, and metabolic pathway cofactors. Find out if you are absorbing and utilizing necessary nutrients from your diet.
Detoxification Markers: Assesses oxidative stress through glutathione markers to understand how well your body is clearing toxins.

Who is the OAT for?

Everyone can further understand and optimize their health with OAT results. For anyone with the following symptoms, the OAT is an essential tool to help uncover root causes:

Digestive issues (constipation, diarrhea, reflux, bloating, gas)
Brain fog or poor focus
Muscle weakness or fatigue
Inflammation or joint pain
Skin rashes or eczema
Immune dysfunction or autoimmune challenges
Headaches or migraines
Mood imbalances (anxiety, depression, irritability)
Learning or memory difficulties
Vitamin and mineral deficiencies
Poor growth in children
Stone formation
Unexplained or lingering health issues

Few functional medicine tests provide as comprehensive a snapshot of cellular and biochemical function as the OAT. Whether you’re dealing with stubborn symptoms or just want to optimize your health, the OAT helps guide personalized, targeted interventions by identifying dysfunctions at the root level. Since the OAT provides quantitative and reproducible results, you can retest in 3-6 months to measure progress and fine-tune your health plan.

At Longevity Health Center, we combine your OAT results with a one-on-one health coaching review by Integrative Health Practitioner, Savannah Bailey, ensuring you receive actionable steps to restore balance, boost energy, and improve long-term vitality.

VIEW THE SAMPLE TEST HERE

Men's Health, Women's Health

Is Your Nervous System Stuck in Survival Mode?

Understanding Nervous System Dysregulation and How to Support Healing

In our fast-paced, high-stress world, more people are living in a constant state of overwhelm. If you’ve been dealing with chronic symptoms like fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, or digestive issues, there may be a deeper cause you haven’t considered: nervous system dysregulation.

At Longevity Health Center, we know that the nervous system plays a central role in how the body functions and heals. That’s why so many of our therapies are designed to gently restore balance and move the body out of “fight or flight” and into a state where true healing can happen.

What Is Nervous System Dysregulation?

Your nervous system is made up of two key parts: the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) branches. Both are important, but they need to be in balance.

When we experience chronic stress, whether emotional, physical, chemical, or environmental, the sympathetic branch can become dominant. This keeps the body in a high-alert state, increasing cortisol, speeding up heart rate, tightening muscles, slowing digestion, and limiting detox function. Over time, this state of dysregulation can lead to a wide range of chronic symptoms and inflammatory conditions.

Signs Your Nervous System May Be Out of Balance

Difficulty falling or staying asleep
Digestive problems or food sensitivities
Chronic muscle tension or pain
Anxiety, irritability, or overwhelm
Brain fog or trouble focusing
Hormonal imbalances
Frequent illness or slow recovery
Feeling “tired but wired”

If any of these sound familiar, your nervous system may be stuck in a survival mode loop, and your body might need extra support to break the cycle.

The Vagus Nerve Connection

A key player in nervous system regulation is the vagus nerve, which connects the brain to many major organs. It helps slow the heart rate, calm the mind, support digestion, and lower inflammation. Low vagal tone has been linked to depression, IBS, anxiety, and autoimmune disease.

The good news is that vagal tone can improve with consistent, gentle interventions that bring the body back into a parasympathetic state.

How Longevity Supports Nervous System Regulation

At Longevity Health Center, we offer several services that directly support nervous system balance. These non-invasive, restorative treatments help calm the stress response, reduce inflammation, and improve your body’s ability to heal.

Bioenergetic Testing

One of the foundational tools we use at Longevity is bioenergetic testing, which helps uncover hidden imbalances in the nervous system and other key areas of the body. This testing allows us to evaluate energetic stressors, such as unresolved emotional patterns, chronic infections, or toxic exposures, that may be contributing to dysregulation. By identifying these underlying factors, we can create a customized protocol that includes homeopathic remedies, nutrition, and therapies aimed at restoring nervous system balance and supporting the body’s self-healing abilities.

Acupuncture

This ancient therapy is one of the most effective ways to regulate the nervous system naturally. Acupuncture helps activate the parasympathetic response, lowers cortisol, and stimulates the release of endorphins and calming neurotransmitters like GABA and serotonin. Many patients report feeling deeply relaxed and clear-headed after a session.

Massage Therapy

Massage isn’t just about relaxation. It’s a scientifically backed method for calming the nervous system. Gentle, therapeutic touch lowers heart rate and blood pressure, reduces muscle tension, and increases levels of oxytocin, the body’s natural calming hormone. It’s especially helpful for patients with anxiety, pain, or sleep issues.

Assisted Lymphatic Therapy (ALT)

ALT uses gentle touch and vibrational energy to stimulate lymph flow and reduce congestion in the body. What many people don’t realize is that lymphatic stagnation often contributes to the physical symptoms of stress such as swelling, inflammation, and toxin buildup. By supporting the body’s natural detox pathways, ALT helps release stored tension and calm the nervous system at a deeper level.

Supporting Regulation at Home

In addition to in-office therapies, there are simple techniques you can use daily to support nervous system balance:

Deep breathing or diaphragmatic breathing
Cold water exposure, such as splashing your face or cold showers
Gentle movement like yoga or walking outdoors
Mindfulness practices such as journaling, gratitude, or meditation
Grounding by spending time in nature or walking barefoot on grass

You Don’t Have to Live in Survival Mode

If you feel like your body is constantly on edge, tired, or overreacting to everyday stressors, you’re not alone and there is help. At Longevity Health Center, we’re here to address the root causes of imbalance and help you reconnect with a deeper state of health and resilience.

Whether you’re managing chronic illness, recovering from trauma, or simply want to feel calmer and more connected in your daily life, supporting your nervous system is a foundational step in your healing journey.

Ready to experience what a regulated, balanced nervous system feels like? Call us to schedule an appointment or learn more about how we can help.