More Adrenal Fatigue Symptoms
Here are more adrenal fatigue symptoms, each indicating a varying level of adrenaline exhaustion:
- Body aches
- Blood sugar or digestive problems
- Reduced memory or ability to concentrate
- Dizziness when standing up too quickly
- Thyroid problems or low thyroid hormone production
- Food cravings- especially salt and sugar
- Impaired immune function- getting sick more often
- High stress levels or always feeling like there is too much to do
Unfortunately, most of us living in the modern world are exposed to several factors which can make adrenal fatigue worse. One of these factors include being exposed to artificial light at night, since it impairs the natural melatonin and serotonin release associated with our circadian rhythms. Poor sleep patterns and poor nutrition also contribute to adrenal fatigue, as well as exposure to environmental pollutants.
It is estimated that 80% of Americans have some level of adrenal fatigue, and there isnt a quick fix to make it all better. But adrenal fatigue treatment is attainable, as there are very easy, and effective ways to restore adrenal function. You should just expect it to take at least 6 months to a full year for a full recovery from adrenal fatigue.
S To Heal The Symptoms Of Adrenal Fatigue Naturally
“Adrenal fatigue” describes a disruption of the adrenal glands’ ability to make cortisol in the right amounts at the right times. Chronic stress, an unhealthy diet, and general inflammation are all thought to contribute to it. Though adrenal fatigue is not recognized as a legitimate condition by the traditional medical community, I’ve seen the effects of unsteady cortisol levels play out time and time again with my patients. Here are the signs you might be dealing with them too.
Be Mindful Of Your Adrenaline Levels
To recover, you must remove the stress factors from your life, advises Dr. Rawls, especially if youre dealing with burnout and life-altering exhaustion, and relying on adrenaline to get you through the day. To combat excess adrenaline and bring awareness to the stress and tension your body might be holding on to, Dr. Rawls recommends zeroing out your adrenaline levels 2-3 times a day.
The process is quite simple: Set aside 10-15 minutes a few times a day to focus on deep breathing exercises. If possible, try to find a quiet place free of disruptions, sit or lie down in a comfortable position, and breathe your way to a more relaxed state. Doing this isnt hard making the time for it is the biggest obstacle, says Dr. Rawls.
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This Is How To Recover From Adrenal Fatigue
Recovering from adrenal fatigue depends upon you. It means changing your lifestyle, changing your relationships with other people, and taking good care of yourself. I tell my patients to treat yourself just like you would a newborn babywith a lot of loving care and attention. When you are tired, go to sleep. When you are hungry be sure you have plenty of healthful, nourishing food. When you are stressed by someones demands, learn to say no, at least temporarily. In this way, you will slowly learn to take the stress off your adrenal glands and allow them to heal.
How Long Should It Take To See Improvements
It can take some time to naturally heal your adrenal glands and start to feel more energetic, clear-headed, and in control of your hormones, weight and appetite. Everyone is different and reacts to lifestyle changes in unique ways. Some people will need to take medications to ultimately heal their problems, while others can feel drastically better by simply paying attention to their diets, stress levels and lifestyles. Either way, following the recommendations for natural remedies listed above is definitely still the way to speed up healing time and prevent the problem from worsening.
While there isnt necessarily one tried-and-true way to recover from adrenal problems, heres what you can expect in terms of timing:
- 69 months for minor adrenal issues
- 1218 months for moderate adrenal insufficiency
- Up to 24 months for severe adrenal insufficiency
If you visit a doctor about adrenal insufficiency , she or he might recommend you take medications to help speed up the healing process and reverse cortisol deficiency symptoms. Taking glucocorticoid medications like prednisone or hydrocortisone are the most common treatments, and the dosage of these depends on your level of stress, any present infections, medical history and injuries. The primary reason for taking hormonal replacement medications is to bring your cortisol and other hormone levels up to normal as quickly as possible.
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Tips To Heal Adrenal Fatigue Naturally
It feels awesome.
What Are The Four Stressful Situations
Scientists who study stress say that the things that cause the most mental and emotional stress usually have four similarities:
First, people are stressed by things which are new to them. First-time experiences cause you to worry about how you will feel during that event. This causes a stress response.
Second is unpredictability which heightens the stress response. The unknown causes anxiety and stress.
Third is a threat to you physically or emotionally. You may feel threatened by being judged by someone else.
Fourth is not having control over your situation. A perfect example of this is the person in middle management. They have the responsibility of performing new tasks. The results are often unpredictable. A bad result threatens their job approval. Most of the time, they dont have control over the results. Not surprisingly, middle managers are often considered to have the highest stress in most corporations, leading to high turn-over, burnout, and poor job satisfaction.
