What is Adrenal Fatigue? Adrenal Fatigue is a condition that occurs when the adrenal glands are not producing enough adrenal hormones. Adrenal hormones are responsible for helping your body manage stress, heal from inflammation due to allergies or autoimmune issues, support sex hormones and sex drive, and aid in metabolism.
What causes Adrenal Fatigue? Normally adrenal glands become fatigued and drained from excessive stress or illness. The purpose of the adrenals is to help your body respond and cope with stress and illness and reach homeostasis. Unfortunately, however, if the adrenals are continuously being tapped due to a single but significantly stressful event in your life like a death of a loved one, or chronic stress due to culprits like work or relationship problems, or even physical stress like a big surgery or chronic respiratory infections, the adrenals cannot then keep up with the demands and cannot make enough stress-recovery hormones to balance out the stress.
What are symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue? The results of Adrenal Fatigue can affect your life significantly—from general fatigue and melancholia throughout the day to sex drive issues, changes in your metabolism, and cardiovascular health. It is not a condition someone wants to take lightly and should be addressed immediately. Some common symptoms of adrenal fatigue include the following:
- Feeling tired and rundown often
- Needing coffee and caffeine to get through the day
- Mild to moderate melancholia, especially if stressed
- Scatterbrained or forgetful
- Low sex-drive
- Difficulty recovering from stress or illness
- Easily overwhelmed
- Feel more alert in the evening time than during the day
- Crave salty and sweet snacks
Who are people more susceptible to Adrenal Fatigue? Anyone can develop adrenal fatigue if they live a lifestyle that includes a lot of stress either social, physical, or emotional. However some factors that increase your chances of developing adrenal fatigue include poor diet, substance abuse, chronic allergies ,infections or illness, chronic exposure to a stressful circumstance, serious or repeated injuries, and too little sleep or rest. Additionally Men and women who are going through or who are post-menopausal or andropausal are also more likely to develop adrenal fatigue because their sex hormones drop, causing the body to have to utilize more adrenal hormones to compensate. Combine that with added stress and you have a recipe for adrenal fatigue.
How do you test for Adrenal Fatigue? Most doctors in Western medicine do not recognize adrenal fatigue until it is in its final stage, called Addison’s disease. However, doctors trained in this area, like Naturopaths, can recognize and address the issue before it becomes a serious one like Addison’s disease. This can be done by giving a simple saliva test. I can look at the hormone levels and be able to see if indeed your adrenals are performing below level. Together we can come up with a plan to help build up your adrenals again and get you back to feeling well again.
How do you treat Adrenal Fatigue? Adrenal Fatigue can be treated using a variety and often times a combination of ways. There are supplements, diet changes, exercise changes, and stress reducing techniques you can use to help get your adrenals back in shape. Also, if chronic illness is a trigger, taking steps to build up the immune system through vitamin supplements, and various IV cocktails I offer can also help. There is definitely hope! If you feel you might be suffering from adrenal fatigue, contact me. Let me test your adrenal levels and get a symptom report from you. We can come up with a powerful regimen for you to get you well and feeling young, energetic, and at peace again.