Prior to running a DUTCH test, it is recommended to stop adrenal support supplements?

Dr. Amy Nett:  Yeah, I probably would to get an idea of what’s going on with the adrenals. For how long, though, is a good question, and I think it depends what the adrenal support is. If you’re talking about adrenal glandulars, you might want to stop something more like a month beforehand, maybe two weeks. I haven’t seen any research on that, so I’m sort of just thinking about how potent some of these things are, how they might affect the HPA axis. So I think it depends what your question is. If you want to know how is the HPA axis functioning on the patient’s current supplements, then I don’t know that you need to stop them. You can just have the patient not take them the day before. If your question is, what does the HPA axis look like without any support, then it’s going to be how long do you need to let the HPA axis be without supplements in order to get an understanding of what the baseline function is. If someone has been on adrenal glandulars—adrenal cortex, basically—for a prolonged period, you might need to stop it for about four weeks, if they’ve only been on it for a shorter time, maybe two weeks, to really see where the body is. If you’re just talking about something like herbal adaptogens, like ashwagandha, rhodiola, holy basil kind of support, and you want to see where the patient is running without that support, then again, give the body maybe, I’d say, at least 10 days just to kind of see where it’s at. Again, it depends what question you want to answer in terms of whether or not you need to stop that.