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Adrenal Transformation Protocol: A 4-Week Plan to Release Stress Symptoms and Go from Surviving to Thriving
A recovery plan to heal and reverse adrenal dysfunction, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hashimoto’s Protocol .
What were you doing in your life before you got sick? This is a common question Dr. Izabella Wentz asks her functional medicine clients when trying to get to the root cause of symptoms ranging from low energy, to dependency on caffeine, to sleeplessness and poor memory. More often than not, she finds these individuals developed their symptoms after a period of acute or chronic starting a new business, having a baby, living though a global pandemic—these can all destroy our once-resilient stress response.
Since her own diagnosis of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis at the age of twenty-seven and subsequent bestselling books, Dr. Wentz has become known for her passion to translate emerging research in order to help patients eliminate symptoms conventional medicine has failed to address or even acknowledge. With Adrenal Transformation Protocol , Dr. Wentz tackles adrenal dysfunction, or the body’s inability to produce essential hormones when it mismanages stress. While adrenal dysfunction produces a constellation of ailments, the good news is that turning these around does not have to be complicated. When we start supporting the adrenals—making a few small dietary and lifestyle changes and taking the right supplements—we can produce profound improvements within weeks or even days.
With a simple 4-week program to help identify your adrenal triggers, balance your stress response, and gradually build up your resilience to prevent excess stress from overwhelming your adrenals in the future, The Adrenal Transformation Protocol will set you up with a strong foundation to return to and stay in homeostasis through turbulence.
What were you doing in your life before you got sick? This is a common question Dr. Izabella Wentz asks her functional medicine clients when trying to get to the root cause of symptoms ranging from low energy, to dependency on caffeine, to sleeplessness and poor memory. More often than not, she finds these individuals developed their symptoms after a period of acute or chronic starting a new business, having a baby, living though a global pandemic—these can all destroy our once-resilient stress response.
Since her own diagnosis of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis at the age of twenty-seven and subsequent bestselling books, Dr. Wentz has become known for her passion to translate emerging research in order to help patients eliminate symptoms conventional medicine has failed to address or even acknowledge. With Adrenal Transformation Protocol , Dr. Wentz tackles adrenal dysfunction, or the body’s inability to produce essential hormones when it mismanages stress. While adrenal dysfunction produces a constellation of ailments, the good news is that turning these around does not have to be complicated. When we start supporting the adrenals—making a few small dietary and lifestyle changes and taking the right supplements—we can produce profound improvements within weeks or even days.
With a simple 4-week program to help identify your adrenal triggers, balance your stress response, and gradually build up your resilience to prevent excess stress from overwhelming your adrenals in the future, The Adrenal Transformation Protocol will set you up with a strong foundation to return to and stay in homeostasis through turbulence.
400 pages, Hardcover
Published April 18, 2023
About the author
Izabella Wentz
24 books157 followersDr. Izabella Wentz, PharmD, FASCP is an internationally acclaimed thyroid specialist and licensed pharmacist who has dedicated her career to addressing the root causes of autoimmune thyroid disease after being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis in 2009.
Dr. Wentz is the author of the New York Times bestselling patient guide Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis: Lifestyle Interventions for Finding and Treating the Root Cause and the new #1 New York Times bestselling protocol-based book Hashimoto’s Protocol: A 90-Day Plan for Reversing Thyroid Symptoms and Getting Your Life Back.
As a patient advocate, researcher, clinician and educator, Dr. Wentz is committed to raising awareness on how to overcome autoimmune thyroid disease through The Thyroid Secret Documentary Series, the Hashimoto’s Institute Practitioner Training, and her international consulting and speaking services offered to both patients and healthcare professionals.
Dr. Wentz is the author of the New York Times bestselling patient guide Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis: Lifestyle Interventions for Finding and Treating the Root Cause and the new #1 New York Times bestselling protocol-based book Hashimoto’s Protocol: A 90-Day Plan for Reversing Thyroid Symptoms and Getting Your Life Back.
As a patient advocate, researcher, clinician and educator, Dr. Wentz is committed to raising awareness on how to overcome autoimmune thyroid disease through The Thyroid Secret Documentary Series, the Hashimoto’s Institute Practitioner Training, and her international consulting and speaking services offered to both patients and healthcare professionals.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
June 29, 2023
THIS BOOK WORKS!
I cried every time I read it because I thought wow, wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to stay awake all day and sleep well and not be in pain all the time? If you are desperate to feel better, you need to try this regimen. Eating this diet was the first time I can remember as an adult not having abdominal pain! Unfortunately, the reintegration part was hard for me so I know to avoid chocolate and high fructose corn syrup and beans, but I can’t figure out what else my body dislikes and I definitely don’t want to be completely paleo and autoimmune diet forever.
