If you DO have Adrenal Gland Fatigue, your doctor won't help you find out!
It's too bad too, because Adrenal Gland Fatigue, also called Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome, Adrenal Exhaustion and Adrenal Fatique- is one of the unappreciated causes of why many people are tired all of the time and why they have poor
Immune System Health.
What do the adrenal glands DO anyway?
The adrenal glands are two small bean shaped glands that each sit just above each kidney. They produce the Cortisol, DHEA and Adrenaline Hormones that are completely responsible for our response to stress. The adrenal glands are absolutely critical for our proper functioning and for good health. But few doctors realize this, and so you'll almost NEVER find out about the health of your adrenals from a traditionally-trained medical doctor.
"The adrenals are critical to everything, they are absolutely paramount, and cortisol is the one hormone we can't live without... The adrenals are critical." Dr. Howard Liebowitz from the book Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness.
Stress that contributes to adrenal gland fatigue comes in many forms and in our society, the 3 causes of stress being:
Emotional Stress
Dietary Stress
Inflammatory Stress
Emotional Stress Most of us can relate to emotional stress. Overwork, bad traffic, Not Sleeping Enough, losing our job or having money worries all contributes to emotional stress. And while this is the stress that we most understand, there are other types of stress that we DON'T tend to think about so much that are EQUALLY likely to be contributing to adrenal gland fatigue.
Inflammatory Stress
is the least understood type of stress. Inflammation is the redness and swelling that is present when you twist your ankle- but some other causes of inflammatory stress that are harder to see are:
Chronic Food Allergies- most often to milk, wheat,corn or soy
Overwhelming Chemical Toxicity
Dietary Stress
Yes, eating bad puts STRESS on your body, and if you have adrenal gland fatigue, you will NEVER get well if you continue eating sugar, processed foods, caffeine, artificial sweeteners and other foods that cause stress.
Gluten Sensitivity is a particularly damaging form of dietary stress that many people overlook.
What Happens Next
Over time, with all of these stresses, the adrenal glands go into a state where they are constantly overproducing stress hormones. Raised cortisol is a healthy response to stress, but NOT when it’s CONSTANTLY elevated.
Eventually, if the stress isn’t reduced, Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome or Adrenal Exhaustion will occur- and you won’t be able to produce elevated cortisol when you need it!
This is Adrenal Gland Fatigue or Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome
What if I DO have Adrenal Gland Fatigue?
Not only will you FEEL bad, but your
Immune System
becomes weakened. That’s because Cortisol, one of the adrenal gland hormones, is essential for its proper functioning. So a body that can’t produce cortisol can’t fight off infections anymore- and you’re more likely to get sick!
Let this situation continue and you can get any number of immune system problems:
You can also get symptoms of OTHER hormone problems that seem unrelated to Adrenal Gland Fatigue. When your adrenal glands are working hard day and night, it ends up depleting your thyroid hormones and sex hormones because of a condition called Pregnenolone Steal.
You see, stress hormones are WAY more important on an evolutionary basis than any other hormones. So if you are producing cortisol all of the time, then your thyroid can't work and your libido will be low- simply because your pregnenolone has been 'stolen'.
Why hasn’t your doctor tested you for Adrenal Gland Fatigue?
Unfortunately, just like the condition of
Gluten Sensitivity,
conventional medicine only recognizes the adrenal glands in one of two states: fully functioning or adrenal gland failure- a condition called Addison's Disease.
Interestingly there are many similarities in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome- a condition where a 'Blunted Adrenal Response' has been noted to Addison's Disease. In fact, there are several researchers that have proposed that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is simply a form of Addison's Disease- THE classic Adrenal Gland Dysfunction Disease!
Unfortunately, this 'Either on or off' approach misses millions of people who are in the grey area of ‘poorly functioning’ adrenal gland hormones and fails to recognize that other glands- such as the thyroid gland and pancreas- have poor functioning states that medicine recognizes as hypothyroidism and Type 2 Diabetes respectively.
That conventional medicine doesn’t recognize Adrenal Fatique, discounts the fact that most people intuitively understand the relationship of adrenal gland symptoms to how they feel.
Many of my clients say to me, “I feel like I have adrenal burn out”. And this belief has persisted –with good reason- in our society, despite conventional medicine not believing in Adrenal Gland Fatigue.
What if I want to be have an Adrenal Function Test…
Testing for Adrenal Gland Fatigue is a simple process that can be done using saliva test kits that are mailed right to your home. These tests were developed by the first researchers who studied adrenal gland hormones using cortisol levels. They found that blood testing gave a poor reading because the stress of sticking a needle into the arm, increased cortisol levels and made their results inaccurate.
“The measurement of steroid levels in saliva provide a useful and practical tool to evaluate adrenal functions, which are essential for clinical diagnosis” Salivary Cortisol and DHEA Levels
An
Adrenal Function Test
is very easy, painless and is done right in your own home. The ‘standard’ test takes a series of 4 samples at different times throughout the day and shows you the ups and downs of your ‘daily rhythm’.
And at only $127 for this test, it’s inexpensive to find out if your adrenal gland hormones are too high or too low causing Adrenal Gland Fatigue or Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome.
So what can I do if I have Adrenal Gland Fatigue...
The only way to know for sure if you DO have adrenal gland fatigue is to get an
Adrenal Function Test
done. You can FEEL like you have symptoms of adrenal fatique, but unless you get tested there is no way to know how bad it is, or if it is simply an adrenal gland hormone RHYTHM problem -or another problem such as low thyroid,
H pylori Infection,Vitamin B12 Deficiency, Vitamin D Deficiency- or any number of other problems.
But if testing shows that you have Adrenal Gland Fatigue, your adrenal gland hormonesCAN be supported using the powerful herbal preparations of Pregnenolone, DHEA, and Licorice Root Extract in specific combinations.
But using these yourself without the guidance of salivary testing and a practitioner skilled in their interpretation can be problematic and is NOT RECOMMENDED!
Lifestyle is the Key!
Lifestyle changes are the ONLY way to begin to decrease your adrenal gland fatique and they must include decreasing ALL of your sources of stress: emotional, inflammatory and dietary.
You can do this on your own, but if you have Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome right now (or believe that you do), then whatever you have been doing is NOT WORKING and you are going to need help to change what you are doing.
Two recommendations for this for different levels of motivation and finances are below:
Dr. Carolyn Dean's Future Health Now Program- a VERY affordable program. For those not ready for DRASTIC changes, who are on a limited budget or who need the reassurance and continual support that receiving a weekly module in your email will provide. Get the First Module FREE.
David Wolfe's Longevity Now Program- a TOTAL transformation system. With a book, DVD's, CD's and supplemental guides to keep you on track. This is for those who understand that they need drastic change to get well and are motivated to take that step.
While conventional medicine does not recognize Adrenal Gland Fatigue until the Adrenal Glands are COMPLETELY unable to respond, it affects TENS of THOUSANDS who are suffering from its effects. If you DO have adrenal gland fatigue, there is no reason to suffer when there are accurate laboratory tests, safe, powerful supplements and lifestyle changes that you can do to support your adrenal hormones.
