For a while I've wanted to write up about a common but not-very-well-known problem that many people have but it remains undiagnosed or undermined by their Dr. A couple years ago when I was struggling with depression, this turned out to be the cause. (You can read about it
here if you can't remember) A friend told me about it, and I am so thankful she did. I was able to get help and now recognize when I'm getting low on key "ingredients" and know what to do to get my energy and health back. I'm going to cut and paste from various websites, which I'll list at the bottom for your own reference if you want more information.
Here's some signs and symptoms: (while having a couple wouldn't necessary diagnose a person, having many of the symptoms would indicate adrenal stress and fatigue).
While you may “look normal” without any obvious signs of degenerative
disease, your constant fatigue and lower than lowest energy levels are
the dead giveaways for adrenal fatigue syndrome.
Here’s how your other symptoms might play out:
- Morning fatigue. You don’t really seem to wake up until 10 a.m., even if you’ve been awake since 7 a.m.
- Afternoon “low” (feelings of sleepiness or clouded thinking) from 2 to 4 p.m.
- A burst of energy at 6 p.m. when you finally feel better from your afternoon lull
- Sleepiness around 9p.m. to 10 p.m. However, you resist going to sleep
- A “second wind” at 11 p.m. that lasts until about 1 a.m., when you finally do go to sleep
- Cravings for foods high in salt and fats
- You crave sugar
- Chronic low blood pressure
- Sensitivity to cold and feeling chilled
- Increased PMS or menopausal symptoms
- Mild depression
- Mood swings
- Mental fog
- Memory problems
- Lack of energy and feeling rundown
- A decreased ability to handle stress
- A decreased ability to recover from illness
- Muscular weakness
- Increased food allergies
- Lightheadedness when getting up from a sitting or lying down position
- Decreased sex drive
- Frequent sighing
- Inability to handle foods high in potassium or carbohydrates unless they’re combined with fats and protein
- Frequent respiratory infections
Not only are your energy levels affected. Your bodily organs and
functions will also reflect diminished efficacy. Your heart and
cardiovascular system will be compromised; so will your immune system in
fighting off infections; and other systemic functions, as well. In all,
adrenal fatigue is a systemic blow to your body.
First, what are your adrenal glands and what do they do? They are no bigger than a walnut and weigh less than a grape, but each of your
two adrenal function glands sits like a tiny pyramid on top of a kidney
("ad" "renal" means "over" the "kidneys"). But don’t let their small
size fool you; these powerful little hormone producing glands
manufacture and secrete almost 50 different hormones, including steroid
hormones such as adrenalin, cortisol, aldosterone, estrogen and
testosterone that are absolutely essential to your health and vitality.
They not only significantly affect the functioning of every single
tissue, organ and gland in your body; they also have important effects
on the fluid balance control and blood sugar regulation. They even
regulate how you think and feel and determine how effective your immune
system functions. Without the hormones the adrenals produce you would
die very quickly, and when out of balance the quality of your health and
wellbeing becomes severely compromised. Does it not make sense
therefore to optimise the functioning of these tiny glands? Of course it
does.
What is their purpose?
The adrenal glands keep your body’s reactions to stress in balance so
that they are appropriate and not harmful. For example, the protective
activity of anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant adrenal hormones like
cortisol helps to minimise negative and allergic reactions, such as
swelling and inflammation, to alcohol, drugs, foods, environmental
allergens, cancer, infection, and autoimmune disorders (like lupus,
rheumatoid arthritis, MS, and the 70 odd other auto-immune conditions).
These hormones closely affect the utilisation of carbohydrates and fats,
the conversion of fats and proteins into energy, the distribution of
stored fat (especially around your waist and at the sides of your face),
normal blood sugar regulation (hypoglycemia is one of the problems
related to poor adrenal function), and proper cardiovascular and
gastrointestinal function. After mid-life (menopause in women), the
adrenal glands gradually
become the major source of the sex hormones circulating throughout the
body in both men and women. These hormones themselves have a whole host
of physical, emotional and psychological effects, from the level of your
sex drive to the tendency to gain weight. Every athlete knows that
steroids (adrenal hormones) affect muscular strength and stamina. Even
your propensity to develop certain kinds of diseases and your
ability to respond to chronic illness is influenced significantly by the
adrenal glands. The more chronic the illness, the more critical the
adrenal response becomes. You cannot live without your adrenal hormones
and, as you can see from this very brief overview, how well you live
depends a great deal on how well your adrenal glands function.
How do you know if your adrenals are fatigued or overworked?
- Ragland's sign (blood pressure test) -- (Equipment required:
Home blood pressure kit) Take your blood pressure while sitting down.
Then, stand up and immediately take your blood pressure again. Your
systolic (first) number should have raised 8 to 10 mm. If it dropped,
you probably have adrenal fatigue.
- Pupil dilation exam -- (Equipment required: Flashlight and a
mirror) Look into the mirror and shine the flashlight into the pupil of
one eye. It should contract. If after 30 seconds, it stays the same or,
even worse, dilates, you most likely have adrenal fatigue.