I have easily incorporated the other lifestyle changes into my new life and my insomnia is still gone! I feel so much better getting adequate sleep and avoiding the few foods I figured out. The protocol was a lot of work but definitely worth it!!!
Yes, I got the book for free- thank you Avery Books! But no one compensated me for taking a month off normal food and all the other things Dr Wentz suggests. Highly recommend.
I cried every time I read it because I thought wow, wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to stay awake all day and sleep well and not be in pain all the time? If you are desperate to feel better, you need to try this regimen. Eating this diet was the first time I can remember as an adult not having abdominal pain! Unfortunately, the reintegration part was hard for me so I know to avoid chocolate and high fructose corn syrup and beans, but I can’t figure out what else my body dislikes and I definitely don’t want to be completely paleo and autoimmune diet forever.
I have easily incorporated the other lifestyle changes into my new life and my insomnia is still gone! I feel so much better getting adequate sleep and avoiding the few foods I figured out. The protocol was a lot of work but definitely worth it!!!
Yes, I got the book for free- thank you Avery Books! But no one compensated me for taking a month off normal food and all the other things Dr Wentz suggests. Highly recommend.
Read
April 26, 2023I have finished this book and am beginning the 4-week protocol. I will review once I have completed this.
So far, I have learned an abundance of new information. I can’t wait to see if what I’ve read truly helps me.
So far, I have learned an abundance of new information. I can’t wait to see if what I’ve read truly helps me.
October 14, 2024
IM SO ETERNALLY GRATEFUL FOR THIS BOOK!! After years of struggling with fatigue, insomnia, brain fog, inflammation, weakened immune system, etc. I’m finally starting to feel better. This book did what hundreds of dollars of doctors couldn’t (including holistic and conventional). While I’m still not completely healed, she pointed me in the right direction. And I finally feel hopeful :)
September 9, 2023
I heard her on a podcast and then my functional medicine doctor told me to check her out. This book is really interesting and well written. If you struggle with stress and fatigue check it out.
July 5, 2023
I gained so much practical knowledge from this book! This is a book that I borrowed from the library, but will end up purchasing because I plan on referencing it repeatedly. So much great information that I will incorporate into my own life, and be able to help many of my patients out with suggestions. For that reason I have to give it 5 stars.
June 2, 2023
Izabella Wentz was the first “expert” I learned about when discovering I had Hashimoto’s. Her books and website have been so helpful to me over the past 6 years, and this book takes the cake. Still dealing with adrenal issues and imbalances, I found this book to be full of such helpful information that I couldn’t stop taking notes and highlighting. I plan to start the ATP here shortly, and I feel very equipped to do so now that I’ve read the book. I highly recommend it for anyone dealing with chronic stress.
January 1, 2026
There was a lot of good information in the book, but disrupted by too many testimonials. It felt like an infomercial.
September 4, 2026
I have mixed feelings about this book.
First I’ll start with getting the negative off my chest. If you’re still with me after that, I’ll go over why I think this book is still worthwhile for many people.
If you do everything this book says, you will probably start to feel better. But you will also go batshit insane. That’s because the author is attempting to treat a variety of conditions with a single protocol, and therefore the protocol must include everything. Additionally, in her enthusiasm to tell you everything she knows, thinks, and wants to be true, she stuffs the book with extraneous suggestions that will just overwhelm people who are already tired before they picked the book up.
A lot of it is simply not worth the effort. Herbal tea is nice for people who are generally well; it is not gonna do the trick for someone in severe system dysfunction. You will get a lot more return on your investment in a bottle of pills with concentrated active ingredients. Similarly, grass-fed beef may indeed be better for you, but it’s not going to be the key (or one of the keys) to your feeling better here. It may be a good idea to get micronutrients via your salt, but the trace amounts in Himalayan salt (note: there is no such thing as Himalayan sea salt) are not going to replete your reserves. Again – buy the bottles if you need iodine and selenium. Or eat salted brazil nuts (1000% dv of selenium!). The book is full of these annoying, well-meaning, but ultimately useless and crazy-making suggestions.
Finally, the author is, like many functional medicine practitioners, monetizing their ability to help. I don’t have a problem with this on a basic level: she’s selling a book that could help people. The book price compensates her for the time she spent learning this and developing the protocol and writing it all down. People who find it overwhelming may be driven to her website and funneled into her groups where she earns more handholding people through the process. All good. What pissed me off was that she is literally white labeling Designs for Health supplements and selling it as her own supplement line. I give her credit for acknowledging the existence of Designs for Health in her book so that I could compare it to her line and discover that the contents are exactly and absolutely identical.
To be fair, lots of functional medicine practitioners white label products and push their own pills. (Side eyes at you, Sheila Kilbane.) But this is the first time I’ve seen someone white label a bottle that is available to the average consumer. Rootcology isn’t offering a single advantage over something you could buy online for $4 cheaper.
