Getting Re-Energized: A Guide
to
Supporting Your Adrenals
To
understand the importance of the adrenals in your body’s response to stress,
let’s start by looking at what your adrenals glands do. Your adrenal glands are
essential to life as they help you cope with all types of stress. As part of
the endocrine system, their role is to govern the fight or flight response
(alarm reaction) and get you ready for action. The adrenal glands sit over the kidneys, where they play a
significant role in the body, secreting more than 50 hormones necessary for
life, including epinephrine (adrenaline), cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone
(DHEA), progesterone and testosterone. Making sure that your adrenals produce the right
amount of hormones is crucial – too much or too little of any particular
hormone can cause havoc in your body and affect your ability to deal with the
demands of living.
What
is Adrenal Fatigue or Insufficiency?
Adrenal
Fatigue is a medical condition where the adrenal glands are unable to produce
adequate amounts of the hormones necessary for proper body function. This lack
of hormones results in changes in the body’s carbohydrate, protein and fat
metabolism, fluid and electrolyte balance, heart and cardiovascular system and
even sex drive. The result of this imbalance means that the individual
experiences normal everyday stresses as overwhelming, resulting in complete and
utter exhaustion that never seems to be relieved no matter how much sleep or
rest they get. Although you can’t see adrenal fatigue, as there are no visible
symptoms, it is a crippling and devastating condition for its sufferers. The
fact that it is invisible makes it even harder for sufferers as others may
question the individual’s symptoms and the validity of the condition itself.
Individuals suffering from adrenal fatigue may look and seem healthy but they
are feeling like their energy and life is slipping away.
Causes
of Adrenal Fatigue
The
underlying cause of adrenal fatigue is ongoing, continuous unresolved stress.
The stress can be
emotional,
mental, physical or external such as; poor diet, heavy metal toxicity, extreme
shock and emotional trauma, excessive exercise, physical trauma, working too
hard without enough rest, over-indulgence in stimulants like coffee, tea,
tobacco, and narcotics, excessive use of cortisone therapy, lack of sleep or
infections. Unfortunately, the body reacts the same way to both real and
imagined threats. For instance, constant worrying about a relationship ending
can cause the same over-taxing of the adrenals and suppression of the immune
system as actually having the relationship end. So your thinking has a major
impact on your adrenal health and therefore your overall well-being. When the
brain interprets an event as threatening (stressful) the adrenals begin to
work. They signal the nervous system to prepare to fight or flee. Even though
the stressful event may be over, the body continues to fight. When this state
of emergency is maintained for long periods of time, the body’s reserves become
depleted and the immune system and adrenals are weakened.
During
the early stages of adrenal fatigue your body produces an excess amount of
cortisol to deal with the constant fight or flight response initiated by the
stress. High cortisol levels can result in obesity, increased cholesterol and
blood pressure,altered brain chemistry causing depression and anxiety, insulin
resistance and osteoporosis. If you fail to address the stress, eventually your
adrenals become so exhausted that they are no longer able to produce an
adequate amount of cortisol or other necessary hormones to maintain normal
physiological function. Adrenal Fatigue can become a chronic ongoing condition,
so to avoid it in the first place it’s so important to listen to your body. If
you are tired it is pointless trying to rebel against what you body is telling
you. You may be able to convince yourself that nothing is wrong and that’s its
just mind over matter or that all you need is some more caffeine or sugar, but
in the end your body will be heard even if it has to fall apart and shut down
for you to hear what it is saying to you – and that is that you need to stop
and rest.
Symptoms
of Adrenal Fatigue
- Always feeling cold
- Anxiety
- Chronic low-grade infections
- Decreased sex drive
- Night sweats
- Needing to go to the bathroom at night
- Depression
- Environmental sensitivities
- Fibromyalgia
- Headaches
- Hypoglycemia
- Inability to focus or concentrate
- Increased allergies
- Insomnia
- Light-headedness
- Lower back pain in kidney area and sacrum
- Low blood pressure
- Muscular weakness
- Poor memory
- Scanty perspiration
- Sensitivity to light, noise, touch, movement
- Total feeling of exhaustion
- Weight gain or loss
- Feeling overwhelmed by little things
- Nausea
Adrenal
fatigue is a type of syndrome caused by the decreased function of the adrenal
glands. This syndrome is caused by prolonged periods of overwork, nervousness,
stress, and pressure from daily life. It may also be triggered by acute or
chronic infections, including respiratory disorders, such as the common cold,
bronchitis, or pneumonia. This type of fatigue persists even with rest or
sleep. Adrenal fatigue patients will feel like they are in a constant state of
illness, lethargic or “feeling gray”. Suffering this type of listlessness, they
become dependent on coffee, caffeine or other stimulants to get through the
day. Adrenal fatigue syndrome is also referred to as non-Addison hypadrenia,
sub-clinical neurasthenia, and adrenal apathy. Millions of people in the United
States and throughout the world suffer adrenal fatigue.
