Every day a variety of stressors signal our adrenal glands to produce stress hormones. A wide range of physical and psychological demands like a stressful job, family responsibilities, relationship dynamics, lack of sleep, financial concerns, dieting and emotional distress trigger our adrenals to provide relatively small blasts of strength in the form of hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. From waking us up with a little burst of energy in the morning, to keeping us awake, alert, and focused throughout the rest of the day, our adrenals are crucial to our health.
When our adrenal glands are constantly required to maintain high cortisone levels, they eventually become impaired in their ability to respond appropriately. The resulting dysfunction not only affects our short-term response to stress, but it also impairs our adrenals’ ability to produce and balance other hormones which are important to our long-term health and well-being, DHEA, Estrogen, Progesterone, and Testosterone.
Adrenal Fatigue is not recognized by conventional Medicine. Only the extremes of Addison’s, Adrenal Cortical failure and Cushing Syndrome are recognized. It is more often recognized as HPA axis Stress. Probably more than 90% of the population is in some form of Adrenal stress or fatigue. Weak Adrenal Function sets the stage for many other conditions to appear, like: digestive symptom, allergies, fatigue, hypothyroidism, immune weakness, diabetes, degenerative disease, and cancer.
Traditional blood tests are mostly normal; even so the patient does not feel well. To get out of Adrenal fatigue, we need to consider Lifestyle changes, Diet changes, thought pattern & Belief system changes and much more. This has to be introduced gently, to not create more stress. Meditation and Yoga are wonderful.
The Adrenal Glands
Are two small endocrine glands, the size of a walnut, that sit on top of each kidney.
- They are stress-handling glands.
- They produce a variety of hormones that help to handle physical, mental or emotional stress.
- They help to mobilize “Fight or Flight.”
- They control:
- Fluid Balance
- Blood sugar balance
- Inflammatory response
- Immune-system response
- They produce steroid hormones, which are vitality hormones, and provide a sense of well-being and healthy mood and emotions.
- They are the back up system for sex hormones and are vital from healthy pregnancy to healthy menopause and fertility.
- They include anti aging hormones like DHEA
- And they provide protection when balanced against all forms of disease.
How well you live depends, to a large degree,
upon how well your adrenal glands function!
Cortisol
Cortisol is the most potent glucocorticoid produced in the adrenal cortex. It is also called hydrocortisone. It is metabolized into the other less potent glucocorticoids, cortisone and corticosterone.
Adrenal Stress Test, or Hair mineral Analysis are the best tests to evaluate Adrenal Function!
Cortisol Functions:
Maintains glycogen stores, releases fatty acids from adipose storage, breaks down glycogen stores during the night, is anti inflammatory, is required to handle stress,
Cortisol Pathway:
Cholesterol – Pregnenolone – Progesterone – 17 OH Progesterone – Cortisol
DHEA
DHEA stands for dehydroepiandosterone and is the most abandoned hormone in the blood. It is an androgen steroid hormone produced by the adrenal gland, the ovaries, testes, and brain.
Men generally have slightly higher levels than women. Like testosterone, DHEA is an anabolic hormone, meaning it helps build body structure.
DHEA plays an important role in energy, stress handling, mood, immunity, and anti aging. It improves immunity and may reverse autoimmune disorders.
Adrenal Fatigue Symptoms
Difficulty getting up each morning, even after a long sleep
One of the major causes of Adrenal Fatigue is getting insufficient sleep, and getting more and deeper sleep is also one of the best ways to recover. However, when suffering from Adrenal Fatigue many patients wake up extremely tired and ‘foggy’ even after getting a long sleep.
This can be caused by one of two factors. Adrenal Fatigue sufferers in the early stages of their condition tend to be under significant stress, and therefore their adrenaline and cortisol levels are high. This interrupts the natural 24 hour cycle of Cortisol levels, leading to a state of permanent alertness that prevents restful sleep.
Those Adrenal Fatigue sufferers who are at a later stage in their condition will have consistently lower levels of cortisol. However, their blood sugar will tend to be much lower during the early morning (cortisol regulates blood sugar too). Your body realizes it’s hungry and forces you to wake up. Many Adrenal Fatigue sufferers are chronic late-night snackers for exactly this reason.
