Good read for those newer to all of this Adrenal stuff

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What Is Hypoadrenia and Adrenal Fatigue?

" With our present partial knowledge of the function of the endocrine chain

of glands, it appears as though the suprarenals were the first to show signs

of fatigue, for the simple reason that they seem to have most of the work to

do in the autoprotective functions. " (McNulty, J., New York Medical Journal,

1921, XCIII, pg. 288)

The purpose of your adrenal glands is to help your body cope with stresses

and survive. In this article we will take a look at what happens when your

adrenal glands get stressed out and what you can do about it. Normally, the

adrenal glands secrete minute, yet precise and balanced, amounts of steroid

hormones. But because your adrenals are designed to be so very responsive to

changes in your inner physical, emotional and psychological environment, any

number of factors can interfere with this finely tuned balance. As a result,

physical, emotional and psychological stress can cause a decrease in the

output of adrenal hormones, particularly cortisol. This reduction in adrenal

activity is called hypoadrenia. " Hypo " simply means lower and so hypoadrenia

is a general term referring to the whole range of lowered adrenal activity

from zero to almost normal.

The extreme low end of hypoadrenia, 's disease, is named for Sir

, who first described it in 1849. Approximately 70% of this

form of hypoadrenia is an auto-immune disease. It is often life threatening

if untreated and usually involves actual structural and physiological damage

to the adrenal glands. People suffering from 's disease usually have

to take corticosteroids for the remainder of their lives in order to

function. The other 30% of 's disease cases are not related to

autoimmune disease and stem from a variety of causes.

Hypoadrenia more commonly manifests itself within a broad spectrum of less

serious, yet often debilitating, disorders that are only too familiar to

most people. The more severe end of this spectrum has been known by many

names throughout the past century, such as non-'s hypoadrenia,

sub-clinical hypoadrenia, neurasthenia, adrenal neurasthenia, adrenal apathy

and adrenal fatigue. I prefer the name adrenal fatigue. Not only is it easy

to remember, but it most aptly describes this common syndrome whose

paramount symptom is fatigue. Adrenal fatigue affects millions of people

around the world in many ways and for many reasons.

Adrenal fatigue is not usually severe enough to be featured on a TV hospital

show, or to be a medical emergency, as is 's disease. Modern medicine

does not seem to even recognize it as a distinct syndrome. Nevertheless, it

can wreak havoc with a person's life.

Although fatigue is a universal symptom of low adrenal function, it is such

a common complaint and occurs in so many other conditions, that today's

medical doctors rarely consider pursuing an adrenal-related diagnosis when

someone complains of it. In fact, physicians fifty years ago were far more

likely than their modern counterparts to correctly diagnose this ailment.

Information about non-'s hypoadrenia has been documented in medical

literature for over a hundred years but unfortunately, this form of

hypoadrenia is missed or misdiagnosed in doctors' offices every day, even

though the patient clearly presents its classic symptoms. Adrenal fatigue is

all too often the cause of patients' run down feeling and inability to keep

up with life's daily demands. The fact that it usually remains undiagnosed

does not diminish its debilitating influence on the health and feelings of

well being of these patients.

Adrenal fatigue is a collection of signs and symptoms, known as a

" syndrome. " Its sufferers often live with a general sense of unwellness or

" gray " feelings. They use coffee, colas and other stimulants to get going in

the morning and often to keep going during the day. As their condition

worsens, it lays the foundation for other seemingly unrelated conditions,

such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, hypoglycemia, adult onset

diabetes, auto immune disorders, more frequent respiratory infections,

allergies and a number of other health problems. These people may appear to

friends and family as lazy and unmotivated, or to have lost their ambition,

when in reality quite the opposite is true; they are forced to drive

themselves much harder than people with healthy adrenal function merely to

do everyday tasks, never mind accomplish life's goals.

Low adrenals can also have an effect on mental states producing anxiety and

depression. People with adrenal fatigue show a tendency toward increased

fears and apprehensions, have intervals of confusion, increased difficulties

in concentrating and less acute memory recall. They often have less

tolerance than they normally would and are more easily frustrated. When the

adrenals are not secreting the proper amount of hormones, insomnia is also

one of the likely outcomes.

People who suffer from adrenal fatigue frequently have erratic or abnormal

blood sugar levels in some form of hypoglycemia. In fact, people who have

functional hypoglycemia are usually suffering from decreased adrenal

function. There is also more of a tendency to experience arthritic pain and

decreased immune response with low adrenal function. Most women who have

hypoadrenia have more premenstrual tension as well as increased difficulty

during menopause.

If doctors were to suspect and pursue adrenal fatigue as the basis of their

patients' complaints soon after its onset, it is likely these more serious

conditions could be avoided. Adrenal fatigue syndrome is fully recognizable

and treatable with natural, safe substances, and in some cases it is totally

preventable. The tack of consideration given to it by the medical profession

leads to the unnecessarily impaired health of millions of people. Even if

you are aware that you have hypoadrenia (adrenal fatigue), you may not find

any sympathy or understanding from your doctor.

