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| trying it a new way....in a new place...hopefully this one sticks 
oytothevey.wordpess.com
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| Sorry I've been away for a while so I haven't updated my information. A quick little post here (with only one piece of advice) and a longer one later. Contrary to the way almost everyone in this country (and other countries) live, you should not drink caffeine when you are tired for a "pick me up". Granted if you have healthy adrenals, the impact of caffeine on how hard your adrenals have to work is minimal. But if you remember from previous posts, the effects of adrenal fatigue are often overlooked for longer than they exist. The problem with drinking caffeine when you're tired is the following: 1) When you're feeling tired, not "waking up fast enough", extra exhausted or low energy, that's your body's way of telling you the adrenals are not functioning optimally. They're already overworked (for the time being at least) and need a break. 2) When you drink caffeine you're putting extra strain on your glands by forcing them to produce extra adrenaline to keep you going through the day. The problem is, they're working hard from the caffeine, on top of already being fatigued. And as we've seen from previous posts, that can only add to a potentially longer term problem. So lesson of the day: normal adrenals or not, don't drink caffeine if you're feeling tired. You can create a chronic adrenal problem. It may not end up as bad as mine was but essentially, you're training your adrenals to overwork when they are not functioning optimally and you are nto giving them the rest that they need. If you really need to drink something, have Vitamin C. It won't give you the quick "pick me up", but in the long run (meaning over the next few hours/days) the Vitamin C will help to heal your adrenals from whatever stress they're under and you will start to feel less tired.
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| It surprised me to learn how many factors are involved in changing the effectiveness of these two little glands. It also saddened me that the way life is structured in this country, some level of adrenal fatigue seems to be almost impossible to avoid unless serious life changes are made.
The first, and most obvious factor for weakened adrenals is stress...any level, any kind. For example, when you're scrambling to meet a deadline, when you're anxious about meeting an ex-partner for dinner, when you're waiting for an important phone call, or feeling sad about a recent loss. (Interestingly, emotional stress is
not limited to negative emotions. Positive emotions can be stressful too
and also force the glands to work extra hard!) Or remember that feeling when you were in high school and you hadn't quite done all the homework and the teacher called on you anyway? Remember that feeling of initial panic? Yup, that's your adrenals talking. This is the first stage of adrenal fatigue that all of us feel, called the "fight or flight" stage. Your adrenals respond in the moment and once the situation has been managed, you feel tired as the glands recover and return to normal functioning.
In addition to emotional stressors, physical stressors affect the adrenal glands just as much. The most surprising one in my opinion was having allergies. Anyone with allergies already has a weakened endocrine system and naturally weaker adrenal glands that work harder than they should. Having an allergic reaction puts a large amount of strain on the glands because cortisol functions as an autoimmune suppressor, meaning that it works to reduce the body's reaction to the allergen. The reason you feel so tired after recovering from an allergy attack (whether it is seasonal allergies, pet allergies or food allergies) is because your adrenal glands have been overworked by producing so much cortisol. Other examples of physical stressors include not sleeping enough, eating fewer calories than you expend during the day, feeling hungry, recovering from an injury (especially a significant one), surgery, pregnancy, dehydration, excessive exercise (apparently a large number of pro athletes suffer from this!) or what happened to me: being sick.
Granted any of these factors alone probably won't turn into stage 3 adrenal fatigue or Addison's disease right away. But I can't stress enough how much I've learned that you should NOT push yourself when you are sick. Take the first couple of days off, rest, slow down, eat well, drink plenty of fluids and get back into your routine later. For me, having a weakened endocrine system because of all of my allergies, in addition to being very sick (and receiving improper treatment from an incompetent doctor) and trying to push through to finish out the last week of the semester resulted in an almost complete shut down of my adrenal glands.
You know that usual "burned out" or "drained" feeling you get at the end of a semester at school or after a big project or at the quarter end at your company? What I learned the hard way is that the"burned out" feeling is actually your adrenals being overworked. It is stage 2 of adrenal fatigue, often called "resistance response" where your adrenals are telling you that they cannot keep up with what you're doing; they are not consistently producing enough cortisol to manage your daily life. That burned out feeling is not normal. The fact that so many people feel that way during life transitions shows how few people know how to manage their stress and maintain a normal functioning level of their adrenal glands to avoid feeling burned out. When you feel "burned out" at all you NEED to rest and the chances of full adrenal recovery is very
promising without medications or treatment.
Many people believe that to unwind they should exercise, but that is one of the biggest misconceptions people have about health. I had it too. When you've come home from a long day or finished a large assignment and you're feeling "burned out", the last thing you should do is exercise and add more stress to your body. Consider alternatives such as meditation or nonstrenuous yoga (that focuses more on stretching and meditation than strength), writing, playing an instrument, listening to music, singing, watching TV, reading or something else relaxing but not at all emotionally or physically straining.
