Adrenal Fatigue Part 2

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Adrenal Fatigue:

The 21st Century Stress Syndrome

 

Continued ...

 

(Return to part 1 of this article)

 

 

 

Adrenal fatigue shows up in a variety of ways

 

The rarest and most extreme form is called Addison’s disease, named for Sir

Thomas Addison, who first described it in 1855. It is life threatening if

untreated and can result in permanent damage to the adrenal glands. Addison’s

disease affects four out of 100,000 people. About 70% of all cases are the

result of auto-immune disease, while the other 30% results from a variety of

causes, including severe stress.

 

The more common form of adrenal fatigue has been called by a number of names

including non-Addison’s hypadrenia, sub-clinical hypodrenia, neurasthenia,

adrenal neurasthenia and adrenal apathy. " It is not a readily identifiable

entity like measles or a growth on the end of your finger, " says Dr. Wilson.

" People with adrenal fatigue often look and act relatively normal. They many not

have any obvious signs of physical illness, yet they are not well and live with

a general sense of unwellness or ‘gray’ feelings. " (Adrenal Fatigue, pg. 8)

 

How do you know if you have adrenal fatigue?

 

Anyone, from birth to old age and from any race or culture, can suffer from

adrenal fatigue. People vary greatly in their ability to respond to and

withstand stress. But if you’ve suffered from a serious or repeated injury,

illness, infectious disease, allergies, inadequate nutrition, intense social,

emotional or physical pressures, or are exposed to a toxic environment you

probably have adrenal fatigue.

 

Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome includes a six-page, self-test

questionnaire, the most important tool in the book to determine if you have

adrenal fatigue, and if so, how severe.

 

On the following page, you will find a sample of questions from the

questionaire.

 

" The questionnaire alone is worth the price of the book. Anybody under stress

needs to read this awesome book. It will give you your life back. "

 

—Marie Wagner, book reviewer

 

You can make a full recovery from adrenal fatigue.

 

Don’t worry! (Worry only contributes to more stress!) You can make a full

recovery from adrenal fatigue and you can start on the path today! All you have

to do is support your adrenal glands nutritionally and make some changes in your

lifestyle. Here’s how:

 

How well you live, depends largely on how well your adrenal glands function

 

First of all, in order for the adrenals to work efficiently, you have to support

them nutritionally. And the good news about adrenal fatigue is that you can do

most of what is necessary to recover and regain your adrenal health yourself.

There are no magic pills for adrenal fatigue but there are key lifestyle changes

and nutritional supplements that will greatly facilitate your recovery.

 

How can I keep my adrenal glands healthy?

 

The guidelines are very similar to the overall principles of good health, and

they’re all laid out in detail in Dr. Wilson’s book. A moderate lifestyle with

high-quality food, regular exercise and plenty of rest, combined with a healthy

mental attitude will go a long way towards keeping your adrenal glands strong

and resilient. However, because modern life is so stressful, certain nutritional

supplements are also important to both maintaining healthy adrenal glands and

helping depleted adrenal glands recover.

 

Instead of taking lots of different individual supplements, it makes more sense

to simply take a nutritional supplement designed specifically for the adrenals

that combines all the necessary nutrients. Adrenal Defense and Adrenal Boost

contain the nutrients you need to allow your body to maintain healthy adrenal

glands and cope with stress more effectively:

 

Eating well, eating on time

 

When your adrenal glands are fatigued, cortisol levels drop lower than normal.

This makes it more difficult for your body to maintain normal blood sugar

levels. As a result, people with adrenal fatigue tend to also have low blood

sugar. If you have adrenal fatigue, when you eat is almost as important as what

you eat. Low blood sugar is in itself a stressful situation that further drains

your adrenals. Therefore, avoid letting your blood sugar levels drop too low by

eating natural, high-quality food at frequent, regular intervals. This will make

a difference to your adrenal health as well as to your energy level. (See " Foods

that feed your adrenals " for more diet tips.)

 

The best thing is, if you follow the advice in Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century

Stress Syndrome, you’ll begin to see the difference almost immediately! Your

overall health will improve and you’ll have more energy to accomplish your goals

… without the help of stimulants or caffeine, (which will only worsen the

condition over the long run).

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

What causes adrenal fatigue?

 

There are multitudes of individual causes of adrenal fatigue but they usually

stem from one of four common sources that overwhelm the body.

1) Disease states such as severe or recurrent pneumonia, bronchitis or flu,

cancer, AIDS, auto-immune and other illnesses.

2) Physical stress such as surgery, poor nutrition, addiction, injury,

exhaustion, etc.

 

3) Emotional stress, usually arising from relationship, work or psychological

origins.

 

4) Continual and/or severe environmental stress from toxic chemicals and

pollutants in the air, water, clothing or food.

 

If adrenal fatigue is so common, why doesn’t my doctor know anything about it?