High levels of fatigue each day
In the later stages of Adrenal Fatigue, your adrenals become unable to produce enough of the hormones that you need. This means that your levels of cortisol, along with neurotransmitters like adrenaline and norepinephrine, are lower than they should be.
The relative lack of these crucial hormones explains how patients suffering from Adrenal Fatigue find it difficult to ‘lift’ themselves or maintain any kind of reasonable energy level throughout the day. There is one exception though (see below) – Adrenal Fatigue sufferers sometimes experience a bounce in energy in the late evening.
Inability to handle stress
Adrenal Fatigue sufferers often have a difficult time dealing with physical or emotional stress. This is for exactly the same reasons that are behind that unrelenting feeling of tiredness – the low hormone levels associated with late-stage Adrenal Fatigue.
When we encounter stress we depend on our adrenals to release hormones like cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine. These hormones regulate our stress response and allow us to increase our strength, focus and awareness when we need it. However, when the adrenals are fatigued they struggle to release the necessary amount of these hormones. Patients with Adrenal Fatigue often report a lack of enthusiasm, feelings of apathy or disinterest, irritability and anxiety.
Cravings for salty foods
A part of the adrenals named the cortex is responsible for producing aldosterone, a mineralocorticoid which works with the kidney to regulate our fluid and mineral excretion. When the adrenals become fatigued, we produce less aldosterone and we tend to excrete large amounts of important minerals in our urine. Individuals with depleted endocrine systems often report frequent urination, which is often attributed to age but may actually be caused by depleted adrenals.
This means that Adrenal Fatigue sufferers effectively lose the ability to balance the levels of minerals like sodium, potassium and magnesium in their blood. In turn, this leads to cravings for foods, which will replace the sodium that we have lost. If you find yourself suddenly craving salty snacks, you could be suffering from Adrenal Fatigue.
Higher energy levels in the evenings
The lower levels of cortisol can play havoc with our energy levels throughout the day. In a healthy person, cortisol reaches its highest level early in the morning before declining gradually throughout the day. However, some Adrenal Fatigue sufferers experience spikes in cortisol in the late afternoon and evening.
A typical progression is to find yourself tired all day, then suddenly get a bounce in your energy levels late in the evening. This tends to occur in the earlier stages of Adrenal Fatigue, when the adrenals are still capable of producing significant amounts of cortisol and adrenaline.
A weakened immune system
Cortisol has an anti-inflammatory effect that helps to regulate your immune system. Inflammation is often simply a sign that your body is fighting an infection, but cortisol prevents this reaction from getting out of control. Maintaining a balanced Cortisol Level– not too low and not too high – is an important part of our health.
If stress is causing your cortisol levels to be elevated, this anti-inflammatory effect becomes too strong. This effectively stops your immune system from working as it should, and this weakened state can last for the duration of whatever is causing the stress. Without a good functioning Immune System, we become weekend and prone to disease.
Conversely, a lower level of cortisol allows your immune system to over-react to pathogens. This can lead to chronic inflammation and a number of respiratory or autoimmune diseases.
So what does this mean for Adrenal Fatigue sufferers? It depends on which stage of the condition you have reached. In the early stages, consistently high levels of cortisol suppress your immune response and leaves you vulnerable to infection. In the later stages of Adrenal Fatigue, low levels of cortisol can lead to chronic inflammation, allergies and autoimmune diseases. Neither is a good outcome, and so your Adrenal Fatigue treatment should focus on restoring cortisol to a sustainable, balanced level.
Other symptoms
There are a large number of other complaints that are associated with Adrenal Fatigue. Many of these are linked directly to one of the more common complaints listed above. Depending on which stage of Adrenal Fatigue you have reached, you may be experiencing a handful or a large number of these symptoms.
- Asthma, allergies or respiratory complaints
- Dark circles under the eyes
- Dizziness
- Dry skin
- Extreme tiredness an hour after exercise
- Frequent urination
- Joint pain
- Lines in your fingertips
- Loss of muscle tone
- Low blood pressure
- Low blood sugar
- Low sex drive
- Lower back pain
- Numbness in your fingers / Poor circulation
- Weight gain
If you find yourself experiencing some of these symptoms and would like some support, contact us at 510-978-3444.
We look forward to tuning you up to Vibrant Health and Well Being
