It’s believed that certain essential oils are good for the adrenal glands. This isn’t something widely accepted by mainstream doctors. At least not yet.
But evidence now exists that certain essential oils can help lower cortisol levels. This hormone becomes elevated in the early stages of adrenal fatigue. That’s because our bodies perpetually shift into the fight or flight mode. This wears down our adrenal glands.
Adrenal fatigue is something I’m very familiar with. That’s because I’ve been diagnosed with this condition. Not once, but twice.
Each time I recovered. But bouncing back the second time was infinitely more difficult. Consequently, I want to avoid dealing with adrenal exhaustion again.
That’s why I have a lot of remedies in my natural medicine cabinet. including essential oils for adrenal support.
Essential Oils Good For Adrenal Glands
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At my worst, I worked with a very good homeopath. I also cleaned up my diet and used herbal adaptogens. In the last few years, I’ve also started using essential oils.
Essential oils have been the most helpful in solving my insomnia problem. And they seem to lower my anxiety level.
One of the most frustrating things about adrenal fatigue is the inability to get a good night’s sleep, despite the fact you’re so tired you can barely function. This is where essential oils can really help.
Essential Oils for Adrenal Fatigue
Adrenal fatigue, anxiety and insomnia go hand in hand. It’s impossible to write about one without mentioning the others. I’ve tried a lot of different sleep remedies. But essential oils have been among the most helpful, at least for me. Getting enough sleep has been crucial for my recovery.
Once I started using essential oils, I stopped worrying so much about whether I could sleep. I knew I’d fall asleep, soothed by the calming aroma of various essential oils. These oils helped break the vicious cycle of staying awake, filled with worry that I couldn’t get enough sleep.
Essential Oils and Adrenal Exhaustion
But essential oils weren’t the entire answer. So I want to clear up any misconception that using essential oils in and of itself will lead to adrenal recovery.
Bouncing back from adrenal fatigue took a lot of work. It took years. In addition to sleeping better, I also reduced my stress and stopped eating junk food. Real food was what my body needed. I cannot overemphasis the importance of a good diet.
Please understand that I’m not a doctor. So I can’t give medical advice. All I can do is share my own relatively successful battle with adrenal fatigue. Also, I can’t promise that any product or essential oil will lead to better health. (I needed essential oils and many other natural remedies, in addition to an entire lifestyle change.)
Also, adrenal fatigue is different from adrenal failure. The latter is a life-threatening condition and it requires mainstream medical care. In no way am I suggesting that essential oils in and of themselves are a substitute for appropriate healthcare.
Essential Oils and Adrenal Fatigue
I couldn’t locate any medical studies specifically on essential oils and adrenal fatigue. There are several likely reasons why. One is that essential oils are found in nature. So they can’t be patented and turned into profitable drugs. Much of our current research is centered on bringing new drugs to market.
What Causes Adrenal Fatigue?
Because of the lack of studies, I want to avoid mentioning specific oils to treat adrenal fatigue. (But rosemary and lavender oils can help lower elevated cortisol, a hallmark of adrenal fatigue.)
I also believe you can use a wide range of essential oils to soothe your tired body and overworked mind. These, in theory, are good for support, while your adrenal glands repair themselves. On this page, you’ll find a wide range of suggested essential oils you can try.
The best advice I can give is to let your nose guide you. Use whatever oil appeals to you. That’s what I do. For instance, if I crave the smell of lavender essential oil, that’s what I use. Two nights later, I may want to sniff patchouli oil instead. So that’s what I do.
In a nutshell, any essential oil that reduces anxiety is potentially helpful if you have an adrenal problem. Stress creates a vicious cycle. You can use essential oils (among other things) to help break this cycle. Maybe start with a good essential oil relaxation synergy blend and go from there.
Essential Oils for Adrenal Support
I’ll also share my personal story of using essential oils for stress and insomnia caused by adrenal fatigue. (These factors also contributed to the vicious cycle of adrenal fatigue.) Also, I will share information from two noted adrenal fatigue experts. (Keep reading for this.)
If you’re looking for specific oils to heal adrenal fatigue, I can tell you what essential oils I personally usefor stress. This is extremely important. Stress reduction is a must for people with adrenal fatigue. In fact, I was told, getting rid of stress was the cornerstone of my treatment.
Essential Oils for Adrenal Fatigue Treatment
If a natural remedy helps me with stress, then I am also “treating” my adrenal fatigue, according to the holistic healthcare experts who helped me get better.
The one bit of research I did come across was mentioned on by Dr. Josh Axe, DC. He is a noted internet health expert, and another of my favorite sources for natural medicine.
Dr. Axe believes that lavender essential oil and rosemary essential oil can potentially help with adrenal fatigue. He based this upon a study showing that these aromatics can help reduce cortisol. Elevated cortisol is what happens with adrenal fatigue, at least during the earlier phases.
