21 Proven Essential Oils for Adrenal Support (Plus Adrenal Blend Recipe)

If you're worn out with the stressors of life (and who isn't these days?) your adrenals could use support, and that support can come in the form of plants. Grab these essential oils for adrenal fatigue and feel the stress melt away.

Years ago, my healthy started to fall apart. 

There were a lot of things going on, but my thyroid and adrenals were definitely struggling. 

It's been a long road since then and I've learned a lot about how the body works. Everything is connected, and in this busy world, your whole body, including your adrenals, need support.

Thankfully there are many ways to do that and these essential oils for adrenal fatigue can be a big part of that.

What Is Adrenal Fatigue?

The adrenal glands, which are two small and triangular-shaped structures sitting on the tips of the kidneys, are the primary regulator of our body’s stress response.

Adrenal fatigue is said to occur in when these glands, the vital production factories of the body’s stress hormones, cannot keep up with the demands we’re placing on them — or ourselves.

This topic is getting a lot of attention these days and whether you think it's real or not, it’s something that a lot of people and natural practitioners are talking about. Whether it really exists, or whether something else is going on, I have experienced both severe fatigue and the whole tired and wired situation, and when I've supported my body in ways that some natural practitioners claim support the adrenals, typically these symptoms have resolved. 

Symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue

Some of the symptoms that have been attributed to adrenal fatigue are

• fatigue (sometime severe exhaustion)
• inability to handle stress
• tired in the day/awake at night
• insomnia (tired, but “wired”)
• fatigue even after sleeping
• and many more, including salty cravings, weight gain, low blood sugar, and more

Why Essential Oils Can Help with Adrenal Support

Essential oils are powerful because they are concentrated components of plants and plants have been used for centuries for their healing properties. In fact, many prescription drugs are derived from plants.

Studies show that fragrance can affect brain health, which in turn can affect emotional health, and that means that they can help with stress, and therefore, they can help with your adrenals.

Your nose isn't just something that helps you enjoy life (smelling flowers, cookies baking, a delightful fall potpourri, wassail, or a lovely (natural) perfume), or keep you from harm (smelling smoke, natural gas, spoiled food), but it also is the delivery system of beneficial substances to your brain and the rest of your body.

In fact, essential oils have been shown to affect the nervous system in studies. So why not try some of these out for yourself and see what they can do for you (source).

21 Essential Oils for Adrenal Support

Here is some information and studies showing how these amazing essential oils have been shown to help with stress, mood, adrenals and more. There are more I could cite, but these can give you a good idea of the power of plants. Some of these results are truly shocking!

Rosemary

The effects of rosemary essential oil on stress are well known and well studied. Inhalation of rosemary oil has shown positive effects on stress for nursing students (source) while another study suggested benefits regarding stress-related psychiatric disorders (source).

Lavender

Lavender essential oil is well known to help with relaxation, but did you know that it's been shown to lower cortisol, even in patients before surgery (source)?

Black Spruce

Black Spruce oil has been shown to have anti-depressant effects on mice (source). In addition, there are black spruce trees have been shown to adapt well to drought stress (source), which demonstrates how adaptogens can help our bodies deal with stress.

Nutmeg

Nutmeg essential oil showed anti-depression action in mice (study) and helped relieve heat stress in chickens (source).

Frankincense

Frankincense essential oil was studied on rats and was shown to have a significant effect on corticosterone and sleep (source).

Bergamot 

It's a clear pattern at this point, but bergamot essential oil has been shown to help with anxiety-related behavior and corticosterone levels in rats (source).

Clary Sage

Clary Sage is a fantastic essential oil with loads of benefits. Its cortisol-lowering effects have been seen in humans (source), and blood pressure lowering effects have been demonstrated as well (source). 

Pine

If you feel less stress around Christmastime, the presence of live Christmas trees might be one reason why. Pine essential oil has anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-stress benefits, in addition to helping with sleep (source).

Geranium

Geranium essential oil is a real powerhouse when it comes to addressing stress. It's been shown to help women in labor have less stress (source), and has also helped with overall anxiety and sleep issues (source).