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Causes And Symptoms Of Adrenal Fatigue
The adrenal glands are two thumb-shaped organs. They are part of the endocrine system, and they sit directly above your kidneys. Your adrenal glands or fight or flight glands are necessary for balancing hormones, including adrenaline, aldosterone, cortisol, and sex hormones, like testosterone and estrogen. Adrenal fatigue is caused when the adrenal glands cannot continue to sustain the daily mental, physical, or emotional stress.
There are many stressors that can set off adrenal fatigue, including death of a loved one, surgery, divorce or marital stress, pollution or environmental toxin exposure, lack of sleep, allergies, poor eating habits, lack of exercise or excessive exercise, fear, smoking, caffeine or coffee consumption, malabsorption or leaky gut syndrome, and negative beliefs. When left untreated, adrenal fatigue can lead to type 2 diabetes, hypoglycemia, asthma, other respiratory infections, alcoholism, frequent colds, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and autoimmune disorders.
How do you know if adrenal fatigue syndrome is an issue? It is likely that you experience certain symptoms on a regular basis. Some of these include:
- Morning fatigue or difficulty getting up in the morning
- Cravings for salty or sugary foods
- It also seems to take forever to recover from illnesses or injury
Stress Management Is The Best Adrenal Fatigue Treatment
No matter who you are, youre going to face major challenges in your life sooner or later. Learning to deal with stress and become more resilient is one of the most valuable skills you can develop. Its a core part of being Bulletproof, and its essential to keeping adrenal fatigue at bay.
This guide should help you, and if you want more tips, check out these other articles:
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Avoid Your Food Sensitivities
Food sensitivities can also be a cause of fatigue. For example, 64% of patients with non-celiac gluten sensitivity reported fatigue when they ate gluten [26
Trusted SourcePubMedGo to source].
The low FODMAP diet has specifically been shown to improve fatigue for people with IBS and fibromyalgia . A gluten-free diet like the paleo diet or a low histamine diet are other options that may help, if appropriate for you.
Vitamin C For Adrenal Fatigue
Why is it effective?
Your adrenal glands contain the highest content of vitamin C. The vitamin can also help to reduce symptoms of stress and reduce the production of stress hormones.
How to use it?
Vitamin C supplements are available in pill form.
How much to use?
The daily intake of vitamin C is 65 milligrams.
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Natural Remedies For Adrenal Fatigue
Working with your doctor, you may be able to overcome some of these problems with a short course of medication to address the symptoms immediately. Using natural remedies and lifestyle changes can help offset the long-term issues and give you the best chance to overcome adrenal fatigue permanently.
Purported Symptoms Of Adrenal Fatigue And Adrenal Healthdysfunction
When people think of adrenal fatigue, they associate it with the following symptoms:
- Chronic fatigue or ongoing low energy levels
- Low blood pressure
- Weight gain or weight loss
- Lightheadedness or brain fog
- Low immune system function
- Hormone imbalances
However, there is not yet clear evidence that adrenal fatigue exists as a medical condition.
According to a systematic review of research on adrenal fatigue, cortisol levels on saliva tests and blood tests dont correlate with fatigue symptoms 50-80% of the time .
Other studies suggest a similar conclusion. A systematic review of post-traumatic stress disorder patients found they had similar cortisol levels to healthy individuals . An additional systematic review and meta-analysis showed that neither trauma nor PTSD affected cortisol levels.
Addisons disease an autoimmune disease characterized by very low cortisol is a real medical condition. However its extremely rare, affecting only .01% of Americans .
Even though Endocrinologists dont recognize adrenal fatigue as a real condition, fatigue is definitely a real and troublesome symptom that can be caused by many health issues.
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Distinction From Addisons Disease
Adrenal fatigue is closely related to, but not to be confused with, Addisons Disease, a disorder characterized by insufficient cortisol production due either to a pathology directly affecting the adrenals or a disruption of signaling between the brain and the adrenals. While symptoms of Addisons Disease are similar to adrenal fatigue, the primary difference is that adrenal fatigue is considered a possible result of the overuse of otherwise healthy adrenal glands due to stress.
The adrenals are necessary to have gluconeogenesis to take place in the liver, as well as the glycogen storage where it stimulates the production of blood glucose, says Dr. Wilson. So, most of the major symptoms of either adrenal fatigue or Addisons Disease are a result of either a lack of cortisol or a lack of blood glucose and the many effects that it has systematically throughout the body.
He theorizes, Unlike Addisons, adrenal fatigue doesnt have a pathological origin, with the exception of the overuse of antibiotics which may partially shut down the use of the adrenal glands. So, you do get different symptoms with versus adrenal fatigue, because youre talking about the difference between a body that cant secrete cortisol versus a body that isnt secreting sufficient cortisol.
Signs And Symptoms Of Adrenal Fatigue
Doctors diagnose adrenal fatigue by looking at a series of symptoms. But, not every sign appears in every person, and sometimes symptoms can indicate a different problem. Be sure to work with your doctor if you think you may have adrenal fatigue.
