[readolog_dropcap ]A[/readolog_dropcap]drenal fatigue is a syndrome that arises from the chronic stress that our bodies are under in modern society. In this article I describe the proper diet to eat and the fastest way to recovery. Adrenal fatigue is something that I personally have experienced, and is just one sign of a body that is beginning to become overburdened with stress. When and if you begin to suspect that you may have adrenal fatigue it is time to switch to full-on rest mode and begin nurturing your mind and body.

Typically someone whose body is overworked and is suffering from adrenal fatigue needs soft drinks, sugar, and caffeine, at regular intervals just to keep going. Quality of sleep and lifestyle is affected greatly, and they may never feel truly rested. If you need sugar and stimulants every few hours to keep going, please read on.

What are your Adrenal glands?

Image Source

Dr. Wilson of www.adrenalfatigue.com describes the adrenal glands:

“But don’t let their small size fool you; these powerful little hormone producing glands manufacture and secrete almost 50 different hormones, including steroid hormones such as adrenalin, cortisol, aldosterone, estrogen and testosterone that are absolutely essential to your health and vitality. They not only significantly affect the functioning of every single tissue, organ and gland in your body; they also have important effects on the fluid balance control and blood sugar regulation. They even regulate how you think and feel and determine how effective your immune system functions. Without the hormones the adrenals produce you would die very quickly, and when out of balance the quality of your health and wellbeing becomes severely compromised.”

He goes on to further describes their purpose within the body:

“The adrenal glands keep your body’s reactions to stress in balance so that they are appropriate and not harmful. For example, the protective activity of anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant adrenal hormones like cortisol helps to minimize negative and allergic reactions, such as swelling and inflammation, to alcohol, drugs, foods, environmental allergens, cancer, infection, and autoimmune disorders (like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, MS, and the 70 odd other auto-immune conditions). These hormones 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 (hypoglycemia is one of the problems related to poor adrenal function), and proper cardiovascular and gastrointestinal function.”

Your adrenal glands sit right on top of each kidney and are responsible for hormone production, they are specifically related to the body’s stress response and maintaining homeostasis.

The Hormone Foundation and Endocrine Society claims that adrenal fatigue does not exist, and that there is no real measurable way of detecting whether this diagnosis is legitimate or not. They also go on to say that some supplements and treatments may potentially be dangerous when seeking treatment for adrenal fatigue, which they claim does not exist.  I do not agree with this assessment.

Here is a link to their stance on adrenal fatigue.

Here is an article from About.com where Mary Shoman interviews Richard Shames M.D. in which he describes that this stance could very well be untrue, and most likely is being influenced by diagnostics technicalities and insurance. The way symptoms and problems can be billed through insurance is often one of the major factors that determine whether or not something is “real” in the medical world unfortunately.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

“Richard Shames, MD: I don’t agree with what the Hormone Foundation is saying about adrenal fatigue. Their main point is that “adrenal fatigue” is not a real diagnosis and is not proven by medical science. This is to me is either a deliberately deceptive quasi-truth, or a medically uninformed political turf statement. Any doctor worth his/her salt understands that the term “adrenal fatigue” means mild adrenal insufficiency. The Hormone Foundation statement readily admits that adrenal insufficiency IS a real diagnosis. To me, they seem to be denying the possibility that some people might have a mild form of a real diagnosis. That’s short-sighted and excessively arbitrary.

Mary Shomon:One of the issues the “fact sheet” discusses is that there isn’t a test that can detect adrenal fatigue.

Richard Shames, MD: If the current adrenal insufficiency blood tests were more sensitive, we might not be having this conversation. Current blood tests are good at diagnosing severe forms of adrenal insufficiency, one of which is called Addison’s disease. They are not as good at diagnosing the milder forms. Certain people in authority, for whom everything is either black or white – without shades of gray — have evidently been tempted to state publicly that the diagnosis of mild adrenal insufficiency is “not a real diagnosis.”

Mary Shomon: There seems to be a parallel to patients who have borderline hypothyroidism. The mainstream TSH test says they are “normal,” but many physicians now recognize that levels within the so-called “normal” reference range may in fact still reflect a thyroid problem.

Richard Shames, MD: Absolutely. Mild low thyroid is a good analogy to mild adrenal insufficiency. Current blood tests are often just not sensitive enough to show an abnormal result on all the people who do indeed have a mild form of hypothyroidism. 15 or 20 years ago many endocrinologists were denying “mild hypothyroidism” as a true diagnosis. This is strikingly similar to the current denials of mild adrenal insufficiency. It took years of mounting scientific evidence, but now many endocrinologists are saying, “Doctors and patients alike need to be more aware of the real possibility of undiagnosed mild or borderline hypothyroidism.”

Mary Shomon: Will the medical establishment eventually move in that direction?

Richard Shames, MD: Yes, definitely. The current flap is the same non-issue, based on the same non-argument. So, when blood tests get even better, and/or when saliva hormone testing gets even more accepted within the mainstream, adrenal fatigue will be seen as the real diagnosis that it truly is: “mild adrenal insufficiency. In other words, a mild form of a true diagnosis, that current standard blood tests often miss.

