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Tired All the Time?If you feel tired all the time, have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning, have trouble getting going, or need a mid afternoon nap, you may have Adrenal exhaustion. Adrenal hormonal output (such as cortisol, aldosterone and DHEA) is the body's first line of defense against stress, but too much unrelenting stress causes adrenal fatigue. Here is some useful info will help you understand how it happens, how you can tell if you have it, and what you can do about it. HOW TOO MUCH STRESS CAUSES ADRENAL FATIGUE How does adrenal exhaustion happen? Nature intended the adrenal stress response to occur in bursts to provide you with sharpened senses, heightened physical responses, and a rush of brain chemicals to enable you to deal with a life threatening danger. The ongoing excess stress or modern life, on the other hand, causes the adrenals to produce more stress hormones than you can keep producing in the long run. Eventually, you end up with sluggish adrenals, adrenal fatigue and finally adrenal burn out. It's at the point where your adrenals are under-producing that you become more and more tired. With such reduced activity by the adrenal glands, the body is unable to cope with the hormonal and chemical changes caused by stress. Over time, this can lead to a variety of physical, emotional and mental symptoms of adrenal fatigue, with one of the main ones being that you are always tired (even when you can't sleep), and feel constant fatigue throughout the day. A WORD ABOUT THE HIGH STRESS, LOW ADRENALS AND LOW THYROID CONNECTION The thyroid gland is affected by low adrenals also because cortisol helps cell receptors receive thyroid hormones from the blood stream. Low thyroid in itself, will cause you to feel "wiped" or tired all the time, in addition to other symptoms like weight gain, feeling constantly cold, hair loss etc., and so thyroid function also may very well need to be looked into as well. The thyroid temperature test can shed additional helpful light on your adrenal function. SELF DISCOVERY TESTS ... Start by asking yourself these questions, which will give you some clues to help determine if you have struggling adrenals.
Do you have trouble getting started in the morning? TEST YOUR PUPILS FOR LOW ADRENAL FUNCTION Bright ligths in your eyes will be uncomfortable, and sometimes this discomfort is linked to headaches. Using this as a starting point you can use your sensitivity to light to do this self test. Basically your eyes feel sensitive to light because they have trouble regulating the pupils. To test this, you'll need a mirror and a flashlight, or penlight, in a very dark room to observe how your pupils react to the light. Shine the light from the side of your eye (not directly into the front of your eye) for about a minute and simply observe how your pupils behave. When your adrenals are healthy your pupils will constrict and remain constricted. With adrenal fatigue however the pupil will constrict but within seconds will enlarge, or flutter as it tries to remain constricted. Why? Adrenal insufficiency causes low aldosterone, which causes and imbalance of sodium to potassium that in turn causes the sphincter muscles of your eye to be weak and not able to hold their pupil contraction. TEST YOUR SALIVA FOR A 24 HOUR PERIOD Inexpensive home saliva test kits will enable you to see your adrenal function rise and fall throughout the day so you can determine if your levels are sufficient, and also the pattern of adrenal output. For example, adrenal output should be highest in the morning and gradually decline over the course of a day. Those with low morning readings will find it corresponds with low energy in the morning. Those with highest readings at night will find it corresponds to inability to sleep well. If one is not available in your local pharmacy, simply search on the words "adrenal saliva test", "adrenal stress test" or "adrenal test kit" to find a home test kit for purchase. You will need to send the (4 or more) collected saliva samples (overnight delivery is highly recommended to prevent degradation of samples) with payment to the laboratory mentioned in the kit, so when choosing your kit go with a reputable lab for reliable results. Request that your results be emailed to you asap. Naturally it is invaluable to get a professional medical interpretation and evaluation of your test results relative to your individual situation. For example, in the beginning stages of adrenal stress burnout your cortisol levels can be so high that you may surmise upon seeing these results that adrenal function cannot be the problem. YES I HAVE ADRENAL FATIGUE, WHAT NOW? 1. IMMEDIATE STRESS INTERVENTION Adrenal stress is a serious situation! It can take many months, even years to turn around. Luckily, mindfully removing as many stressors as you can (see more below) and learning to deal with those you cannot control, you can intervene on your own behalf with excellent stress relieving methods, slowly help your adrenals restore completely, and begin to see improvement starting today. 