So, if you’re looking for specific essential oils with a little bit of science behind them, consider lavender and rosemary. I’d suggest using lavender at night, because it’s a good sleep remedy. Rosemary essential oil is one of my go-to day remedies. That’s because it’s been shown to increase memory recall. So I like to use it while working.
Can Essential Oils Help Adrenal Fatigue?
Conventional doctors generally don’t recognize adrenal fatigue. (That’s another reason for lack of studies.) In order to be diagnosed, you probably need to visit a holistic healer. (The first time, I was diagnosed by a chiropractor. The second time was by another alternative practitioner.)
Then, there’s yet another reason we’re not seeing much research. Essential oils have been used for centuries. However, only in the last decade have they received so much attention as a potential solution to some of our health problems.
Adrenal Fatigue Treatment With Essential Oils
So relatively few studies have been conducted on essential oils. Meanwhile, though, I’m not waiting for official sanction that it’s okay to use them for adrenal fatigue.
It’s already known that certain essential oils can help mitigate stress. Rosemary and lavender can help lower cortisol.
Right now, there are some excellent aromatic stress and relaxation formulas available. So if stress is a factor in your adrenal fatigue, and it undoubtedly is, you may want to try one of these blends.
Essential Oils for Stress
There’s a long history of essential oil use for many of the symptoms of adrenal fatigue, including sleeplessness, muscle pains, depression, anxiety and overwhelming tiredness.
In my own life, essential oils have helped so much for stress. I personally own a number of aromatic sleep and relaxation blends and I’m so happy to have discovered them.
I also own a sizable collection of single oils. Some of them I use for stress reduction. (Stress is a huge factor in adrenal fatigue.) Bouncing back from adrenal fatigue meant I needed to reduce my stress level. I can’t stress enough (no pun intended) the importance of reining in stress.
Stress is what likely caused my adrenal burnout in the first place. Keeping my stress level under control is how I maintain my health. Essential oils are some of my favorite natural stress busters.
My favorite single stress-busting oils include:
Lavender Essential Oil (You can find it here)
Clary Sage Essential Oil (You can find it here)
Cedarwood Essential Oil (You can find it here)
Patchouli Essential Oil (You can find it here)
Essential Oils for Adrenal Exhaustion
Many natural healers believe aromatics can help improve our overall health. So that’s reason to use them when you have adrenal fatigue, provided you use them correctly. One exception is if you are very frail. The strong smells may make you feel sick. Also, you may not be able to metabolize the aromatic compounds.
Bear in mind you may not be able to use essential oils at all. Especially if your adrenal fatigue is advanced. Everyone is different. Don’t get discouraged. There are countless other remedies and healing methods available, such as acupuncture and homeopathy.
On his website, Dr. Michael Lam, MD has a section devoted to essential oils. He notes that these aromatics can help with stress and anxiety.
Also, he points out, aromatic oils contain natural anti-inflammatory agents, as well as substances that fight pathogens.
Dr. Lam and Adrenal Fatigue
Dr. Lam is one of the best sources on adrenal fatigue. Fortunately, he’s widely published on the Internet. So it’s easy to access what he has to say about this condition, which, today, appears to be an epidemic.
Dr. Lam does not say which essential oils he recommended for the adrenals. However, he does note that you need to use these highly concentrated plant products properly. This means no ingestion (unless working with a professional) and not applying undiluted oil to your skin. (You need to use a carrier oil too.)
Also, Dr. Lam also instructs people to use pure oils, and to avoid fragrance oils. (These can be contaminated with chemicals.)
I use both single oils and blends. Sometimes I make my own blends. (I own a fairly large aromatherapy collection.) Dr. Lam noted that blends are believed to have a synergy, as the different constituents work together.
Essential Oil Protocol for Adrenal Fatigue
Dr. Lam doesn’t recommend a specific protocol for essential oils and adrenal fatigue. (Nor did he mention which oils to use.) However, he noted that blends are considered more effective than single oils. (Professional aromatherapists also believe this to be the case.) That’s why in this post I wanted to show a selection of blends. These are from an essential oil company that I trust.
Also, Dr. Lam said something that resonated with me. Someone who is strong and healthy, he explained, can probably handle more exposure to essential oils than someone who’s body is beaten down by adrenal fatigue. I’ve found this to be true also.
Using Essential Oils for Adrenal Fatigue
I’m feeling much better now than I was a decade ago. But I still can’t take any natural remedy too many times (or days) in a row, without a break. Fortunately, I have a lot of remedies in the house. I own a number of essential oils as well. Rotating them is the way to go. (At least it is for me.)
On another post, Dr. Lam also said that some people are so weak they simply cannot tolerate essential oils. So if they didn’t make me feel better, or made me nauseous, I’d certainly stop using them.
Essential Oils For Adrenal Glands
There’s a lot of hype surrounding essential oils. If you spend any time on social media, you’ll soon see that two large multilevel marketing companies dominate the landscape.