Clove

Clove essential oil, both alone or together with hydrogen inhalation positively improved inflammation-induced anxiety, depression, and cognitive memory deficits in mice (source).

Vetiver

Vetiver oil is another fabulous one to add to your collection. It's been demonstrated to reduce anxiety-related behaviors (source), and even to reduce sleep waking (source)!

Peppermint

Peppermint essential oil is sometimes used in emergency rooms to help with stress (source) and it's even been shown to help with pain (and related anxiety) in some clinical settings (source).

Ylang Ylang

This study on ylang ylang oil is especially interesting because it cites transdermal absorption as being a source of the calming results (source). This shows that it's not just the aroma of the oil that works, but the components of the oil have physiologic results beyond the scent.

Basil

Beyond just helping people deal with anxiety better (source), basil oil has even been shown to help with neurodegenerative changes in the hippocampus in Alzheimer's patients that were caused by chronic stress (source).

Thyme

Thyme is another essential oil to consider grabbing when you're feeling stressed as it's also been shown to help with anxiety in male rats (source). It's also been shown to help with neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration (source).

Galbanum

There aren't any real studies on galbanum essential oil, and it's not a commonly used oil, but it has been known to help mitigate stress historically.

Helichrysum

Not only has helichrysum extract been shown to be effective in mitigating anxiety when taken internally (source), but one study claims that it's safe to use helichrysum essential oil that way (source). I haven't reviewed that latter study in detail, and essential oils have to be emulsified to be used internally, but this is fascinating information for sure.

Citrus Oils

All citrus oils have anxiety-reducing effects, which is interesting because they also are known to give you energy. Lemon oil (source) and bitter orange (source) have been specifically shown to help with anxiety. Lemon oil specifically has been shown to reduce text anxiety for nursing students (source).

Manuka

Manuka essential oil is another uncommon oil, but it's worth taking a look at for sure. It has anti-inflammatory properties, as well as many others, and has been shown to reduce nerve tension as well (source).

Cedarwood

One smell of cedarwood oil and you just know that it helps with calming, but it's been proven to do so in tests on mice (source), and also on humans (source). 

Patchouli

Patchouli is a deep scent that's soothing to many people. No surprise that it's been proven to reduce stress in a study on nurses (source).

There are, in fact, even more essential oils that can be very calming, but this list gives you a great assortment to choose from.

Safe Dilution Information

Essential oils are powerful and it's crucial to use safe dilution methods when using them. Here's how to use these oils to make safe blends for topical use.

• 6 drops of essential oils in a 15 ml (approximately 300 drop) essential oil bottle is a 2% dilution. 
• Add 3 more drops of essential oils of your choice to make a approximate 3% dilution in the same size bottle.
• Feel free to use any of the oils mentioned in this post in any combination, but keep the total number of drops to 6 for a 15 ml bottle to keep the dilution at a level of 2% for regular topical use in small areas for an adult. If you feel it's necessary to use a 1% dilution to be even more safe,  then use only 3 drops total of essential oils for a 15 ml bottle.

A Word of Caution

As mentioned, some of the other essential oils in this lise can lower cortisol levels when inhaled. At the same time, various aromatherapists recommend these oils as being beneficial for adrenals.

Please do your own research and/or consult with your physician before using any essential oils for a health condition. Should you have a condition where your cortisol is too low (such as adrenal insufficiency) it's possible that using these or other essential oils might make your condition worse.

Here's an Adrenal Essential Oil Blend you can easily make to help calm you down. Feel free to use the oils mentioned or pick whatever you have on hand from the above list.

More Ways to Support Adrenals

There are lots of ways to support your adrenals from eating a good adrenal fatigue diet to managing stress, getting good sleep, ditching caffeine, and even supporting your thyroid.

Adaptogens are another great option. This Adaptogenic Fudge, Adaptogenic Hot Chocolate, and this Adrenal Cocktail are all loaded with ingredients to support and nourish your adrenals.  

Vitamin C is apparently crucial for dealing with stress (source) and so is magnesium (source).

Do you have adrenal fatigue or other adrenal issues?
What has helped you?