Here are some of the symptoms attached to adrenal fatigue.
- Inability to remember things
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Nutrition And Adrenal Fatigue:
Our nutrition plays a large role in the development and the healing of adrenal fatigue. Most people in our society are consuming far too many carbohydrates and not enough pure nutrients and good fats. This causes blood sugar imbalances. The adrenals must work extremely hard to maintain blood sugar stability and the modern diet taxes them to the limits.
The best diet for adrenal fatigue begins by working on stabilizing blood sugar with the use of good fats. This includes using coconut oil, coconut butter, coconut flakes, coconut milk, avocados, olives and olive oil and grass-fed butter or ghee and pasture-raised animal products.
These fat sources should be the staple of the diet. The cholesterol within things like grass-fed butter or ghee and quality animal products is also needed for the production of the adrenal hormone precursors pregnenolone and DHEA. Additionally, the fats help to keep blood sugar stable and take stress off the adrenal glands.
Adding in lots of phytonutrients and trace minerals in the form of non-starchy vegetables such as dark green leafies, cucumbers, celery, radishes, cruciferous veggies, etc is very important. Be sure to get a lot of herbs into your diet including ginger, turmeric, rosemary, thyme, basil and oregano.
Using low-glycemic fruit such as berries, lemons, limes and granny smith apples is ideal. These are low in sugar and loaded with antioxidant compounds that help reduce stress on your body.
Follow The Adrenal Fatigue Diet
An adrenal fatigue diet can help support a speedy recovery. It is very important to eat your first meal before 10 a.m.. It is a good idea to eat frequent small meals throughout the day. The best adrenal fatigue diet approach will include 30 to 40% whole grains, 30 to 40% vegetables , 10 to 20% animal foods, five to 10% fruits, and 10 to 15% nuts, seeds, and beans.
The best adrenal diet foods include avocado, coconut, olives, chicken and turkey, wild salmon, cruciferous vegetables, nuts , and seeds, like flaxseed, chia seeds, and pumpkin seeds.
Foods to avoid as part of the adrenal diet include sugar, artificial sweeteners, microwaved and processed foods, and hydrogenated oils like canola, soybean, and corn oil. Instead, it is a good idea to use good fats like ghee, coconut oil, or olive oil. It is also best to avoid caffeine, since it can interfere with a persons sleep cycle.
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Supplements For Adrenal Fatigue
Supplements feed the body with nutrients and antioxidants that help support your various body systems so you can find balance. When healthy, the body is naturally strong enough to heal without supplements. But with Adrenal Fatigue, most nutrients and antioxidants become significantly depleted. Supplements offer extra support the body needs and assist in speeding the process.
- Multivitamins: Opt for the high-quality, easily-absorbed ones. A certain supply of nutrients is needed when a poor diet may impact our nutrition. Be mindful of the brand of vitamins you choose. Different companies have different quality control standards that may lessen the effect of the multivitamins you take. Inadequate vitamin quality is useless when it comes to healing Adrenal Fatigue.
- Antioxidants: These are important because they help control the increase of free radicals, also called oxidative stress. The physiology of stress, aka Adrenal Fatigue, creates excess free radicals and oxidative stress. An increase in free radicals places more demand on your antioxidant reserves. These must be replenished to prevent further wear and tear from chronic stress and Adrenal Fatigue.
- Essential Fatty Acids : These make up the majority of your cell membranes, and they help with brain cell communication.
The best EFAs to take when healing Adrenal Fatigue are:
- Omega 3 from fish
- Organic fish or krill oils
- Plant sources
- Organic flaxseed oil
Get High Quality Sun Exposure:
Sun exposure on our skin not only helps to boost up vitamin D levels, but it also improves the ability of our mitochondria to produce energy for healing and repair. This helps take stress off of the adrenals and helps them to heal and regenerate faster .
Vitamin D is one of the best homeostatic regulators within our bodies and needed for healthy adrenal function. But our bodies also absorb biophotons from the sun, which are light particles that create reactions in our cells promoting DNA repair and synthesis.
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All About Your Adrenal Glands
Your adrenal glands sit on top of your kidneys, like little kidney baseball caps. They regulate many critical hormonal jobs in your body, but one of their primary jobs is to control the release of your main stress hormone, cortisol. Cortisol is essential for survival.
Our bodies are built for stressful events. When our ancestors were chased by predators, the sympathetic nervous system responded by switching the body into fight-or-flight mode. During this stress response, the adrenal glands release cortisol, which increases blood pressure and blood sugar for faster response and better survival. When the predators were gone, cortisol decreased, and so did blood pressure and blood sugar levels. Normal balance was restored. However, ongoing stress doesnt turn it back off.