Mary Shomon: Until that diagnosis becomes understood and better accepted, what be done?

Richard Shames, MD: First of all, it would help to start calling it adrenal insufficiency, which it is, and for which a “real” diagnostic category already exists. (The mainstream ICD-9 code for this is 255.4) Mild forms of this real condition can currently be diagnosed by a combination of a good medical history, along with a focused physical exam, plus a sensible combination of well-chosen blood, urine, and saliva testing. should do it for now.”

Here is a link to the complete interview.

Adrenal fatigue or adrenal insufficiency is indeed an accurate way to describe a list of symptoms that the body begins to express when under high levels of chronic stress. Many professional endocrinologists agree that the adrenal glands do indeed become overworked from excess chronic stress.

What the Hormone Foundation is basically saying is that your adrenal glands can only be fully functioning, or completely dead effectively, there is no in-between whatsoever. I do not agree with this stance and there are many medical professionals who can acknowledge that the adrenal glands can indeed become overworked. It is just common sense. If you take these tiny glands and overwork them and pump too many hormones, they will become sluggish, drained, and fatigued. That makes perfect sense to me. But certain diagnostic methods and billing practices do not acknowledge these symptoms until they reach a certain “measurable” point, which could oftentimes be too late.

The best thing to do is begin treating your symptoms as soon as your body begins giving you the signs and signals that something is wrong.

When a person is under chronic stress many different glands and processes within the body may come under stress, but focusing on the adrenals is a good way to begin understanding why we need to control our stress.

The adrenal glands are directly responsible for the release of our stress hormones, such as cortisol, adrenaline, etc. They regulate our response to stress and keep our body reactive and adapting. The adrenals must react quickly and on a daily basis. They also play an important role in releasing hormones in response to our blood sugar levels and diet.

The problem is that in modern society we are under much more stress than we evolved to handle, even though this stress may not be life threatening, our body and adrenal glands still become very drained over time from it.

Some examples of stress that may be causing you to release too many stress hormones and wear out your adrenals could be:

• Anxiety
• Over-thinking
• Driving
• Working too much or too hard
• Working out too much
• Eating toxic food
• Eating too much sugar
• Eating a diet that is not the right macro-nutrient ratio for your body (the right amount of protein, fats, and carbs.)
• Loud music
• Negative people
• TV and artificial lights
• Excessive noise pollution

Our body treats many of these things as if we were in a low-form of an actual fight or flight response, releasing stress hormones and causing us to become out of whack. The human body was not meant to deal with low to moderate levels of stress at ALL times.

A few weeks ago I drove 10 hours straight down to North Carolina to visit my Grandfather, I worked for 4 days straight with him, and then drove 10 hours back. By the time I got back I was completely drained.

I began to experience adrenal insufficiency, the symptoms that I personally noticed were:

• Being tired even when waking up.
• Needing caffeine in the morning, but crashing from it and feeling totally wiped for the rest of the day.
• I had localized lower back pain; this is probably one of the main signs that your adrenals are stressed. It was right where my kidneys were and I could not pinpoint the pain, it was just a dull stiff feeling that would not go away.
• Deep breaths would not relieve the dull back pain I had, and they felt empty even when I breathed down to my stomach.
• Exercising or lifting felt forced, all I wanted to do was lie on the floor or sleep.

It can be very dangerous and foolish to ignore symptoms of your body being overcome with chronic stress. It is important that if you experience these symptoms or suspect that you may have adrenal fatigue to some degree, that you began nurturing your body and restoring vital energy.

[readolog_blockquote ]

Also take this time of energy cultivation to get some alone time for yourself, with complete and utter silence and quiet. In a busy and hectic society we can lose ourselves in the mix sometimes, some alone time in silence can be more potent than any medication for the body.[/readolog_blockquote]

When restoring your energy and recovering from adrenal fatigue it is important that highly Yin and restful activities are engaged in, this means quitting the stimulants, poor food, and intense exercise for a while. If you begin cultivating restorative energy right away, you can have your adrenal function and hormonal systems functioning optimally within a week or two once again.

Here is what your day should look like when you are trying to cultivate energy and heal adrenal fatigue:

1. Wake up and have a cup of herbal tea, something that soothes the body and does not contain caffeine. I highly recommend chamomile or licorice for the adrenals.
2. Eat a balanced and wholesome breakfast that only contains whole and organic foods. Make sure to have a good balance of protein, fat, and carbohydrates.
3. Consider taking a high quality Vitamin D supplement, Omega 3s, or a green powder if you have one, I highly recommend Vitamineral Green.
4. Go for a very short walk at a nice slow and mindful pace; focus on your breathing.
5. Take a Luke-warm shower or bath, and then take a nap.
6. Stretch and do some light yoga.
7. Foam roll
8. Watch your favorite funny movies.
9. Cuddle with a loved one.
10. Do activities that are restorative and not stressful while meditating.
11. Eat a healthy lunch or have a super-food smoothie.
12. Laugh, rest, stretch, and maybe do a restorative workout or go for another walk.
13. Get to bed super early and get a full night of sleep, consider maybe taking a bit of Melatonin if you have trouble getting to sleep.