2. REMOVING STRESSORS Remove yourself from as many emotional stressors such as marital, family, relationship, or financial problems as you can. DIET - Reduce or replace diet and lifestyle stressors, like white sugar, processed foods, foods high in additives, caffeine, allergic foods (particularly wheat), allergenic substances of any kind, and of course nicotine and any other chemical stimulants. Attention to a healthful balanced diet, with lots of greens, protein at every meal, naturally occurring foods, and lots of pure water is extremely important. This is no time to diet for weight loss, but rather a diet for optimum health. TOXINS - Replace toxic cleaning products used around the house with natural products. There are natural alternatives available for cleaning. Hair dyes, shampoos, makeup and skin care products need to be replaced with natural versions. Adrenals are stressed by chemicals and so this is very important. Detoxification sauna therapy using an infrared sauna will greatly speed up recovery. If you are in adrenal burnout, use the sauna (or even a hot bath with 1 c. sea salt dissolved in it) daily for no more than 30 minutes. Once or twice a week is excellent for prevention. 3. THE SLEEP PRESCRIPTION Rest and sleep are extremely important. You will need minimum of nine hours of sleep or more for a very long time. At first you may continue feeling tired all the time, especially when even sleep does not feel refreshing. Sleeping in a totally dark room can help for best nighttime hormone production occurs in complete darkness; to encourage a great night's sleep hotels use room blackening curtains. Also rest after meals, at midmorning and mid-afternoon if possible. 4. THE EXERCISE PRESCRIPTION You may feel so tired all the time that you just don't feel like exercising. Gentle walking is beneficial but vigorous exercise depletes the adrenals. Deep breathing and stretching is also beneficial. Think of your exercise as a relaxation method rather than to build muscles or stamina or lose weight. 5. NATURAL ADRENAL SUPPORT There are many over-the-counter herbs (like licorice capsules, Ashwagandha, Siberian Ginseng, or the Chines mushroom Cordyceps) and vitamins (like C and B), even sea salt or Celtic Salt, that help support adrenal function. However, be sure to repeat saliva testing to make sure they are helping enough. There are also many health formulations with hormomes and hormonal precursors, such as DHEA, Pregnenoline, and Progesterone Cream, that offer adrenal support, however before beginning on a support program that is designed to directly supplement your hormones it would be a good idea to read some professional books on the subject and obtain the knowledge to know how to do this properly and safely. A search at any good online bookstore will reveal dozens of books about restoring adrenal health on topics ranging from "Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome" to "The Cortisol Connection: Why Stress Makes You Fat". 6. PRESCRIPTION ADRENAL SUPPORT This is the domain of your trusted physician. The hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal axis, in addition to the thyroid function, all need careful balancing if you elect to go the medical route with such things as Rx cortisol creams. 7. EXTRA ADRENAL SUPPORT & STRESS MANAGEMENT DURING MENOPAUSE Menopause is itself stressful on our bodies and brains. Again you'll find many good books on the subject, and some of the best selling ones are by Suzanne Somers. In her books, "Slim and Sexy Forever" 2008, and "Breakthrough: 8 Steps to Wellness" 2009, she discusses, quoting medical authorities, how stress blocks estrogen hormone receptors and exacerbates plummeting estrogen levels, and to make matters worse as estrogen and progesterone fall with age cortisol skyrockets. In her 2007 book "Ageless: The Naked Truth", she recounts being chronically tired all the time, her surprise at being diagnosed with "third degree adrenal stress", and her long battle to restore her adrenal function. BOTTOM LINE- There are numerous things you can do to stop dragging around feeling tired all the time simply by restoring your adrenal function, and they all begin with and depend heavily on learning how to manage stress. Stress monitoring can be critical and is well worth the few dollars to make sure your stress management efforts are actually effective. Your fatigue was an important clue that changes in your health management practices were necessary. Feeling tired all the time is an extremely important warning sign. In some cases Adrenal stress takes longer to fix than it does to occur in the first place. But don't despair! With care and time you can look forward to the day when you have healthy stress responses, boundless energy, and are no longer tired all the time.
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