Chapter 1
Facing Adrenal Fatigue
In This Chapter
Examining how the adrenal glands work
Noting the factors and symptoms of adrenal fatigue
Getting screened for adrenal fatigue
Investigating potential causes of adrenal fatigue
If you're reading this book, you're likely sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, and you want to know why you feel that way. You know something isn't right, and you're looking for reasons as to why you feel so run down. You may have grown frustrated with your healthcare providers’ inability to pinpoint why you don't feel right. You suspect that you have adrenal fatigue.
You can take solace in the fact that thousands of people are experiencing similar symptoms and have complaints similar to yours. This book helps you understand what adrenal fatigue is, examines its causes, and explores how to evaluate and treat this condition.
Focusing on Adrenal Gland Function
The adrenal glands are two organs of the body that people don't often think about. Yet they're vital to your health and well-being because they do so much. To fully understand how adrenal fatigue can affect your health, you first need to understand the many functions of the adrenal glands.
You can think of the adrenal glands as regulators of the human body, overseeing many processes. Your adrenal glands are important in regulating blood pressure and acid-base balance. They're also important in the production of many hormones, which are crucial in the evaluation and management of adrenal fatigue. Examples of the hormones that your adrenal glands secrete include aldosterone, the sex hormones (namely, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone [DHEA], and pregnenolone), and the all-important cortisol. We cover the fundamentals of adrenal gland structure and function in Chapter 2.
Figuring Out Adrenal Fatigue Factors, Stages, and Symptoms
If you were to keep your car running 24/7 and never shut it off, your engine would simply burn out. If you never had your car tuned up, never changed your oil, and used lower octane gas, then your engine would be at a much higher risk of burning out faster. Similarly, adrenal fatigue occurs when the adrenal glands are constantly working and never have time to rest and recover. Stimulated by acidity, inflammation, and chronic illness, the adrenal glands secrete way more cortisol than they should.
Cortisol is a necessary hormone. In the setting of an acute injury or illness, this hormone is important in turning off the acute inflammatory process when it's no longer needed. However, in chronic illness and chronic inflammation, the adrenal glands continue to produce cortisol. Over time, the adrenal glands become so fatigued that they aren't able to produce enough of the hormones that the body needs to function on a daily basis, such as cortisol and aldosterone.
A number of factors may lead to adrenal fatigue: heredity, stressors early in life, medication effects, and environmental and psychological factors. In Chapter 3, you read more about these factors, the stages of adrenal fatigue, and the differences between adrenal fatigue and other adrenal-related syndromes, including Cushing's syndrome and Addison's disease.
The best patients are those who are attuned to their bodies. Often, a patient with adrenal fatigue can have one or many symptoms, including constant fatigue that doesn't get better, even with a good night's sleep. You may notice increasing dizziness or lightheadedness if you stand up too quickly. You may notice that your blood pressure is lower than usual. You may find yourself craving salt more. In Chapter 4, you read about many of the typical and atypical symptoms that someone with adrenal fatigue can experience.
Being Tested for Adrenal Fatigue
Proper testing for adrenal fatigue is important to see whether you need supplementation with the hormones you read about in Chapter 2, including cortisol, aldosterone, and sex hormones like DHEA.
But the testing of adrenal gland function involves much more than simply measuring the levels of hormones in your blood. Salivary testing is much more accurate than blood testing. In addition, your healthcare provider should look for causes of adrenal fatigue by measuring toxin levels, searching for food sensitivities, and looking for potential causes of inflammation. See Chapter 5 for more information on being tested for adrenal fatigue.
Digging Deeper into Potential Triggers
After you recognize the symptoms of adrenal fatigue, you want to determine its causes. Major causes include chronic stress, lack of sleep, chronic inflammation, acidity, poor nutrition, and impaired intestinal health. You can't begin to treat adrenal fatigue without treating these underlying conditions. This section gives you a brief overview of these specific trigger factors; in Part II, you read about them in depth.
Adrenal fatigue is often a result of multiple causes that occur simultaneously. For example, someone with a chronic illness likely suffers from increased inflammation, has poor nutrition, lacks quality sleep, and has an unhealthy intestinal tract.
Stressing out and sleeping poorly
In Chapter 6, you read about the many kinds of stress people in modern times have to deal with (the adrenal glands have to deal with these multiple stresses as well). These include emotional stressors, physical stressors, and other stressors that you may not even be aware of, including electromagnetic stress.
Chapter 6 also discusses how people sleep poorly and how they can sleep better. Notice we didn't say sleep longer. Certainly, getting seven to eight hours of good quality sleep each night is important, but even if you get the requisite number of hours, you still may be sleeping badly. Sleeping better involves improving both sleep quantity and sleep quality.
Being inflamed and out of balance
Inflammation often goes hand in hand with adrenal fatigue, so it's important to be aware of inflammation's potential triggers. Chapter 7 covers some of those triggers, including chronic illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, fibromyalgia syndrome, Lyme disease, thyroid dysfunction, and celiac disease.
Another potent trigger of adrenal fatigue is acidosis. The kidneys...