As you can see, a day when you are cultivating energy looks much like a snow-day or a day off with a good friend or loved one. You want to be laughing, resting, meditating, stretching, and doing light exercise. Eating healthy and mindfully is important as well. Getting to bed early and getting a full night of deep rest is the most effective way to recover. If you are totally drained, do not push yourself to follow an intense workout routine or go to work if you can afford the day off, this is not the time to have an ego; it is a time to heal and cultivate energy before you develop an illness or serious health problem. If you must go to work, than minimize stress is anyway you can, and pretend you are a baby when you get home, no pressure to get anything done after work, just good rest and healthy foods.

Also take this time of energy cultivation to get some alone time for yourself, with complete and utter silence and quiet. In a busy and hectic society we can lose ourselves in the mix sometimes, some alone time in silence can be more potent than any medication for the body.

Eating right is vital for adrenal fatigue recovery. Foods that you want to eat plenty of when recovering from adrenal fatigue include:

• Tons of raw leafy greens.
• A diverse arrangement of vegetables.
• Fresh fruit.
• Plenty of high quality sources of fat, I recommend coconut oil, hemp seeds, chia seeds, eggs, grass fed ghee and butter, etc.
• High quality proteins such as fish, eggs, chicken, whey, etc.
• Organic green powders and the highest quality nutritional supplements you can find, specifically Vitamin D and Omega 3s.
• Bone broths and healthy soups.
• Plenty of caffeine free herbal teas, drunken as hot as you can possibly handle to pump beneficial hormones through the body.
• Lemon water.
• Organic full-fat grass-fed Kefir and Yogurts. Probiotics and live enzymes heal the gut, which boosts your immune system and health. When your body becomes overrun by stress, keeping your digestive tract healthy should be a priority. High quality Kefir and Yogurt will be very soothing on the gut and body.

The things you are going to need to avoid when recovering from adrenal fatigue and cultivating energy are:

Caffeine is a big no. When the adrenal glands are fried out this potent stimulant will only serve to further stress them. It will be a temporary fix for a few hours at best, until you will once again need more coffee or sugar, this is not normal. If you MUST use caffeine to get out of bed try a green tea for a while.

Processed foods and sugar. Stress to the adrenals is just one component of a body stressed from toxins and processed food. Most people eat toxic food every single day. Cut out anything that is not whole and organic. Sugar especially should be avoided; sugar is too powerful of a stimulant when healing the adrenals.

Work. Do not overwork yourself when you feel that your adrenals are fatigued or that you should be cultivating energy. We all get a bit stressed and over-worked sometimes, and it is generally ok to keep pushing through, but there is a limit to how far we should push ourselves. Be intelligent, nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, is worth more than your health.

Stress. In any way, shape, form, or size. Whether it is sound, light, negativity, anxiety, worry, driving, exercise, walking, and toxins, OCD, whatever. Work to reduce your load of stress. Do not worry excessively or hold on to tension. I highly recommend beginning to meditate if you find that most of your stress is mental, and try practicing yoga if you hold a lot of physical tension. The best way to begin combating stress is by learning to breathe properly.

Negative people. Negative people can drain our vital life force in a few minutes. Avoid negativity and people who complain entirely, if they are your family or close to you, at least limit exposure.

Driving. I mentioned it above, but it deserves to be mentioned again. Driving is very stressful and draining on the nervous system, stay out of rush hour traffic if you can avoid it.

Exercising too hard. Do not have an ego and think that you must continue hitting your max lifts during a time when you know that you need to heal and rest. Taking pre-workout supplements and lifting too hard is a great way to burn your adrenals out.

Adrenal fatigue is a syndrome that is becoming more and more common in an environment and society where people do not truly value their rest. Sometimes we do not take the time to love and nurture ourselves, thinking that pushing ourselves to always become stronger, perform better, and work harder, is the best thing to do.

While there is a time to push oneself, if you feel any of the symptoms of adrenal fatigue, or simply know that you are under chronic stress and that it’s beginning to drain you, it is time to implement a change in your routine for a bit. It typically only takes about a week or two, to a few weeks, to recover from mild adrenal insufficiency from my experience, but only if you follow these guidelines.

No amount of money or work that needs getting done is more important than your health and well-being. I am going to tell you something different for a change. Take a day off. Slack off a bit, eat restorative foods, and be selfish. Worry about YOU for a few days and just lay in bed watching funny movies. We all need time to restore and heal ourselves from time to time.

I highly recommend visiting Dr. James Wilson’s website, www.adrenalfatigue.org for more high quality information and products regarding adrenal fatigue diet and recovery. I also highly recommend his book Adrenal Fatigue: The 21^st Century Stress Syndrome.