The alarm goes off and you’ve become the snooze button connoisseur convinced that 10 more minutes will give you the added sleep you need. You hang onto your coffee like the crutch you require to walk into your day. Everything feels like a chore, right down to the small things that used to bring joy into your world are now a major effort to get through. So when life begins to resemble The Walking Dead, what can be done?
Well I’m glad you asked, because in your video of the week, I’ll be showing you ho to make:
The sole treatment for adrenal fatigue.
Sole (pronounced as sol-ay) is essentially a salt brine that can be used to nourish the adrenals – more on that in a bit.
This may surprise you given years of being told that salt was the great evil. What we have to do is analyze what type of salt is being consumed. Table salt for example is void of nutrients and has been chemically processed and even bleached. Whereas Himalayan sea salt and Celtic sea salt are filled with minerals that are required for optimum health.
What about salt raising blood pressure?
The question I generally get with adding salt to water is regarding blood pressure and this is a valid question given salt has been demonized for decades. But even a report from the U.S. Surgeon General had reported that there was no evidence that a low-salt diet would prevent the increases in blood pressure that happen as we age.(1) In fact, get this, evidence in medical literature had shown that even among those with full-on hypertension (which accounted for roughly 55 percent) were totally immune to salt’s effects on blood pressure.(2)
The need for salt more than ever.
With more people diving into high fat low carb diet (as in the case with ketogenic diets and even some versions of paleo), our demands for salt increase. It also increases from consuming coffee due to its laxative effect and the plethora of medications that lead to salt loss.
And for my PCOS ladies out there, know this: restricting salt leads to an increase in insulin levels (our fat-storage hormone). Why is this: because insulin aids the kidneys in retaining more sodium as defence mechanism. The issue with this picture is that you may struggle with losing weight. The only macronutrient that you can efficiently use as energy is carbohydrate.(3) This is where we begin to see cravings go through the roof!
Nourishing the adrenals.
As I mentioned previously high quality salt like Himalayan salt or Celtic sea salt will nourish the adrenals due to it’s mineral content. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), adrenal fatigue an be loosely described as kidney yin deficiency. And in TCM we know that salt has an affinity for the kidneys so it makes sense that we need to nourish them appropriately. Believe it or not, cortisol (our stress hormone, which is produced from our adrenals) is involved in the release of sodium from our skin to aid during stressful times. So the more cortisol we release, the more sodium we lose.
Sole for the adrenals
In this week’s video I have outlined how to make sole and I would begin by simply adding a teaspoon in a large mason jar of water to start. If you don’t want to make the salt brine, you can also just add pinches of salt to your water. If you’ve got any thyroid issues that require iodine (please check with your ND or functional medical doctor), you’ll want to stick to Celtic sea salt as Himalayan salt has a very low iodine content.
Ingredients
- 7 tbsp of Himalayan salt or Celtic sea salt (alternatively you can use 3 Himalayan rock chunks)
- 1 mason jar filled with water
Instructions
- Add salt to mason jar.
- Fill with water.
- Let sit in your fridge for a day or two until salt has been fully dissolved (this may take longer if you're using chunks) and then add one teaspoon to your mason jar filled with water twice daily.
- Feel fee to work up to one tablespoon once or twice a day.
References:
- http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6425a3.htm
- Overlack, A.,et al. 1993. Divergent hemodynamic and hormonal responses to varying salt intake in normotensive subjects. Hypertension 22(3):331-338
- Taubes, G. 2007. Good calories, Bad Calories. New York: Knopf.