TIRED BUT WIRED?

Are you suffering from AdrenAl FAtigue?

By Lisa Moretti

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One of the most common but often undiagnosed health problems in America leaves more than 85 percent of us feeling exhausted, overwhelmed and overmedicated. Todays doctors miss this syndrome, but chances are you havent overlooked the havoc it is wreaking in your life. Its time to take a serious look at adrenal fatigue and exhaustion!
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Stress Its Killer! We all know life these days is stressful thats a given. But did you know that there are many stressors in your life you probably dont even identify as contributing to your overload? A little bit of stress is healthy for our bodies, our immune systems and even our skeletal systems. But the stress level most of us live with daily is totally over the top! Consider some of these things when you are taking a quick inventory of your stress level: Do you have lots of physical stress? This includes things like overwork, lack of sleep and athletic over-training. Do you have chemical stress? Theres all that stuff in the environment, but this also includes allergies, foods that cause an inflammatory response, processed sugar and carbs, chemical calories, food additives, food substitutes (like Splenda and Equal), caffeine and energy drinks along with naturally occurring

chemical imbalances in the endocrine system, and alternating bouts of mild constipation and diarrhea. Is your body exposed to thermal stress? Are you regularly over-heating and/or over-chilling your body? How much emotional and mental stress do you have? This is a relatively new perspective for people beyond the regular marriage/divorce/job change/moving stuff. Watching too much news on the television, being in the presence of loud people and even unspoken family tensions all contribute to your stress. Stress activates an adrenal gland response. Your adrenal glands sit just above your kidneys; they secrete more than 50 kinds of hormones necessary for life, energy production, fat storage and fluid balance. In the 1880s, adrenal stress was recognized as a problem and in the 1930s doctors had an effective treatment for it. Today, its up to you to get smart! Its A Slippery Slope When we are chronically stressed, we set the stage for stress-related illnesses that have three stages, as identified by Dr. Hans Selye, called GAS (General Adaptation Syndrome). First, we have an alarm reaction in our body, which alerts the brain and nervous system, triggers the release of certain hormones and increases adrenal activity. The adrenals are working overtime in case you need to respond with fight/flight/freeze. Once the initial alarm stage is over, your body goes through a temporary recovery phase of 24-48 hours. Youll feel tired, listless and less able to respond to other stresses effectively. Your body will secrete less cortisol, which is unhealthy.

Well ThATS Odd!

Adrenal fatigue can often cause paradoxical reactions, odd responses out of the norm of the expected. Again, these are red flags signaling you to pay attention and get help! You get tired instead of calm when taking steroids You have sudden anxiety attacks and feelings of impending doom while at rest You have erratic heart palpitations even though your cardiac function is normal You experience dizziness and lightheadedness while at rest when youre under extreme stress, or when you eat certain foods like carbohydrates Your blood pressure is all over the place You feel beaten up for days after vigorous exercise You wake up in the wee hours for no good reason and cannot get back to sleep High losses of vitamin C or magnesium make you constipated You become far more emotionally fragile than usual and find yourself crying for no apparent reason You feel good after taking your supplements but crash shortly after

Your adrenal glands sit just above your kidneys. They secrete more than 50 kinds of hormones necessary for life, energy production, fat storage and fluid balance. Contributing factors to adrenal fatigue can include: Elevated levels of cortisol due to stress Persistent use of stimulants found in energy drinks, caffeine and fat burners Diets abundant in sugars and processed carbs Too much chemical stress from food substitutes Above normal amounts of emotional or mental stress

AT A GlANCe

Dr. James Wilson has a great book called Adrenal Fatigue: the 21st Century Stress Syndrome; find more at www.adrenalfatigue.org Dr. Michael Lam is also an authority. His website is www.lammd.com Mary Shomon offers her readers volumes of information on her website www.thyroid-info.com and on her channel at www.about.com Dr. Bruce Perry offers extensive insight into the effects of stress on early infant and child development via his website: www.childtraumaacademy.com Information about magnesium oil can be found at: www.productsknowledge.info
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GeT MORe INFO:

