Adrenal Fatigue

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About Adrenal Fatigue
What is Adrenal Fatigue?
Adrenal Fatigue is a collection of signs and symptoms, known as a "syndrome", that results when the adrenal glands function below the necessary level. Most commonly associated with intense or prolonged stress, it can also arise during or after acute or chronic infections, especially respiratory infections such as influenza, bronchitis or pneumonia. As the name suggests, its paramount symptom is fatigue that is not relieved by sleep but it is not a readily identifiable entity like measles or a growth on the end of your finger. You may look and act relatively normal with Adrenal Fatigue and may not have any obvious signs of physical illness, yet you live with a general sense of unwellness, tiredness or "gray" feelings. People suffering from Adrenal Fatigue often have to use coffee, colas and other stimulants to get going in the morning and to prop themselves up during the day.

This syndrome has been known by many other names throughout the past century, such as non-Addison's hypoadrenia, sub-clinical hypoadrenia, neurasthenia, adrenal neurasthenia, adrenal apathy and adrenal fatigue. Although it affects millions of people in the U.S. and around the world, conventional medicine does not yet recognize it as a distinct syndrome.

Adrenal Fatigue can wreak havoc with your life. In the more serious cases, the activity of the adrenal glands is so diminished that you may have difficulty getting out of bed for more than a few hours per day. With each increment of reduction in adrenal function, every organ and system in your body is more profoundly affected. Changes occur in your carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism, fluid and electrolyte balance, heart and cardiovascular system, and even sex drive. Many other alterations take place at the biochemical and cellular levels in response to and to compensate for the decrease in adrenal hormones that occurs with Adrenal Fatigue. Your body does its best to make up for under-functioning adrenal glands, but it does so at a price.

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What causes Adrenal Fatigue?
Adrenal Fatigue is produced when your adrenal glands cannot adequately meet the demands of stress. The adrenal glands mobilize your body's response to every kind of stress (whether it's physical, emotional or psychological) through hormones that regulate energy production and storage, heart rate, muscle tone, and other processes that enable you to cope with the stress. Whether you have an emotional crisis such as the death of a loved one, a physical crisis such as major surgery, or any type of severe repeated or constant stress in your life, your adrenals have to respond. If they don't, or if their response is inadequate, you will experience some degree of Adrenal Fatigue.

In Adrenal Fatigue your adrenal glands function, but not enough to maintain your normal, healthy homeostasis. Their output of regulatory hormones has been diminished by over-stimulation. This over- stimulation can be caused either by a very intense single stress or by chronic or repeated stresses that have a cumulative effect

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Who gets Adrenal Fatigue?
Anyone can suffer from Adrenal Fatigue at some time in his or her life. An illness, a life crisis, or a continuing difficult situation can drain the adrenal resources of even the healthiest person. However there are factors that can make you more prone to Adrenal Fatigue. These include certain lifestyles (poor diet, substance abuse, too little sleep and rest, or too many pressures), a chronic illness or repeated infections such as bronchitis or pneumonia, or a mother who suffered from Adrenal Fatigue around the time of your birth.

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How common is Adrenal Fatigue?
An estimated 80% of North Americans suffer from Adrenal Fatigue at some point in their lives. Sometimes this is temporary and only lasts a few days. At other times it can be debilitating and last for years (or a lifetime if nothing is done about it).

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How can you tell if you have Adrenal Fatigue?
You may be suffering from Adrenal Fatigue if you regularly experience one or more of the following symptoms:

1. tired for no reason
2. trouble getting up in the morning even when you go to bed at a reasonable hour
3. feeling rundown or overwhelmed
3. can't bounce back from stress or illness
4. crave salty and sweet snacks
5. feeling best only after 6 PM

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Are there other health conditions related to Adrenal Fatigue?
The processes that take place in any chronic disease, from arthritis to cancer, place demands on your adrenals. Therefore, take it as a general rule that if you are suffering from a chronic disease and morning fatigue is one of your symptoms, your adrenals are likely fatigued to some degree. Also anytime a medical treatment includes the use of corticosteroids, diminished adrenal function is most likely present. All corticosteroids are designed to imitate the actions of cortisol, a hormone secreted by the adrenals, and so the need for them arises primarily when the adrenals are not providing the required amounts of cortisol.