- Pain when pressing on adrenal glands (located over kidneys)
Though the ACTH laboratory exam doesn't effectively test for adrenal
fatigue, a salivary cortisol test can. You don't need a prescription for
the exam. In fact, you can even buy the test online, do it at
home
and send in your sample to a lab for the results. Dr. Wilson is very
positive about the effectiveness of the salivary cortisol test in
diagnosing adrenal fatigue. It is so valid and accepted that Plan B
Medicare covers it and "they don't want to cover anything they don't
have to," he quips. If you don't have insurance, rest assured that this
non-invasive test is also very affordable. Learn more:
http://www.naturalnews.com/019339.html#ixzz1vYCY24yH
Causes: (**another blogger's words, not mine!)
Lifestyle
To quote, "Too much stress. {rant warning}…This seems to be one
of the primary factors in adrenal fatigue. One of the problems is the
hectic modern lifestyle. The lust for more (stuff, promotions,
entertainment, etc., etc.). We are
always going, but never asking
"what manner of persons ought ye to be?"
Not enough sleep. This is more a product of the lifestyle I just mentioned than anything. Also was made a good point about the high rate of adrenal
fatigue among new moms and midwives. One thing that neither of them get
is consistent, adequate sleep.
Environmental Toxins. There are many new man made foods, drugs and chemicals that can throw our hormones out of whack. Soy
is one that we have been told is really good for us, even though it can
cause estrogen dominance and is not very well suited for human
consumption. Birth control pills and patches are another unnatural hormone we put into our bodies. Their is chlorine and fluoride in
our water – both of which are toxic, and yet we are told that they are
necessary. There are hormones added to conventionally raised meat and
yes studies have shown that these hormones are then transferred to
humans. All this to say their are many environmental reasons that our
adrenals and overall hormonal balance have been thrown out of whack.
Nutrition
Excessive carbohydrate intake. I seem to be on a
ranting roll today so let’s just talk about the food pyramid. Thankfully
it has been toned down a bit, but at one point they were recommending
6-11 servings of grains per day! Did you know that the pyramid was
created by a mega-PR firm, Porter Novelli International. Their past
clients include McDonald’s and the Snack Food Association. Hmmm…
something tells me they aren’t really looking out for our health. Back
to the adrenals…Carbohydrates produce excessive amounts of insulin,
which the body reads as stress. This then forces the adrenal glands to
release cortisol, even though there is no environmental stress to be
seen. When this happens over and over again through out the days and
weeks our adrenal glands become exhausted. (30 symptoms of adrenal
fatigue)
Not enough cholesterol and saturated fat in the diet. Everyone says that saturated fat and cholesterol are bad for us, but did you know that dietary cholesterol is absolutely necessary for the production of hormones?
And did you also know that studies have shown that infertility has been
"cured" when women switch to full fat dairy instead of fat-free?
Amazing, but common sense. (**Good fats are animal fats, dairy, coconut oils, and olive oils. Good fats are necessary for immunity and brain health. Don't avoid them in an attempt to lose weight. More problems will arise. Bad fats are soy, corn, anything hydrogenated (margarine).)
Caffeine. Too much caffeine can overstimulate us to
the point where we are calling on our adrenals to deal with the stress
of a caffeine buzz. I had a brief addiction to coffee last year and have
since given it up, but it wasn’t until I quit drinking coffee and then
have the occasional cup that I realized how poorly my body responds to
it.
Zinc deficiency. Apparently the adrenal gland
functioning is dependent on the levels of zinc in our body. There is
something called a copper-zinc imbalance which you can read more about
here.
Zinc deficiency can be caused by many things, but it appears that
improperly prepared grains and vegetarianism can be a problem. Consider
using
sprouted or soaked grains and eating clean,
pastured meats.
Lack of Good Salt. Sodium levels are crucial to the
functioning of the adrenal glands. But not all salts are created equal.
After I had my last baby part of my recovery recommended by my osteopath
was to drink salt water made from good sea salt. There are many other
things, which I will probably cover next in my recovery plan. For now I
will leave you with some really great articles that were part of the
basis of my research." from
http://www.nourishingdays.com/2010/07/adrenal-fatigue-causes/
Treatment
There are many treatments for adrenal fatigue, but here's a few of the main ones.
- Lying down during your work breaks (preferably at 10 a.m. and again anytime from 3 to 5 p.m.)
- Sleeping until 9 a.m. as often as possible
- Laughing
- Exercising gently (overexerting taxes them more)
- Minimizing stress
- Taking negative people out of your life
- Eating regular meals
- Chewing well
- Doing something fun each day
- Combining unrefined carbohydrates with protein and oils
- Avoiding junk food
- Eating five to six servings of vegetables each day
- Taking calcium and magnesium supplements
- Adding sea salt to your diet
- Taking 2,000 to 5,000 milligrams of vitamin C each day
- Supplementing vitamin E with mixed tocopherols
- Taking B-complex supplements that are high in B6 and pantothenic acid
- Adding licorice root extract to your dietary supplement regimen
I used different herbal remedies than these mentioned, and was back to myself in 4 days of treatment (although I needed to stay on them for an extended period of time). Now I try to get plenty of vitamin B's and C, as well as staying home as much as I can, especially when baby is little. Recognizing normal from abnormal has been vital now too, so that symptoms don't get out of control. Feeling crummy (in whatever way, shape or form) is NOT normal. Pray about it too. God knows your needs and can supply direction and healing for whatever may be causing illness.