If you’re still reading this and you’re tired and you want to know what to do about it:
Firstly, if you’re not positive whether adrenal fatigue is actually your problem, I strongly recommend doing some heavy supplementing of iron bisglycinate (up to 75mg on alternating days), vitamin D (up to 5000 iu a day), and a bioavailable B-complex (if it has pyridoxine HCl or folic acid in the ingredients, don’t take it; find another). Do this for three months and then strong-arm your doctor into ordering ferritin and D3 tests. If your levels are below 60ng for either, keep going until they’re not any more.
If the checklist in the beginning of this book absolutely nails your condition, then it’s worth plunking down the $250-300 for her recommended supplements because it’s worth that much to not feel tired all the time. I would personally say if you are going to do one thing in this book, it should be popping the pills. Drinking a morning smoothie in a pool of sunshine is doubtless good for you, but that's a long-term goal. It's not gonna be the deciding factor at this point.
That said, if you can pull off gluten and dairy elimination for three months, it’s worth the experiment, because that can be the root of many issues. It can take 3 months to really see results from a gluten elimination. If you’d rather spend $300 than avoid pizza for three months, then do the Cyrex 3X Wheatburden panel instead. Even if you're okay with gluten, you still probably shouldn’t overindulge in the pasta for blood-sugar reasons. For some who drop gluten, the real benefit may simply be that they are no longer eating flour all day long and sending their blood sugar skyrocketing.
If you don’t feel better after one month as the book promises, or if you relapse almost immediately, it means your problem takes more time to address. See above about D3 and iron. Gut issues also won’t resolve in a month, especially if the only thing you’re doing is taking S. Boulardii. It can take three months to see results from that too. And if you do see results, don’t stop! You should keep taking it for a year or more. If you need to be off gluten then you need to actually be off it, not just mostly off it. (Dairy seems different: you can be mostly off dairy.)
Basically, this four-week promise is just the jumping off point. You aren’t cured, but you’ve found a road that will get you there.
First I’ll start with getting the negative off my chest. If you’re still with me after that, I’ll go over why I think this book is still worthwhile for many people.
If you do everything this book says, you will probably start to feel better. But you will also go batshit insane. That’s because the author is attempting to treat a variety of conditions with a single protocol, and therefore the protocol must include everything. Additionally, in her enthusiasm to tell you everything she knows, thinks, and wants to be true, she stuffs the book with extraneous suggestions that will just overwhelm people who are already tired before they picked the book up.
A lot of it is simply not worth the effort. Herbal tea is nice for people who are generally well; it is not gonna do the trick for someone in severe system dysfunction. You will get a lot more return on your investment in a bottle of pills with concentrated active ingredients. Similarly, grass-fed beef may indeed be better for you, but it’s not going to be the key (or one of the keys) to your feeling better here. It may be a good idea to get micronutrients via your salt, but the trace amounts in Himalayan salt (note: there is no such thing as Himalayan sea salt) are not going to replete your reserves. Again – buy the bottles if you need iodine and selenium. Or eat salted brazil nuts (1000% dv of selenium!). The book is full of these annoying, well-meaning, but ultimately useless and crazy-making suggestions.
Finally, the author is, like many functional medicine practitioners, monetizing their ability to help. I don’t have a problem with this on a basic level: she’s selling a book that could help people. The book price compensates her for the time she spent learning this and developing the protocol and writing it all down. People who find it overwhelming may be driven to her website and funneled into her groups where she earns more handholding people through the process. All good. What pissed me off was that she is literally white labeling Designs for Health supplements and selling it as her own supplement line. I give her credit for acknowledging the existence of Designs for Health in her book so that I could compare it to her line and discover that the contents are exactly and absolutely identical.
To be fair, lots of functional medicine practitioners white label products and push their own pills. (Side eyes at you, Sheila Kilbane.) But this is the first time I’ve seen someone white label a bottle that is available to the average consumer. Rootcology isn’t offering a single advantage over something you could buy online for $4 cheaper.
If you’re still reading this and you’re tired and you want to know what to do about it:
Firstly, if you’re not positive whether adrenal fatigue is actually your problem, I strongly recommend doing some heavy supplementing of iron bisglycinate (up to 75mg on alternating days), vitamin D (up to 5000 iu a day), and a bioavailable B-complex (if it has pyridoxine HCl or folic acid in the ingredients, don’t take it; find another). Do this for three months and then strong-arm your doctor into ordering ferritin and D3 tests. If your levels are below 60ng for either, keep going until they’re not any more.
If the checklist in the beginning of this book absolutely nails your condition, then it’s worth plunking down the $250-300 for her recommended supplements because it’s worth that much to not feel tired all the time. I would personally say if you are going to do one thing in this book, it should be popping the pills. Drinking a morning smoothie in a pool of sunshine is doubtless good for you, but that's a long-term goal. It's not gonna be the deciding factor at this point.
