Adrenal Fatigue Part 2: Why You Keep Hitting That Snooze Button

This is the beginning of my blog series on adrenal fatigue, be sure to keep following to catch the next posts once they are published.

In my previous post we looked into the topic of adrenal fatigue, why it affects your energy and immunity levels, and other conditions that it can be linked with it. This time I want to dive a little bit deeper into a topic that everyone is much too familiar with, you got it, stress.

So now we know that the adrenal glands handle the stress response within our body, but did you know that they respond to every kind of stress in the same way? No matter the source of the stress, whether it is physical, emotional, psychological, environmental, or infectious, your adrenal glands cannot distinguish the difference. So in other words, a death, car accident, serious illness, over exercising, fighting, work pressure, poor relationships, toxins, and poor diet can add up and take a major toll on your body and adrenal glands. These things can occur either together at one time, over a longer period of time, or in some kind of combination, however the commonality is that your adrenal glands do not get a chance to recover in between life events and the stress ends up being greater than the ability of your body to recover properly.

The funny thing is that you can sometimes be unaware of being stressed and stresses are both additive and cumulative, where the intensity and the frequency of the stress can dictate the extent of your stress levels in total. So stressors not only add up over time, but they can also build on each other to the extent that you could be getting to your breaking point without even knowing it. For example, I was recently on vacation for a whole blissful week in Mexico teaching yoga, enjoying the sunshine, and just unwinding. It was not until I came back into town that I noticed how much better I was feeling and how stressed I had been in the weeks before my vacation. I felt like a completely different person coming back and now I am trying to be more conscientious of my stress levels and not allowing them to build up. In addition, some others kinds of stressors are underlying and not obvious to us at first glance, including the most commonly overlooked source being chronic or severe infections like recurring bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma, sinusitis, and other respiratory infections, which often precede adrenal fatigue.

Are there certain people that are more prone to experiencing adrenal fatigue? Yes, but the truth is that anybody who does not get enough rest and relaxation, drives constantly by pushing to be more or get more, exhibits perfectionist tendencies, is under constant pressure with little outlets for emotional release, and feels helpless and overwhelmed by difficulty can experience adrenal fatigue. Of course, specific jobs can be also be more stressful than others, for example, shift work is draining to the body since it messes up circadian rhythms. Also, there is the common “sandwich stress” which involves meeting the demands and expectations from above and below the food chain without holding the power or authority to make the necessary changes, without being able to do the job effectively, and while being blamed for issues but never getting the credit for a job well done. These are things that just add an extra burden of stress into our hectic lives.

The ability of someone to resist stress changes throughout the course of life and depends on different life stages. Major lifestyle choices, which are often within our control, that affect stress include: lack of sleep, poor food choices, consuming stimulants like caffeine, consuming toxins like drugs and alcohol, feelings of powerlessness, constant driving like seen in people with a Type A personality, perfectionism, and lack of enjoyable and relaxing activities. There are also life events that tend to be more stressful than others like moving, marriage, a new child, divorce, drug abuse, job loss, financial problems, surgery, family issues, and those that I am even more so interested in, since I am trained to work with them, like malnutrition, dehydration, overexposure to chemicals and toxins, and allergies. Poor diet in particular affects the ability of the adrenal glands to respond since they cannot obtain the required nutrients to function properly and produce the necessary hormones. In an interesting statistic, 62% of Americans don’t even eat one vegetable per day and I would guess this is probably the same for Canadians. If you recall correctly, these stresses can add up and before you know it you are at some level of adrenal fatigue. Even still, in our society the adrenal glands can be drained from birth, since children are born to mothers experiencing adrenal fatigue and experience stress from within the womb.

Now that we can see the role of stress in adrenal fatigue we can begin to look at some of the main symptoms of adrenal fatigue and you can begin to see whether you notice any of these in your life. Most of us will struggle with a few of these at the very minimum I would think, and again the spectrum of adrenal fatigue is very wide and changes between people. These common symptoms include:

·         Difficulty getting up in the morning (hello, snooze button!)

·         Continuing fatigue not relieved by sleep

·         Cravings for salt or salty food

·         Lethargy and lack of energy

·         Increased effort to do daily tasks

·         Decreased sex drive

·         Decreased ability to handle stress

·         Compulsive eating, smoking, or drug abuse

·         Increased time to recover from illness or injury

·         Light headed when standing up quickly

·         Mild depression

·         Less enjoyment and happiness out of life

·         More bloating, cramping, and cravings before period

·         Symptoms increase if not eating enough or for longer period of time

·         Need for constant snack or coffee

·         Thoughts less focused and more fuzzy

·         Losing track of thoughts and difficult to make decisions

·         Memory is less precise

·         Lowered tolerance and higher irritability

·         Don’t wake up until 10:00am, feel a dip between 3:00 and 4:00pm, feel better following dinner at 6:00pm

·         Lowered productivity

I don’t know if you see a pattern here, but it seems to me like the majority of people complain from a high number of these symptoms on a daily basis. We have accepted these to be a normal piece of life, but this is simply not true, we should not feel constantly sick and tired.