There’s nothing wrong with their products. Occasionally, I buy them myself. The quality is good. But I like to give my readers options, especially if they’d like to venture outside of the MLM networks.
Aromatic oils have helped me so much. (Especially with the stress component of adrenal fatigue. On this site you can see a number of examples of the different kinds of essential oils I use.)
I’d hate to think that would be reluctant to try essential oils, just because they don’t want to go through an MLM distributor. This is one of the reasons I like to tell my readers about Plant Therapy essential oils, which aren’t sold by an MLM sales network.
Plant Therapy Essential Oil Blends for Stress
Below you can see a selection of Plant Therapy blends. Any of them could be used for stress and relaxation. (I’m not implying that Dr. Lam suggests using this brand over any others. Actually, I think he has his own line of aromatics.)
However, I’ve been really happy with the quality of Plant Therapy. This company sells 100 percent pure single oils and synergy blends that are independently tested for purity. It also has a partnership with world famous aromatherapy expert Robert Tisserand.
Plant Therapy Synergy Blends for Stress
You can see a selection of Plant Therapy synergy blends below. The Sleep-Aid Synergy Blend contains a mix of lavender, Mandarin, ylang ylang, neroli and valerian oils. I won’t say it’s my favorite smelling blend. But it does the job.
The Worry Free Synergy Blend contains lavender, marjoram, ylang ylang, sandlewood, vanilla and chamomile oils.
Shown on the right is Relax Synergy Blend, which is made from lavender, marjoram, mandarin, patchouli, geranium and Roman chamomile essential oils. This blend smells amazing and is probably my very favorite relaxation blend out of all the ones I have tried.
If you don’t own any essential oils, I would suggest starting with the Relax Synergy Blend. If it helps you, maybe consider adding other oils to your collection. For me, essential oils work best when I rotate them, never using the same formula too many nights in a row.
In recent years, essential oil fraud has become a huge problem, according to various reports. It’s very important to buy essential oils oils (avoid fragrance oils) from a trusted source. Plant Therapy is a very trusted source. (Or one of the others sources I often recommend on this site.)
Essential Oils Thyroid Adrenal Glands
I want to point out again that I’m not a healthcare professional. Instead, I’m a wife, mother and blogger who happened to develop adrenal fatigue after a stretch of chronic stress, while drinking a ton of coffee and eating lots of GMO-filled junk food. (This was a recipe for disaster.)
Fortunately, I recovered. Now, I write about adrenal fatigue from the perspective of a survivor. I rotate my essential oils, so I never use the same one too many days in a row. This is something I started doing after using lavender essential oil for sleep. It worked well for a few weeks. Then it stopped working. Now, I use lavender more sporadically, and it works really well again. When I’m not using lavender, I use other aromatics.
Essential Oils For Adrenal Problems
It would be impossible for me to say how much of a role essential oils played in my recovery. They’ve helped my insomnia immensely. But I also cleaned up my diet, removed the source of my stress and took the right homeopathic remedies. Plus, I forgot to mention before that I got rid of my mercury fillings.
Recovery didn’t happen overnight. My second bout with adrenal fatigue was particularly severe. Recovering from this wasn’t easy.
So, if you’re fighting adrenal fatigue, please remember to be patient with yourself. As long as you’re seeing progress, you’re probably doing something right. Setbacks can and do occur. Sometimes, I still have a bad day. But these are very, very rare now.
My case was very advanced. It caused excruciating pain throughout my body, especially in my lower back. Years of better eating, combined with a lot of natural remedies led to a near complete recovery.
For Additional Information
One of the very best sources I’ve found on adrenal fatigue is Dr. Lam’s site. He has published a wealth of information about this often missed condition, along with many recovery and sleep-promoting tips.
Here is more material about adrenal fatigue.
Adrenal Fatigue Diet Menu Plan
Deciding to clean up my diet was a huge step. It’s something I had to do. I’d hate to think of where I’d be today if I didn’t do this. This meant more cooking. For months, I didn’t eat restaurant food. (Now that I’ve recovered enough, I can enjoy a restaurant meal, here and there, although I’m careful what I order.)
The biggest challenge was learning to cook so many things from scratch. Once you get used to it, clean eating becomes a way of life. Until then, there’s a learning curve. You do spend a lot more time in the kitchen. But it’s worth it. Or, at least it was for me. That’s because pretty soon I started to feel better. So I had more energy to shop and cook.
Real Food Adrenal Fatigue Diet
If you feel that cleaning up your diet is an insurmountable task, help is available. (No, you don’t have to hire a personal chef.)
One of the easiest ways to get started is to sign up for Real Plans healthy meal planning service. This way, you can get a full week’s worth of healthy meal recipes, along with a shopping list that you bring to the grocery store. This is designed to make your food shopping more management, with a weekly trip to the grocery store. So, if you need dietary help, Real Plans can potentially save you work, time and money.
How To Use Essential Oils When You Have Adrenal Fatigue