 

Most medical doctors are not aware of adrenal fatigue or the syndrome. Adrenal

fatigue was first diagnosed over 100 years ago and has been successfully treated

for decades. However, for various reasons that largely have to do with the close

association between medicine and the pharmaceutical industry, the medical

community has ignored the existence of adrenal fatigue syndrome over the past 40

years.

 

Most doctors only recognize Addison’s disease, which is the most extreme end of

low adrenal function. Because of our stressful lifestyles, adrenal fatigue

typically develops gradually. Usually the symptoms (what we sense and feel in

our body) usually precede the signs (visible changes, and laboratory or clinical

test findings). As the problems progress, these symptoms and signs accumulate to

form a syndrome, which is a collection of signs and symptoms attributable to a

known medical condition. Unfortunately, medicine does not often recognize a

condition until it has progressed to a full-blown syndrome.

 

Are there laboratory tests that

detect adrenal fatigue?

 

Yes. The most accurate and valuable test for detecting adrenal fatigue is a

saliva adrenal hormone test. This is a simple and relatively inexpensive test

and has been unavailable until recently. There are other lab tests but they need

special interpretation by physicians trained to recognize and treat adrenal

fatigue.

 

Many doctors who are aware of adrenal fatigue syndrome use some form of

questionnaire to help make their diagnosis.

 

Can adrenal fatigue become chronic?

 

Yes, in some people the adrenal glands do not return to normal levels of

function without help, either because the stress was too great or too prolonged,

or because their general health is poor. However, when adrenal fatigue becomes

chronic it is almost always because of factors that can be changed.

 

Can children suffer from adrenal fatigue?

 

Yes, especially children born to parents suffering from adrenal fatigue

themselves. These children are often more sickly, have less ability to handle

stressful situations, and take longer to recover from illnesses.

 

Is adrenal fatigue common

in someone with cancer that is going through chemotherapy?

 

Yes, the extreme fatigue of this and any other chronic illness is often the

result of decreased adrenal function. Chronic illness and toxic treatments like

chemotherapy are both large stressors for the body and the adrenals are

intimately involved in trying to balance these stresses.

 

Does adrenal fatigue affect

the thyroid gland?

 

Yes. Approximately 80% of the people suffering from adrenal fatigue also suffer

some form of decreased thyroid function. Often people who are shown to be low

thyroid and are unresponsive to thyroid therapy are suffering from adrenal

fatigue as well. For these people to get well, the adrenals must be supported in

addition to the thyroid.

 

Am I more prone to infections

if I have adrenal fatigue?

 

Yes. Adrenal fatigue often goes hand in hand with decreased immune function,

which makes someone more prone to illnesses. There is a definite association

between adrenal fatigue and respiratory infections, such as bronchitis and

pneumonia.

 

How often can I have a bout of

adrenal fatigue?

 

It varies with the person. Some people have only one episode of adrenal fatigue

during their lifetime, some have several, and others experience chronic adrenal

fatigue from which they never fully recover.

 

Can adrenal fatigue affect my sex life?

 

Yes. A common complaint from people suffering from adrenal fatigue is decreased

sex drive. This is because some of the sex hormones are manufactured in the

adrenal glands, as well as in the sex organs themselves. Low adrenal function

can lead to low performance or low desire. Both usually return to normal as the

adrenals recover.

 

Is adrenal fatigue related to fibromyalgia or clinical depression?

 

Yes, adrenal fatigue can be related to both. Most people who suffer from

fibromyalgia have a form of adrenal fatigue. Sometimes the adrenal fatigue comes

before the fibromyalgia. A mild depression is also a chief sign of adrenal

fatigue and although there are other conditions that cause clinical depression,

if clinical depression is present, a saliva test for adrenal hormones will

determine whether the adrenals are involved.

 

Is adrenal fatigue related to chronic fatigue syndrome?

 

Yes, adrenal fatigue is a common, but usually unrecognized, component of chronic

fatigue syndrome (CFS). The most likely connection between them is that the

infectious agent(s) that lead to the development of CFS also set up conditions

that foster adrenal fatigue. The direct effects of a smoldering pathogen in the

body as well as the systematic stress the infection creates put the adrenals on

overload. With new diagnostic procedures available for detecting the specific

infectious agent(s) responsible, there have been encouraging results using a

combination treatment that eliminates the specific pathogen(s) while

strengthening the adrenals.

 

Does diet have anything to do with

adrenal fatigue?

 

Yes, definitely. Diet has a lot to do with adrenal fatigue, both in its cause

and in its recovery. The phrase " garbage in, garbage out " aptly describes the

relationship between what we eat and adrenal fatigue. If we eat garbage, our

bodies eventually become trashed and one of the common results is adrenal

fatigue.

 

Does adrenal fatigue affect a woman’s menstrual cycles?

 

Yes, adrenal fatigue can affect menstrual cycles. PMS, altered menstrual flow

and difficult menopause can definitely be related to adrenal fatigue.

 

References

 

Wilson, James L, M.D., Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome. Smart

Publications, November 2001

 

 

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