In Part 3, we will be discussing more on the progression of adrenal fatigue, why modern medicine does not recognize it, how we can recognize it in ourselves, and some simple tests that can uncover if adrenal fatigue is an issue for you.

If you want to get started on your road to wellness now, send me a message and we can start working together on getting you back up and running with my private consultation packages. I’m offering complimentary 15 minute introductions!

Reference: Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome by James L. Wilson

Adrenal Fatigue Part 1: Why You Constantly Feel Sick and Tired

This is the beginning of my blog series on adrenal fatigue, be sure to keep following to catch the next posts once they are published.

You have probably heard the term adrenal fatigue being kicked around the internet, among other places, but what does it really mean? The medical community certainly does not take it seriously, so why should you? I’m here today to give you the down low on why you should consider getting yourself checked out for adrenal fatigue. Personally, I think it is one of the silent killers of this generation, yet there are so many simple steps you can take now to get yourself on the road to recovery, including more energy and happiness in your day to day life.

Adrenal fatigue is one of the most common health syndromes in our society today. It interferes with our ability to function and with our ability to enjoy life, yet it remains largely unrecognized by conventional medicine because medical doctors are not trained to look for it nor do they possess the tools to test for it and treat it properly. In the next sections, I am going to go through the definition of adrenal fatigue, what the adrenals glands are and what they do, how stress plays into the picture, and linked conditions.

Adrenal fatigue is also called hypoadrenia, which points to the deficiency in the functioning of the adrenal glands. So first off, let me explain exactly what the adrenal glands are and how they are involved in constantly feeling sick and tired. The adrenal glands help the body cope with stress and help facilitate the fight or flight response. They secrete tiny but precise and balanced amounts of steroid hormones and are very sensitive to changes within the physical, emotional, and psychological environment. The adrenal glands are walnut size, weigh less than a grape, are in the shape of a pyramid, and sit on top of the kidneys where they secrete hormones like cortisol. These hormones are anti-inflammatory and function like antioxidants that also affect the utilization of carbohydrates, fat, and protein, the conversion of fat and protein into energy, the distribution of stored fat, normalize blood sugar regulation, and ensure proper gastrointestinal and cardiovascular function. During midlife, for example menopause, the adrenal glands become the major source of sex hormones, so for this reason, people in this stage of life are more prone to experience symptoms of adrenal fatigue. The adrenal glands also affect our ability to respond to chronic illness and for those athletic people, the hormones they secrete influence muscular strength and stamina much like steroids.

Now that we know some more about the adrenal glands, we can talk about the star of the show. Stress can come in the form of injury, disease, work stress, relationship stress, money problems, and pretty much anything else that stresses you out either knowingly or unknowingly. Stress depletes the adrenal glands which thereby lowers the output of adrenal hormones. The severity of adrenal fatigue can range extensively and the extreme low end of the spectrum would be called Addison’s disease, which is a life threatening condition if left untreated and can involve structural and physiological damage to the adrenal gland, but it’s very rare. However, the majority of adrenal fatigue falls under the category of Non-Addison’s, with 70% of cases of adrenal fatigue stemming from autoimmune disease, a continuous burden on the body, and the remaining 30% of cases arising from severe stress.

If your adrenal glands are not functioning properly, you will constantly feel sick and tired since your body is constantly trying to play catch up. People suffering from adrenal fatigue might seem lazy and unmotivated, but in reality they must work much harder than others to accomplish most everyday tasks. To throw out a scary statistic, 80% of North American adults suffer from some level of adrenal fatigue in their life, yet it still continues to be the most under diagnosed illness. Modern medicine does not recognize it to be a distinct syndrome, which is a collection of signs and symptoms, yet in some cases, the adrenal glands can be so diminished that someone might not be able to get out of bed for more than a few hours a day. The more their function is reduced, the more every organ and system within the body becomes affected. This again includes changes in the carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism, fluid and electrolyte balance, heart and cardiovascular system, sex drive, and even body shape with more weight being distributed in the waist and sides of the face.

To add insult to injury, adrenal fatigue often does not stand alone, but is linked to a large number of other conditions including: hypoglycemia, increased tendency for allergies, arthritic pain, lowered immunity, increased PMS, difficult menopause, increased fears, anxiety, and depression, periods of confusion, difficulty concentrating, lowered acute memory recall, lowered tolerance, irritability and frustration, and insomnia. When it gets worse it can also result in: frequent respiratory infections, allergies, rhinitis, asthma, frequent colds, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, adult onset diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and alcoholism.

In Part 2, we will be discussing more regarding stress, why it holds such a key role in adrenal fatigue, and common symptoms of adrenal fatigue.

If you want to get started on your road to wellness now, send me a message and we can start working together on getting you back up and running with my private consultation packages. I’m offering complimentary 15 minute introductions!

Reference: Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome by James L. Wilson