How Adrenal Function Affects Your Everyday Life

Because the adrenals are " the glands of stress, " it is their job to enable

your body to deal with stress from every possible source, ranging from

injury and disease to work and relationship problems. How you feel when you

get up in the morning, how long you take to fully wake up, how tired you

are, how much fatigue interferes in your life, how resilient you are, how

quickly you bounce back after emotional or physical trauma, how often you

can drive yourself or keep going even when you are tired, and how well you

handle daily pressures all depend upon the functioning of your adrenal

glands.

The hormones secreted by your adrenals influence all of the physiological

processes in your body. They closely affect the utilization of carbohydrates

and fats, the conversion of fats and proteins into energy, the distribution

of stored fat (especially around your waist and at the sides of your face),

normal blood sugar regulation, and proper cardiovascular and

gastrointestinal function. The protective activity of anti-inflammatories,

hormones and antioxidants that helps to minimize negative and allergic

reactions to alcohol, drugs and food also depends in part on the precise

secretion of adrenal hormones. After mid-life (menopause in women), the

adrenal glands gradually become the major source of the sex hormones

circulating throughout the body in both men and women. These hormones

themselves have a whole host of physical, emotional and psychological

effects, from the level of your sex drive to the tendency to gain weight.

Every athlete knows that muscular strength and stamina are influenced by the

adrenal hormones, known more familiarly as steroids.

Even the kinds of diseases you develop and your ability to respond to

chronic illness is influenced significantly by the adrenals. The more

chronic the illness, the more important the adrenal response becomes. You

cannot live at all without your adrenal hormones and you cannot live well

without your adrenal glands functioning properly.

Signs and Symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue

Listed below are some of the most common symptoms of low adrenal function

excerpted from my upcoming book on adrenal fatigue. Look at them to see if

some of them seem familiar to you or to people you know.

a.. Continuing fatigue not relieved by sleep. Despite getting a good

night's sleep, you still feel tired when you wake up. Refreshed is a foreign

word to people with adrenal fatigue.

a.. Craving for salt or salty foods. You find yourself eating the whole

bag of chips or adding extra salt to foods.

a.. Lethargy (lack of energy). Everything seems like a chore, even the

things you used to enjoy.

a.. Easily fatigued. Everything takes more effort. Walking a block

sometimes feels like a marathon.

a.. Decreased sex drive. The hottest movie star could be waiting in your

bedroom and you would ask for a rain check. Sex is often the last thing on

your mind when you hardly have the energy to keep your head up.

a.. Decreased ability to handle stress. Little things that never used to

bother you get to you. Road rage, constant anxiety, yelling at your kids,

compulsive eating, smoking or drug use are some of the behaviors that let

you know your adrenals are crying out for help.

a.. Increased time to recover from illness, injury or trauma. The cold you

got in October is still hanging on in December. The cut on your finger takes

weeks to heal. Two years after your father died your are still incapacitated

by grief.

a.. Mild depression. Why bother making an effort, it sometimes seems so

pointless?

a.. Less enjoyment or happiness with life. Not much seems to interest you

anymore. Work and relationships feel empty and you almost never do something

just for fun.

a.. Increased PMS. Bloated, tired, crabby, cramping and craving

chocolate - does it get any worse than this?

a.. Symptoms increase if meals are skipped or inadequate. You have to

drive yourself with snacks, colas and coffee just to keep from collapsing.

a.. Thoughts less focused, more fuzzy. You frequently lose track of your

train of thought and it is harder and harder to make decisions.

a.. Light headed when standing up quickly. Sometimes you feel a little

woozy or even like you are going to pass out when you get up too fast from

the bed or a chair.

a.. Memory less accurate. You've become so absentminded, you should be a

professor.

a.. Decreased tolerance. People seem a lot more irritating than they used

to.

a.. Difficulty getting up in the morning. Three alarms and you still don't

feel awake enough to lift your head off the pillow.

a.. Afternoon low between 3:00 and 4:00 PM. Around 3:00-3:30 in the

afternoon you start to feel like you have been drugged.

a.. Feels better after evening meal. After 6:00 PM or your evening meal,

you start to feel alive again.

a.. Decreased productivity. It takes you longer to complete tasks and it

is harder to stay on task.

a.. Increased effort to do every day tasks. Everything seems to require

much more effort than it should.

No single one of these symptoms gives a definitive diagnosis of hypoadrenia

(adrenal fatigue), but taken collectively as a syndrome, they strongly

suggest its presence. If many of these seem familiar, then you are probably

suffering from some level of adrenal fatigue. Although we have come to

accept it as such, adrenal fatigue is not a part of normal life! These

symptoms indicate defective adaptation of your adrenal glands to the

stresses you are experiencing. They are warnings that something needs to

change if you want to feel well again. If you are experiencing more than

three of them, you are likely suffering from some form of adrenal fatigue.

by L. DC, ND, Ph.D.

References

a.. Narrower, HR. (1939). An Endocrine Handbook. The Harrower Laboratory,

Inc. 127 pgs.

a.. Harrower, HR. (1 933). Endocrine Pointers. The Harrower Laboratory,

Inc. Glendale. California. 205 pgs.

a.. Lucke, B., et at. (1919). Archives of Internal Medicine xxiiii, pg.

154.

a.. McNulty, J. (1921). New York Medical Journal xcii pg. 288.

a.. . Sam. C. (1868). Exhaustion Causes and Treatment A New

Approach to the Treatment of Allergy, Rodale Books, Inc., Emmas, PA, pg. 76.