Tired: Could it Be Adrenal Fatigue?
Adrenal Fatigue? What is that? Most people have not heard of it. Unfortunately, also most doctors do not recognize it, either. This is why a lot of times it goes untreated and patients can suffer for years.
Adrenal Fatigue is a health disorder that can affect anyone, in any walk of life, who experience persistent or severe emotional stress. This could be an ongoing stress and is especially true for people who are constantly on the go, who are constantly striving, who are constantly trying to keep their goals, who are constantly pushing themselves. But Adrenal Fatigue can also be caused by an unexpected emotional stress or trauma, for example: when one looses a love one, when one is involved in an accident, when a love one becomes sick, when one looses their job or any other big stress that one can not control.
The main four symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue are:
Tiredness for no reason
Having trouble getting up in the morning.
Needing coffee, salty foods or sweets to keep one going.
Feeling run down and stressed.
But what does Adrenal mean? It describes the glands that sits over our kidneys (the adrenal glands). They secret more than 50 stress hormones that we need for our bodies to function properly. Some of their functions includes: processing hormones that our bodies uses for energy, fluid and electrolyte balance and fat storage.
We all have heard the stories about how people were able to do things that humans are not really physically capable of doing (lifting a car off another human being, etc) without thinking about it. This is because sometimes under stress the adrenal gland will start producing huge amounts of what is called adrenaline. But when a human is under stress for a long period of time and the adrenaline is functioning at high levels, things begins to break down in our body. We just can not function this way and neither can our adrenal gland. Over time the Adrenal Gland can not keep up the with its demands and this results in mood swings, cravings, extreme fatigue and even weight gain around the abdomen.
One of the hormones it uses is cortisol. Surely you have heard it in many different commercials for diet pills. This hormone does help control our fat, but it also has other important functions such as strengthening our immune system, normalizing our blood sugar and even regulating our blood pressure.
Some other symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue are: salt cravings, increased PMS, mild depression, lack of energy, absentmindness and muscle weakness.
To take an online screening quiz for Adrenal Fatigue check out this link:
http://altmedicine.about.com/od/gettingdiagnosed/l/bl_quiz_adrena1.htm
Is there a treatment for Adrenal Fatigue? Mostly, lifestyle changes is the only thing that will help get your adrenal gland functioning more normal. Early bedtimes, more laughter, more breaks for relaxation, regular meals and exercise are some key changes one should make. You may also want to add more whole grains into your diet and try to eat protein and oils with most meals.
Stress is a killer. We need to do what we can to lessen it. We also need to learn how to cope with it. Don’t let stress beat you. Fight for a better life.