If you do choose strenuous activities to relax, as I mentioned before, your adrenals will not give out on you immediately, like a weakened heart from a heart attack. They will supplement adrenaline for the lack of cortisol that is in your body and you will be able to run, lift weights or engage in whatever activity you choose. Unfortunately, this is dangerous because patients often do not realize the symptoms of adrenal fatigue until much later when they have reached the third stage: "exhaustion". This is what happened to me. For
several weeks after winter break began, I thought what most people in my position would have thought: that my 3rd semester in a graduate program
where I was carrying a caseload of 10 clients (including 3 really tough
cases) in addition to being sick just led me to be tired. And that maybe I hadn't fully
recovered from my illness either. But had I known that feeling "burned out" isn't normal to begin with, I would have taken it more seriously and my symptoms would not have started to pile on quickly! In stage 3, the adrenals are regularly not producing enough cortisol to maintain daily functioning and the symptom lists starts to grow at a rapid rate. At this point, medical attention is necessary because there is a chance of turning this around and recovering fully but also a chance of worsening to stage 4.
Without rest, recovery, medication or treatment, adrenal fatigue can progress relatively quickly to the stage 4: "adrenal failure" or Addison's disease, where the adrenals are not functioning on their own. Such patients are on medication lifelong, need to be monitored very closely, and as mentioned in the first post, are at high risk for cardiovascular and other organ failure as well as death.
It can be so simple to recover from "burn out", "feeling drained", "being extra tired" (aka stage 2: adrenal resistance). As mentioned above, it is very sad that this culture and work ethic is designed in a way that resting is not allowed, nor is it possible all the time. But if we can force ourselves to rest throughout the day by engaging in relaxation exercises at work when we start to feel the stress creeping up, sleeping an extra hour on the weekend, snacking throughout the day, having some real downtime at home after school, etc. adrenal fatigue can be avoided successfully!
Stay tuned for more....
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| A new year is upon us! This was the first time new years was significant to me...most years it's just another day but this time, a lot was riding on it. One of my goals of this year is to use my terribly difficult experience of 2007 to educate people on a condition that many more than are actually diagnosed live with daily. It is a condition that unfortunately most traditional medical practitioners are unaware about and even admit themselves that they are inadequately trained on this subject matter. I am so thankful that I found such a brilliant and open-minded holistic doctor and would like to share with anyone I can find, some facts about adrenal fatigue. I don't want to overwhelm readers with a list of symptoms and ignite some sort of panic.. But I would like to educate at a slower pace so I will include facts (hopefully) weekly in efforts to spread awareness about a very common and extremely debilitating disorder that has a promising prognosis if diagnosed appropriately early on. So for my first entry, I will shed some light on these little (but highly powerful) guys called "adrenals". They are glands that sit on top of the kidneys (one on each) and are considered a part of the endocrine system. They secrete a hormone called cortisol, which in excessive quantities, is deleterious to the body. A superficial result of excessive cortisol is the "pot belly" look in many people who have high-stress jobs and lives. Cortisol has a positive function too in that a moderate amount is required in the body for all organs to function. (All meaning all.) The adrenal glands also secrete a hormone called "adrenaline" which is used in reaction to the "fight or flight" response in highly demanding situations. When cortisol production is low (as in adrenal fatigue) the adrenal glands can still secrete adrenaline. However, too much adrenaline in the body results in a highly anxious/panicky feeling and does not allow time for the body to rest. Therefore too much adrenaline (even as a result of caffienated drinks) is not good. The adrenal glands different from other parts of the body in that when they are weaker than usual, they do not stop completely functioning. It's not like a heart after a heart attack where, if pushed passed a certain limit, will stop working. If adequate cortisol is not present, adrenaline levels are kicked up and take the place of cortisol's job almost like a backup generator. Therefore, adrenal fatigue is very tricky to identify. Most people, as in the case of depression, learn to live with diminished functionality of adrenal glands and quickly adapt to the lessened quality of life, genuinely believing it is "normal" to consistently wake up in the morning feeling unrested. Unfortunately, because it goes undected for so long by the patient, adrenal glands are often abused by people as they try to push through the excessive demands of daily life. What most people don't realize is that the less functional the adrenal glands are, the closer you are to having organ trouble or even organ failure. Unfortunately, traditional Western medical practitioners are only trained to identify adrenal troubles when they turn into Addisons Disease, a life-threatening disorder where medication is life-long and severe changes in daily life are necessary. If people are more aware of symptoms of adrenal fatigue (which is at least a few steps before Addison's Disease), the problem can be reversible and you can resume daily functioning without life-long medication. Adrenal fatigue is a serious disorder that afflicts countless numbers of people. If I can increase even one person's awareness about the reality of its seriousness, I would feel as if my struggle with it served a purpose. More to follow..... | | |
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