Hormones regulate nearly every system in the body, metabolism, mood, sleep, fertility, and resilience to stress. When these rhythms are disrupted, the effects can be wide-reaching: fatigue, weight gain, brain fog, anxiety, or poor sleep. Yet standard hormone tests often provide only a partial snapshot in time.
To address this, Vibrant Wellness is expanding its hormone testing suite with the Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR), now included as a complementary add-on to Hormone Zoomer and fully integrated into the Salivary Hormones panel. By mapping real-time cortisol and cortisone across the day, CAR provides a true picture of adrenal rhythm and stress resilience, helping providers uncover root causes and deliver more personalized care.
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Cortisol is not just the “stress hormone”, it regulates blood sugar, inflammation, immunity, and daily energy. A healthy system produces a sharp rise in cortisol upon waking (the Cortisol Awakening Response) before tapering throughout the day.
Disruption in this rhythm can show up as fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, thyroid dysfunction, or even resistance to hormone therapy. Unlike single time-point cortisol testing, CAR tracks changes across six collection times: waking, waking +30 minutes, waking +60 minutes, evening, night, and an optional (insomnia) sample. This expanded view is one of the most clinically validated ways to measure adrenal health.
Inside the New CAR Panel
- Six-Point Daily Collection – Saliva samples map both cortisol and cortisone fluctuations for a complete picture of adrenal rhythm and stress response.
- Dual Hormone Measurement – Testing cortisol (active) and cortisone (metabolite) reveals not only hormone output but also clearance and balance.
- Seamless Report Integration – Results are displayed directly within Hormone Zoomer and Salivary Hormones reports, with intuitive graphs for easy interpretation.
- Included at No Extra Cost – The CAR is a complementary upgrade: optional with Hormone Zoomer orders, fully built into Salivary Hormones, and integrated without changes to pricing or workflow.
How Hormone Zoomer & Salivary Hormones Are Evolving
- Hormone Zoomer – A comprehensive urine-based panel covering adrenal hormones, sex hormones, metabolites, toxins, and bone markers, now enhanced with an optional CAR saliva add-on for adrenal rhythm mapping.
- Salivary Hormones – A non-invasive daily hormone map, now expanded from four to six collection points, capturing the full CAR alongside reproductive and adrenal hormone analysis.
Together, these updates create Vibrant’s most complete hormone testing suite to date: urine for metabolic and detox insights, saliva for real-time adrenal rhythms, designed to give providers both depth and daily patterns in one system.
Why This Matters for Patients
- Simple & At-Home – Easy saliva and urine collection with no blood draws or fasting required.
- Earlier Detection – Identify hidden adrenal imbalances before they progress into chronic fatigue, burnout, or metabolic dysfunction.
- Whole-Body Connection – Understand how stress rhythms affect energy, mood, weight regulation, sleep, and reproductive health.
- Personalized Insights – Hormone Zoomer highlights metabolism, detox pathways, toxins, and bone health, while Salivary Hormones delivers a non-invasive map of adrenal and sex hormones across the day.
Resources for Providers
To support you in bringing CAR into practice, we’ve prepared a full set of updated clinical and patient resources:
- Sample Reports – Explore the new CAR visuals and interpretations in our updated reports: Hormone Zoomer – Female, Hormone Zoomer – Male, and Salivary Hormones. All reports are always accessible in the Provider Portal.
- Collection Instructions – Download the latest saliva collection guide, also available on the Collections webpage for easy patient access.
- Practice Resources – Access the updated resources to support clinical application and patient education:
- Hormone Zoomer
Clinical Synergy: Expanding Beyond Hormones
The HPA axis and hormone pathways interact with nearly every system in the body. By combining Hormone Zoomer and Salivary Hormones (now enhanced with CAR) with other Vibrant panels, providers gain a more complete, systems-based view of patient health:
- Gut Zoomer – Uncover gut-adrenal interactions, where dysbiosis and gut inflammation can amplify stress load and disrupt hormone metabolism.
- Micronutrient Panel – Identify key nutrient cofactors essential for adrenal resilience, hormone production, and detox pathways.
- Total Tox Burden – Detect environmental stressors that interfere with cortisol rhythms, sex hormone balance, and overall endocrine health.
This integrated testing strategy connects hormones, nutrition, toxins, and the gut, helping providers design precise, root-cause protocols for complex patient cases.
The Bottom Line
The Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR) is one of the most clinically validated ways to measure adrenal resilience and stress response. By integrating CAR into both Hormone Zoomer and Salivary Hormones, Vibrant is delivering one of the most comprehensive, non-invasive, and provider-friendly hormone testing solutions available, at no additional cost.
For providers, this means expanded insights without added complexity. For patients, it means clearer answers, more targeted protocols, and a stronger path to long-term wellness.
Available now: Start ordering Hormone Zoomer and Salivary Hormones with CAR today and bring your patients the clarity and confidence they’ve been asking for.
Available now: Log in to your Provider Portal to begin ordering Hormone Zoomer and Salivary Hormones with CAR today, and bring your patients the clarity and confidence they’ve been waiting for.
Regulatory Statement:
The general wellness test intended uses relate to sustaining or offering general improvement to functions associated with a general state of health while making reference to diseases or conditions. This test has been laboratory developed and its performance characteristics determined by Vibrant America LLC and Vibrant Genomics, a CLIA-certified and CAP-accredited laboratory performing the test. The lab tests referenced have not been cleared or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Although FDA does not currently clear or approve laboratory-developed tests in the U.S., certification of the laboratory is required under CLIA to ensure the quality and validity of the tests