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The second phase is called resistance. With chronic, severe and on-going stress, the adrenal glands try to adapt and rebuild themselves. In some cases, they even increase in size. This sets off a roller-coaster of adrenal response imbalance. It starts with hyperadrenia then turns to hypoadrenia then back into hyperadrenia and finally leaves us in total hypoadrenia (a.k.a. total adrenal exhaustion). The resistance phase during which our bodies try to accommodate increased stress can last decades. On the way to total adrenal exhaustion, the adrenal glands hemorrhage, the thymus gland atrophies, which decreases our immune strength, and we no longer have the ability to cope (much less function) in our day-to-day lives. Some of us seek help at this point, but because adrenal fatigue is so common most of us brush it off. We tell ourselves, Everyone deals with stuff, I just need to get it together. Wrong! The third stage is adrenal exhaustion we lose the ability to adapt to stress at all. Our bodies literally give up. Some people totally collapse while others see specific organ systems stop functioning well. We cannot produce energy at the cellular level, insulin levels increase, cortisol no longer exists to help burn glucose, we lose sodium and retain potassium. All of our in-born anti-stress mechanisms break down and we have used up our reserve potential that we normally could fall back on. Our adrenal glands no longer provide protective stress responses and they cannot produce the important hormones that influence almost all of the major physiological processes in our bodies. These hormones affect how we use carbs and fats, how we convert fats and proteins to energy, how fat is distributed across our bodies, our blood sugar balance, gastrointestinal function and heart rate. For women, in mid-life especially, this can mean no sex drive, weight gain, we catch every little cold or flu bug and we need longer to bounce back from every setback. By stage three, most people drag themselves to the doctors office and its not pretty! Tired Adrenals Can Be A Pain in the Butt literally An interesting new wrinkle in the detection of adrenal fatigue and exhaustion is muscular and joint pain. Five skeletal muscles are related to adrenal gland function: sartorius,
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gracilis, posterior tibialis, gastrocnemius and soleus. You will have weakness in one or more of these muscles when the adrenal glands are malfunctioning. Because of the muscle attachments in the low body, you can have sacroiliac, low back and pelvic area pain. In the lower extremities, sartorius and gracilis can lead to knee problems and ligament destabilization as well as foot and ankle problems from tibialis, gastrocnemius and soleus. Some people will have problems in just one area while others will have a combination or all of these muscle/joint problems. In any case, if you have knee pain, low-back and pelvic pain, sore and tired feet, fallen arches or ankles that constantly sprain you NEED to have your adrenal function checked! how do I Know? Mary Shomon is a nationally recognized patient advocate and a 10-time New York Times best-selling author who speaks frequently about adrenal and thyroid issues. She often asks audiences if they feel tired but wired and like they have their gas pedal on the floor and just cant stop. Usually there is a sea of nodding heads in the room. She points out many of the symptoms of adrenal fatigue that are often dismissed or overlooked by the medical community, Do you find you have a harder time recovering from jet lag? Does the seasonal time-change mess you up for weeks? Are you craving salty foods and meat? Do you suddenly want to eat black licorice? Does your regular exercise program leave you wasted for hours or days after? Is your tolerance for BS from other people at an all-time low? Do you feel completely overwhelmed by even the most simple tasks in life? Other conditions Shomon brings up are extreme sensitivity to cold and bizarrely low blood pressure. All of these, she says, are red flags! Your doctor is probably in the dark and youve got a lot of check marks on that list what do you do? Shomon says the gold standard of testing is a 24-hour cortisol (your adrenal stress hormone) saliva test, which requires that you spit into 4 or 5 vials at predetermined times of the day. This gives a clear picture of your cortisol cycle. Other tests that are used are basically ineffective. These include a blood test, which only gives a snap-shot moment in time, or a 24-hour urine test where you pee in one cup, which only gives an

often misleading generic cortisol level. Shomon explains that most people with adrenal issues have a backward cortisol cycle as do people who do shift work like graveyard or swing shift. Cortisol Gets a Bad Rap! Cortisol isnt really the bad guy the media makes it out to be. In truth, cortisol is actually a life sustaining adrenal hormone dedicated to creating balance. Its called the stress hormone because it influences, regulates or modulates many of the changes that occur in the body in response to stress. But it also helps balance blood sugar, metabolism (gluconeogenesis), immune response, inflammatory responses, blood pressure, heart contractions, blood vessel tone and messages from your central nervous system. Too much cortisol leads to impaired cognitive abilities, compromised thyroid function, hyperglycemia, decreased bone density, decreased muscle mass, slow wound healing and increased abdominal fat which can lead to strokes and heart attacks. Too little cortisol as a result of adrenal exhaustion shows up as brain fog and depression, low thyroid function, hypoglycemia, morning fatigue, poor sleep, low blood pressure and increased inflammation. If you have resulting adrenal fatigue you will have a distinct energy pattern. You will feel very fatigued in the morning and not really in your body until 10 a.m. You wont feel really awake until after lunch. Next youll hit a low around 2 to 4 p.m. (do you get that 3 p.m. sugar craving?). After 6 p.m., you start firing on all eight, but youll hit a sleepy low between 9 and 11 p.m. If you push through it, youll be doing your best work between midnight and 3 a.m. If this is your pattern, you need to readjust your cortisol cycle immediately. The next proactive step you can take immediately, Shomon explains, is to detoxify your life. This means getting rid of foods that cause inflammation or interrupt your hormone balance, but it also means cleaning up your environment, she says. Research has shown that reading the news or listening to it on the radio is less stress-inducing than watching it on TV. And removing stressors from your life may also mean you need to let go of some toxic people or reduce your interactions with them. You need to reduce the things that are pushing your stress buttons!