Cortisol
& Adrenals
Cortisol,
is extremely important for keeping our body systems in balance, as well as
protecting our cells.
For
example:
- It controls the strength of the immune system: Too much cortisol weakens the immune system, setting the motions for increased susceptibility to infections and cancer, while too little leads to an overactive immune system and autoimmune disease.
- It normalizes blood sugar.
- It regulates blood pressure.
Chinese
Medicine & Adrenal Support
Your
body contains both Yin and Yang Chi and in health, the relaxed Yin state
balances the adrenal Yang state. The problem arises when you have an excess of
either Yin or Yang influences in your life. In Chinese Medicine the adrenal
glands are part of the water element and relate to kidney energy. The kidneys
are seen as the single most important organ affecting the length and quality of
your life. They control your internal Chi, your Yin/Yang balance and house your
Jing which is your life force, your aliveness, your creative power and your
essence. Abundant kidney Chi correlates to a strong physical constitution as
well as a strong innate sense of purpose and will. Since the adrenals relate to
kidney Chi, Adrenal Fatigue is considered to be a Kidney Yang Deficiency.
However, if the condition continues without treatment, it can also result in a
Kidney Yin Deficiency. Kidney Yang relates to the reactive, sympathetic nervous
system and the secretion of epinephrine and norepinephrine.
In
contrast, Kidney Yin is the parasympathetic nervous system relating to the
secretion of cortisol. Just as the body requires some degree of Yang adrenaline
hormone to create motivation to react both to normal as well as life
threatening stimulus, it also has a continual need for the Yin hormone,
cortisol to buffer the effects of stress. In the early stages of stress, the
body increases its production of cortisol, while in the later stages its
secretion of cortisol is severely diminished. This lack of cortisol is
diagnosed as “Kidney Yin Deficiency.”
The
clinical manifestations of Kidney Yang Deficiency are: soreness of the back,
cold knees, sensation of cold in the back, aversion to cold, weak legs,
bright-white complexion, weak knees, impotence,premature
ejaculation, lassitude, abundant-clear urination, scanty-clear urination,
apathy, oedema of the legs, infertility in women, poor appetite and loose
stools. The tongue is pale, swollen and wet and the pulse is deep and
weak.
In
Chinese Medicine theory, when there is kidney Yang deficiency, the body fails
to transform the essence leading to a decline in endocrine and physiological
functions.
The
way to treat Kidney Yang deficiency is to warm the kidney. This means reducing
your intake of cold (eg ice cream and other frozen foods, iced drinks), raw
foods and antibiotics, as these foods inhibit your body’s warming function,
eventually depleting Yang. In addition, the use of sugar can overstimulate the
sympathetic reflex and deplete kidney Yang. Deficient kidney Yin is manifested
with symptoms of aching, soreness of the lumbar region of the back, weakness of
the legs and knees, tinnitus, dizziness, vertigo, constipation, night
sweats,insomnia, dry throat, feverish sensation in the soles and palms,
nocturnal emission, and in women, scanty menstrual flow and amenorrhoea,
flushed complexion, heat, nervousness, anxiety, insomnia, dryness and chronic
signs of inflammation and wasting. A deficiency of Yin suggests that the
maintaining and repairing function of the body is depleted or lacking.
Supporting
Kidney Qi (energy)
Re-energizing
the kidneys takes dedication. A
combination approach is the best and most balanced way to bring life back into
the kidneys. I like to recommend the following program for my clients to
capture energy to restore their body.
- Have fun – watch comedy show
- Tap into creative side
- Color with coloring book & crayons
- Play with paint
- Detox negativity & negative people & situations from your life
- Walk outside
- Read a favorite childhood book
- Watch a cartoon
- Detox in an infrared sauna
- Replace toxic chemical products used around house
Healing
the Adrenals
If
you take your treatment plan seriously, you can expect your adrenal fatigue to
heal in:
6 to 9 months
for minor adrenal fatigue
12 to 18
months for moderate fatigue
Up to 24
months for severe adrenal fatigue
**If you suffer from symptoms described in this article, please contact us. Melissa can work with you to test your adrenals via saliva test and can help create a customized plan to get you feeling better.
Melissa Gallagher, ND
727-502-3464
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