Many of my clients have gut issues and HPA axis dysfunction, so what should I treat first, or is it okay to treat both together with the botanical protocol plus an HPA axis supplement?

Chris Kresser:  Yes, this kind of goes back to Dean’s question as well. You have to evaluate on a case-by-case basis. Very often we’ll treat the gut first if the patient has her lifestyle and diet pretty well wired, and then we’ll see what happens with the HPA axis and the cortisol. If it’s still out of whack, we’ll go on to the HPA axis protocols. However, in some cases, we do both because we feel like the patient—like if the patient is really in need of HPA axis support, then I believe that the gut protocol will likely not be as effective as it would have been otherwise. We’ll do some basic HPA axis support, maybe not the entire protocol, but the basic support like you mentioned.