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Recovering from adrenal fatigue: How your body can overcome chronic stress and feel energized again
by Dani Veracity

The easy, relaxed lifestyle experienced by our ancestors no longer exists, and we're not even aware of how much stress we're under. The problem? "Our lifestyles have changed, but our bodies haven't," Dr. James Wilson said in his November lecture at the First Arizona Choices Exposition in Tucson, Ariz. A large portion of our population is feeling tired and stressed out, and we want to know why.
The adrenal glands sit over the kidneys, where they play a significant role in the body, secreting more than 50 hormones necessary for life, including epinephrine (adrenaline), cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), progesterone and testosterone. Since they produce so many essential hormones, the adrenal glands are responsible for many of the functions we need to stay alive and healthy, including:

Energy production -- carbohydrate, protein and fat conversion to blood glucose for energy
Fluid and electrolyte balance
Fat storage
One hormone in particular, cortisol, is extremely important for keeping our body systems in balance, as well as protecting our cells. For example:
It controls the strength of the immune system: Too much cortisol weakens the immune system, setting the motions for increased susceptibility to infections and cancer, while too little leads to an overactive immune system and autoimmune disease.
It normalizes blood sugar.
It regulates blood pressure.
These small but mighty glands also work with other hormones and systems in what Dr. Wilson calls a "symphony." As he points out, when one part of this symphony drops out, such as what happens after menopause for women and andropause for men, the adrenal glands have to pick up the slack by producing larger amounts of sex hormones. Because of this, Wilson claims, good adrenal gland function is linked to longevity.
Unfortunately, the adrenal glands' health is paradoxical. As the manufacturer of adrenaline, they are the "glands of stress," but are also the first glands to fail during prolonged or intense periods of stress. The problem with stressors is that they are "cumulative," in the sense that their impact tends to add up in the body over time until your adrenal glands (and probably your mental state) just can't take anymore. "One more stress is the stress that breaks the camel's back," Dr. Wilson says.

Some people call the time when the "camel's back" finally breaks a "nervous breakdown." However, nerves really don't break down; adrenal glands do. A "nervous breakdown" is actually adrenal fatigue, or when the adrenal glands can't deal with the amount of stress they're given. Adrenal fatigue used to be rare, but is now all too common because of our lack of relaxation and other lifestyle factors, such as smoking, sleep deprivation, poor eating habits and excessive caffeine intake, as well as allergies.

Diagnosing (and misdiagnosing) adrenal fatigue

To make matters worse, doctors often don't diagnose this problem. Dr. Wilson offers the example of a woman who has been to 37 doctors before finally receiving proper diagnosis and a renewed sense of hope. So, why don't doctors recognize adrenal fatigue? In medical school, they are only taught to look for extreme adrenal malfunction -- Addison's Disease, which occurs when the glands produce far too little cortisol, and Cushing's Syndrome, which stems from excessive cortisol production. They check adrenal function by testing ACTH levels, using a bell curve to recognize abnormal levels. This is where the problem occurs. ACTH tests only consider the top and bottom 2 percent of the curve abnormal, yet symptoms of adrenal malfunction occur after 15 percent of the mean on both sides of the curve. In other words, your adrenal glands can be functioning 20 percent below the mean and the rest of your body experiencing symptoms of adrenal fatigue, yet most mainstream physicians won't recognize that you have a problem.

Fortunately, there are ways you can test yourself for adrenal fatigue. To start off, go ahead and "check off" the symptoms you have been experiencing.

Symptoms of adrenal fatigue:

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.
Burst of energy at 6 p.m. -- You finally feel better from your afternoon lull.
Sleepiness at 9 to 10 p.m. -- However, you resist going to sleep.
"Second wind" at 11 p.m. that lasts until about 1 a.m., when you finally go to sleep.
Cravings for foods high in salt and fat
Increased PMS or menopausal symptoms
Mild depression
Lack of energy
Decreased ability to handle stress
Muscular weakness
Increased allergies
Lightheadedness when getting up from a sitting or laying down position
Decreased sex drive
Frequent sighing
Inability to handle foods high in potassium or carbohydrates unless they're combined with fats and protein
In addition to noticing these symptoms in yourself, you can objectively check for adrenal fatigue by using the following three tests:

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.
Treatment of adrenal fatigue

"Optimal adrenal health is one of the major keys to the enjoyment of life," according to Dr. Wilson. If you have adrenal fatigue, you can fully live life again by making the necessary lifestyle and dietary changes to treat your disorder.

Treating adrenal fatigue is as easy as:

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
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

Taking back your life
If you take your treatment plan seriously, you can expect your adrenal fatigue to heal in:

6 to 9 months for minor adrenal fatigue
12 to 18 months for moderate fatigue
Up to 24 months for severe adrenal fatigue
For help along the way to taking back your life, you may want to read Dr. Wilson's book, Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome. You can learn more about this informative book or about adrenal fatigue in general by visiting Dr. Wilson's web site, AdrenalFatigue.org, or by calling 1-888-ADRENAL.
Editor's note: This article is not an infomercial. Truth Publishing was not paid to write this article and receives no money from your purchase of the products mentioned here.




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[a-bomb83]

Re: Adrenal Fatigue

wow, very good read. this sounds like me, and even my girlfriend. i could have put a check next to pretty much all of those.

[Merc]

Re: Adrenal Fatigue

good read Kite!!