Health conditions associated with Adrenal Fatigue include:
- Depression
- Chronic Fatigue
- Insomnia
- Allergies
- Osteoporosis
- Hypothyroidism
- Anxiety
- Poor Immune Function
- Obesity
- Fibromyalgia
- Glucose Intolerance
- Yeast Overgrowth (Candida)
Wow… who wants to deal with any of those symptoms just because we allowed ourselves in a chronic state of “fight or flight”. As I said, many factors affect the adrenals but how can we take control and avoid this adrenal exhaustion?
Let’s review what exactly adrenal fatigue is as I have been listening to many webinars the past week from Dr. Kalish, Reed Davis, Dr. Lam, Sean Croton’s podcast and my Superhuman coach mentor Ben Greenfield.
Adrenal Exhaustion, according to Dr. Kalish (www.kalishresearch.com) begins when your stressors (various forms) begin to be present daily. The causes of chronic stress could be from the food you eat or meals skipped or chemical stressors to non-stop pace every day. Talk to a trained practitioner to evaluate your stressors in life (big questionnaire on all topics!) then begin to address those main stressors you can change to restore proper function to your adrenal glands (hopefully you are in stage 1)
The adrenal function declines in three stages of adrenal exhaustion … a brief overview from Dr. Kalish’s research :
The adrenal cortex produces and secretes more of the “stress hormone” called cortisol. The increased amount of cortisol begins to “steal” from the hormone Pregnenolone that is required to produce other hormones as the DHEA.
STAGE ONE: The daily cortisol levels are increased and DHEA levels begin to lower. The role of DHEA hormone is to metabolize into our sex hormones (think about your need for Estrogen and Testosterone) and leads to hormone imbalances.
STAGE TWO: The chronic stress continues to exhaust the adrenal glands and they begin to struggle maintaining the daily high levels of cortisol output. Now the daily cortisol levels return to “normal” but the DHEA levels continue to decline even more. The cortisol levels are usually low in the morning, noon and afternoon but normal at night time for stage two adrenal exhaustion.
STAGE THREE: As the chronic stress continues to break down the systems, cortisol levels are low and DHEA levels decrease even more. Now there is a chance of low nighttime cortisol as well as throughout the day and the patient is possibly experiencing serious hormonal imbalances as serious fatigue and depression. Blood sugar regulation, immune function, dextofication capabilities, tissue health and hormone balance are a few of the many health consequences from adrenal exhaustion.
