A Common Undiagnosed Health Problem

Adrenal fatigue is one of the most common conditions that I see in my practice. Although traditional allopathic practice recognizes that stress is a major component for virtually every disease they won’t acknowledge that it is the adrenal glands that are the primary organs responsible for their patient’s “dis-ease”.

What’s an Adrenal Gland?

Your adrenal glands are two small glands, each weighting 3 to 5 grams, located on top of your kidneys.  The adrenal glands are comprised of the outer cortex, which accounts for 80 to 90% of the gland.  The cortex secretes the adrenal steroid hormones Cortisol, DHEA(S) and Aldosterone.  The inner zone or adrenal medulla, secretes the catecholamines adrenaline and nor-adrenaline.  Cortisol, DHEA and adrenaline are the three main adrenal stress hormones.   .

The adrenal glands are responsible for your “fight or flight” response to life-threatening stress. The adrenaline pumped out by the adrenals allowed our ancestors to run from predators. It is these same little glands that when activated allows a 98-pound woman to lift a car to save her trapped child.

“Fight or Flight” on Overdrive

Our Adrenals were originally designed to protect us in occasional emergencies.  The problem arises when our adrenal glands are constantly stimulated by the four major stressors of everyday life: Environmental stress (our toxic environment, we can’t escape it); Physical stress (any chronic condition from which we already suffer, from being a little overweight to having cancer), Emotional stress (welcome to life in the USA, you get extra points if you have to commute on the freeway) and finally Nutritional stress: the non nutritous processed, grab it and go, microwavable, GMO, pesticide laden junk we feed ourselves in the misguided belief that calories are the same thing as nutrition.

The first thing that happens in these situations is that your digestion shuts down, because your body responds by diverting all resources as if fleeing from a threatening predator.  This sets the stage for digestive problems, candida and leaky gut syndrome.

Under stress, the adrenal glands also pump out more cortisol.  With chronic high cortisol output, your body also begins to divert the cholesterol needed to manufacture your hormones such as estrogen, testosterone and progesterone to producing more cortisol. This sets the stage for hormone imbalances.

High cortisol levels also increase insulin resistance.   Insulin resistance makes weight gain very easy and weight loss very difficult. Over time your Pancreas will begin to fatigue (how hard can an organ work, after all) further compromising your digestion and denying your body the very nutrients it needs to recover.

Then to make the downward hormone spiral even worse, your Thyroid down regulates to try to take the work load off your Adrenals and Pancreas by slowing your basal metabolic rate.

Are My Adrenals Fatigued?

The usual answer from my experience is “Yes”. The real question is “How fatigued are they”? It is difficult to simply tell from symptoms since the adrenals are so intricately enmeshed with all other hormone producing organs. The safe bet is that the more symptoms of multi organ dysfunction you have the worse your adrenals have become.

In my experience one of the first signs of adrenal stress is sleep disturbance. You go to bed exhausted yet have trouble falling asleep or wake after an hour or two. When the sun comes up you hit the “snooze” button a couple of times or need an extra cup of coffee to get moving. During the day you may find yourself craving sweets or salty foods or more caffeine.

Further stress brings in the hormonal imbalances. I have had many young women in their early 40s requesting estrogen because of hot flashes. They were surprised when I said , “Yes, you need hormones, but not the one you think.” Fixing their adrenal dysfunction made their hot flashes disappear.

Next on the symptom list seems to be difficulty losing weight and or “chronic fatigue”. By now the insulin resistance has set in and the thyroid may be involved. Now you are showing significant Adrenal stress.

Because of the intricacies of the human body and the unique biochemical make up of each of us there is no absolute way of saying how bad your Adrenals may be stressed based on your symptoms.

What Can I Do?

There is one thing that you can do 4 different ways to help your adrenals; REDUCE STRESS!

• · Reduce Environmental Stress by avoiding exposure to toxins. Drink filtered water, store food in glass not plastic, avoid plastics altogether, never microwave with plastic, never use pesticides/herbicides in your yard (there are effective organic alternatives) go to www.ewg.org and check out your cosmetics and household cleaners for toxicity ratings
• · Reduce Physical Stress by losing weight, exercising and getting a good nights sleep
• · Reduce Emotional Stress through breathing exercises, smiling and taking some time each and every day to “smell the roses”. Pay a compliment to a co-worker, give your spouse a good morning kiss and hug, play with your pet, take some “Me time”.
• · Reduce Nutritional Stress by eating LOTS of whole fresh foods. The more color and variety of the foods you put in your mouth, the healthier you will feel. Processed foods are TABOO! If you eat them you are stressing your system and therefore your Adrenals to the border regions of “Beyond Belief”

If you find yourself still feeling symptomatic after these few simple steps it is time to talk with a health care provider that can perform an Adrenal Stress Index. The ASI is a simple home saliva test that can provide a wealth of information about where you are in the great Adrenal Fatigue Scale of life and help you design a plan to get your Adrenals “Back on Line.” I have helped many of my patients feel better with this simple test. Come get yours today!