Frequently Asked Question
Is Adrenal Fatigue real?
Yes. Adrenal Fatigue is a collection of symptoms which result from continuous exposure to physical and emotional stress and inflammation triggers, which exhaust your adrenal glands and lead them to work sub optimally.
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Adrenal Fatigue is not currently recognized as an official medical condition and there is no box which doctors can tick off on the insurance forms they fill in.
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Experiencing Adrenal Fatigue can be frustrating. You might appear fine to others. Doctors will try to find causes for and treat individual symptoms, which can be challenging as these symptoms could be the result of different conditions. Lab tests show no issues. As a result, your symptoms will often be dismissed as just stress, being 'in your mind', or somehow not real.
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And yet you know something is not right, you just do not feel well and at your best. We believe this misunderstanding stems from no one looking at your health holistically. In other words, you need to stand back from the dots to see the picture.
Adrenal Fatigue is very real to the many who experience it. Many have had to rely on their own efforts and the collective wisdom of others in the same path to find their way back to health.
Can I test for Adrenal Fatigue?
As Adrenal Fatigue relates to the adrenals producing hormones such as cortisol, at the wrong times or in the wrong amounts, theoretically you could test for cortisol levels.
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The main problem with this approach is that most cortisol tests are designed to capture your levels at specific times of the day and under pre determined conditions. It's like playing whack-a-mole game with your adrenals trying to catch them at the time of day when they give up. As a result, it would require consistent testing thought the day to capture any anomalies.
Salivary cortisol tests could provide this type of testing continuity but there is not currently much research which systematically uses this test to evaluate Adrenal Fatigue.
Can I get better from Adrenal Fatigue?
Yes, but it is a process. Think about how long it took you to get to this stage. The body will need some time to heal.
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The time it takes to fully recover will vary depending on how advanced was your Adrenal Fatigue to start with, how you manage the physical and emotional sources of stress and inflammation, and how closely you follow the plan to provide your adrenals the appropriate nutritional support and supplementation.
Why am I tired all the time?
Being tired all the time is one of the main symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue. Fatigue is on the name after all.
This is a different type of tiredness though, as it does not improve regardless of how much you sleep. At deeper stages, we often hear the analogy of waking up in the morning feeling like a 'truck ran over you'.
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There are many ways in which Adrenal Fatigue leads to physical tiredness, including decreased quantity and quality of sleep, sugar level imbalances, and anxiety.
Cortisol is the hormone which is released in the morning to tell the body to ramp up for a new day. Cortisol imbalances associated with Adrenal Fatigue Symptoms result in difficulty getting started for the day, not 'walking up properly' until around mid-morning, having an afternoon slump, feeling best after dinner and getting a second wind just as you are meant to be going to bed.
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The resulting need for caffeine and sugar to get you through the next day contributes to a negative cycle which exacerbates the problem.
How does Adrenal Fatigue affect anxiety?
There is a circular connection between Adrenal Fatigue and anxiety where they feed off each other. But how are they connected?
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Anxiety is typically described as a feeling of unease and fear or of being 'on edge'. Think about some typical times when you feel anxious. They tend to be driven by having to deal with current emergencies or the anticipation about future events which your mind perceives as threats.
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As with any other threat, your body reacts with the fight or flight mode by releasing adrenaline and cortisol. Being ‘on edge’ is precisely what is required to keep you alive in a situation of danger by enabling you to quickly notice and react to an evolving threat as it develops.
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Adrenal Fatigue makes your adrenals both more sensitive to external triggers and less able to recover after they are triggered, such that you are anxious or ‘on edge’ more frequently and stay there for longer. Being anxious affects many things including your sleep quality and eating habits which in turn aggravate your Adrenal Fatigue.
Can Adrenal Fatigue make depression worst?
Yes, it appears to be the case, however this is based on anecdotal evidence.
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This link might not be straightforward. Studies have found that cortisol levels can be different for people experiencing depression compared to people without depression. Namely, cortisol should be high in the morning, as the body ramps up for the day ahead, and decline gently through the day. Whereas cortisol has been found to stay high through the day for some people with depression.
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An avenue explored by research by which Adrenal Fatigue can be related to depression is through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The HPA axis is a major neuroendocrine system the adrenal glands are part of, and that controls the secretion of hormones which regulate many body processes. Serotonin, which tends to be low in people with depression and is associated with the condition, is directly connected with the activation of the HPA axis. As the adrenals operate sub optimally they also affect the broad HPA axis. As a result, a dysregulation of the HPA axis is suspected to be connected with serotonin imbalances which can cause or worsen depression.
Can Adrenal Fatigue cause hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia?
The level of sugar in the blood is directly related to the amount of energy available to your body and is closely interlinked with many other metabolic processes. Hyperglycemia refers to a high level of blood sugar, whereas hypoglycemia refers to low blood sugar. Adrenal Fatigue can be associated with both, typically hyperglycemia during earlier stages followed by hypoglycemia at later stages. Blood sugar imbalances can be both a cause and a symptom of Adrenal Fatigue.
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Regulating blood sugar is another important function of cortisol. A quick source of energy for the body is glucose, which is the form in which sugar is stored. When faced with a threat, cortisol is released, which in turn triggers the liver to drop glycogen (stored glucose) into the blood and fatty acids to get converted to glucose, which then give the body the energy in would require for a fight or flight response.
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During earlier stages of Adrenal Fatigue, the constant stream of cortisol results in hyperglycemia. Signs include persistent thirst, frequent urination, extreme fatigue, blurry vision, slow healing and tingling of extremities.
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As Adrenal Fatigue advances the adrenals are less able to produce the right amounts of cortisol or at the right times. When the body falls short of cortisol, the body might struggle to release enough glucose leading to hypoglycemia. Symptoms of hypoglycemia include shakiness, dizziness, low energy, and becoming easily irritated.
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How does Adrenal Fatigue interact with blood pressure?
The causes of Adrenal Fatigue can also have a direct short-term impact on blood pressure. Adrenaline, which is released when under stress or threat, directly increases blood pressure in order to prepare the body for the fight or flight response, amongst others reasons to ensure glucose reaches your muscles and organs quickly.
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However, once Adrenal Fatigue develops, there is a more pervasive connection to high blood pressure. Aldosterone, another major hormone produced by the adrenals, directly manages blood pressure through the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system.
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Aldosterone increases the amount of sodium released into the bloodstream and the amount of potassium which is released through urine. Sodium and potassium counterbalance each other. Generally, higher sodium (lower potassium) leads to higher water retention, which increases blood volume and hence, blood pressure.
Overall, aldosterone dysregulation is responsible for many cases of high blood pressure and Adrenal Fatigue is one possible cause for aldosterone imbalances. In fact, one tell tell sign of Adrenal Fatigue is getting dizzy when standing too quickly from a resting position, which indicates an under-reactive system unable to regulate blood pressure quickly enough.
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