That said, if you can pull off gluten and dairy elimination for three months, it’s worth the experiment, because that can be the root of many issues. It can take 3 months to really see results from a gluten elimination. If you’d rather spend $300 than avoid pizza for three months, then do the Cyrex 3X Wheatburden panel instead. Even if you're okay with gluten, you still probably shouldn’t overindulge in the pasta for blood-sugar reasons. For some who drop gluten, the real benefit may simply be that they are no longer eating flour all day long and sending their blood sugar skyrocketing.
If you don’t feel better after one month as the book promises, or if you relapse almost immediately, it means your problem takes more time to address. See above about D3 and iron. Gut issues also won’t resolve in a month, especially if the only thing you’re doing is taking S. Boulardii. It can take three months to see results from that too. And if you do see results, don’t stop! You should keep taking it for a year or more. If you need to be off gluten then you need to actually be off it, not just mostly off it. (Dairy seems different: you can be mostly off dairy.)
Basically, this four-week promise is just the jumping off point. You aren’t cured, but you’ve found a road that will get you there.
December 7, 2023
If you have never read a single book that discusses healthy lifestyle practices and how to do an elimination diet for inflammation, or addresses emotional regulation tools, then this is a good one for you. You don't need adrenal issues to benefit from this, because the truth is it doesn't matter what your diagnosis is if it's some chronic issue. If you feel like crap, it's probably because your diet is not supportive, your sleep is terrible, you're not getting enough time outside, you have emotional wounds from your past, your relationships aren't satisfying, and/or you hate your job (i.e. you're stressed out of your mind). In fact, she admits up front that you don't even need any testing to use this protocol and see results. "Diet and lifestyle are key to recovering from adrenal dysfunction". Actually, this is true for most things. I'm not sure if I agree with everything in the book (as an allopath) and the diet is incredibly restrictive, but I understand that if you're at rock bottom, you'll try anything, and it can't hurt to try. She also tries to sell you her products multiple times throughout the book, be forewarned. But I love her humor, I love that she's also a fan of LOTR and a fellow nerd, and I love how more than anything, she's trying to appeal to the aching heart of the reader with so many tools to start to process the hurt we all bring into our adulthood. I hope this book lands in the right hands, but for me, it was mostly a review, and that's good too, it doesn't hurt to have good advice repeated.
July 24, 2023
There is a short list of books that I enjoy so much, I want to create another Goodreads profile so I can rate them again. This is one of them! I can’t say enough about this book!
I’ve read the author’s other books as well as many blog posts and regular emails so I definitely appreciate her work.
However this book surpasses them all. Well supported research and extremely grounded advice culminates in a reasonable plan for health and wholeness. If you’re wondering about your own adrenal health, do yourself the kindness of buying and reading this book!
I’ve read the author’s other books as well as many blog posts and regular emails so I definitely appreciate her work.
However this book surpasses them all. Well supported research and extremely grounded advice culminates in a reasonable plan for health and wholeness. If you’re wondering about your own adrenal health, do yourself the kindness of buying and reading this book!
September 2, 2023
If you can take one thing away from a health book it’s a win. This is a very specific protocol book that can be eye-opening or extremely overwhelming to someone who is starting their journey to work on autoimmune issues. From someone who has suffered for years with chronic autoimmune to another individual, add this book to your list to absorb as much information and diverse perspectives as you can. Not everything will apply to you, some of it will be counter to what works for you, but knowledgeable is power that helps you navigate the clinical world.
October 13, 2023
This book has been the one thing that has moved the needle the most for me. I have been following the various protocols and activities for 16 weeks and seen great improvement. I plan on rereading the whole book and making more adjustments to what I am doing.
This book also pairs well with Wentz’s earlier book on Hashimotos.
This book also pairs well with Wentz’s earlier book on Hashimotos.
May 29, 2023
Garbage 🚮🚮
June 22, 2023
A lot of good information to digest but it was presented in a way that makes it understandable and interesting. Excited to give the protocol a try!
September 1, 2023
Helpful healing strategies and modalities for chronic stress!
September 13, 2023
Repetitive. Too much fluff. General nutritional advice that can be found elsewhere.
November 14, 2023
If you are suffering from adrenal dysfunction/cortisol issues, this is the book to read.
May 19, 2024
Very good book with very important information
June 9, 2024
Good information
July 28, 2025
Helpful information but could have been shorter
July 23, 2026
Full of useful tips and resources
October 21, 2023
Four stars for the information and advice.
One star for the recipe I tried.
Read this book to learn about adrenal issues and ways to correct them. But find other books for your recipes!
One star for the recipe I tried.
Read this book to learn about adrenal issues and ways to correct them. But find other books for your recipes!
April 10, 2026
well put together, not much i hadn't already learned elsewhere.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews