Transcript of Video:
 

Hi. I’m Dr. Christopher Mote, and this is another installment of the ARK Clinical Pearl.  Today, I want to talk to you about the three stages of HPA axis dysfunction and, in particular, Stage 1, a state we call a hyper-cortisol HPA axis dysfunction.  Each of these stages of HPA axis dysfunction has a low DHEA as the hallmark, indicating Pregnenolone Steal, which is the clinical model we use for interpretation of these tests. 

When the chronic stress in your patient has been prolonged and is now more than the patient’s body is able to respond to, you’ll see a low DHEA in the patient’s test result.  This indicates Pregnenolone Steal and HPA axis dysfunction.  The cortisol sum, or the addition of the four samples of their test when compared to the reference range, gives you your stage.
 
And when the cortisol sum is elevated above the reference range, we have a hyper-cortisol state, or Stage 1 HPA axis dysfunction.  Only about ten percent of your patients typically come back in Stage 1.  This is an early adaptation.  They may not have severe symptomatology.  And many times, they don’t present to our office until they get to the later stages. 

But when you see these patients in Stage 1, with the elevated cortisol sum and a hyper-cortisol state, expect to find one or two key stressors that are activating the HPA axis – things like GI inflammation from foods or infections, like gluten or H. pylori and parasites.  GI inflammation will drive the HPA axis.  If we find that and eliminate that, many times these early cases of hyper-cortisol can turn around very quickly. 

Other examples would be glycemic dysregulation, when people are skipping meals or eating high carbohydrates.  And, finally, anybody with severe mental and emotional stress is going to have to have that change, before we can help to calm the HPA axis activation. 

The point is if we identify the key stress or stressors and remove them, these patients can get better very quickly.  Products that we use for people in a hyper-cortisol state typically include Phosphatidylserine, L-theanine.  And we have those both as isolated agents and in a formula we call AdreneVive.  We recommend AdreneVive whenever a patient has a cortisol sum that is elevated, not necessarily when there is an isolated sample of cortisol that’s elevated. 

So I hope you better understand Stage 1 HPA axis dysfunction, and I appreciate you listening.  Thank you. 
 

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