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There are also other things you can do to support your body and actively manage your stress levels. Slow gentle movement like Tai Chi, stretching forms of yoga, walking a labyrinth and strolling through a park are all good options. Walking on the treadmill does not qualify! Contemplative activities like breath work, guided visualization and meditation also help. Shomon also notes that repetitive hand movement activities like whittling, knitting, crochet and gardening (if you like it) are all great for lowering stress. She also points out that some things we do to self-soothe like biting our nails are actually negative attempts to do what our bodies know we need. Whatever you choose to do, Shomon says, Research shows that 20 minutes should pass without you realizing it. We also need to reduce our overstimulation with foods. If you are drinking six to eight cups of coffee, having an energy drink, getting those extra shots of espresso at Starbucks those are warning signs! If you are craving salt all the time, pay attention. Drinks like Gatorade, which have potassium in them, are the worst choice for hydration for someone with adrenal problems. Try adding a little salt to your water and see if you feel better. And if you are suddenly craving black licorice, your body is trying to tell you something. Licorice actually can be a treatment along with salt for adrenal fatigue. If we dont start to make changes, notes Shomon, we are literally getting beat up every day from the inside out! It Gets Better There are a variety of supplements you can use to improve your adrenal health, but these should be in addition to revamping your life. To rebuild the depleted levels in your body, try adding 2,000 to 4,000 mg of vitamin C, 800 IUs of vitamin E, 125-150 mg of niacin, 1,200-1,500 mg of pantothenic acid, and an elevated dose of vitamin D of 5,000 to 10,000 IUs. You may want to add trace minerals to your protein shake and SAMe, a natural anti-depressant, to supplement your regimen if you are feeling depressed. You can also improve your magnesium levels without risking the runs by soaking in magnesium oil. Do not take raw glandulars without the supervision of a medical/healing professional. Your hormones are a finely tuned system that needs a velvet hand in making adjustments. Your goal is to

find balance, not create a whole new set of problems. There are also wonderful herbal formulations for adrenal fatigue but they are very powerful. Only use herbal formulations with the supervision of a skilled professional as well. Dr. Michael Lam offers a great adrenal diet on his website. He also explains that many people who have adrenal fatigue also have other imbalances like sub-clinical hypothyroidism, insulin resistance and estrogen dominance. These all need to be brought back into balance. The journey back to health is guaranteed to be long, full of hills and valleys and youll probably get frustrated and disappointed at times. Thats normal.

Dr. James Wilson gives some good basic time frames for recovery if you take your treatment plan seriously. You can expect adrenal fatigue to heal in: 6 to 9 months for minor adrenal fatigue 12 to 18 months for moderate fatigue Up to 24 months for severe adrenal fatigue If you are all the way into stage 3 adrenal exhaustion, you need to hit the reset button on your life and get healthy NOW! The final stage of full exhaustion is Addisons Disease and recovery is difficult at best. Remember, you didnt get here overnight. And you can get back to feeling great. Just dont stress about it! MS&F

TAKe The QUIz

Mary Shomon has provided a quick quiz for you to make an initial determination of your adrenal health. You can read more at www.thyroidcoaching.com.

AdReNAl FATIGUe/STReSS SIGNS ANd SYMPTOMS CheCKlIST

You are continuing to have symptoms after being prescribed thyroid
hormones

You feel excessively fatigued You have non-refreshing sleep (you get sufficient hours of sleep,
but wake fatigued) You feel overwhelmed by or unable to cope with stress After a stressful physical or emotional experience, you feel run-down and especially exhausted You feel exhausted after exercise, youre slow to recover after exercise You have poor resistance to respiratory infections, you tend to catch everything going around You have difficulty recuperating from illness You are slow to recover from injury You have difficulty recuperating from jet lag You generally feel rundown or overwhelmed You have cravings for salty foods You have excess mood responses after eating carbs You feel most energetic in the evening You have difficulty concentrating, brain fog You have particularly low blood pressure You feel momentarily light-headed after standing up You are extremely sensitive to cold You have chronic food or environmental allergies You feel tired but wired You have cystic breasts You have a history of mononucleosis and/or Epstein Barr Virus reactivation You have a history of chronic fatigue syndrome You are post-menopausal

Note: If you checked more than half, it's time to see an expert!
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