Adrenal Fatigue
The adrenal glands are two small glands located at the top of the kidneys. They’re involved in producing over 50 hormones that affect every organ, tissue, and cell in the body and are most commonly known for their roles in managing stress.
How Your Adrenals Manage Stress
When the body senses a threat, the adrenal glands release adrenaline hormones, rushing blood and sugar to the brain, heart, and muscles to help manage the stress regardless of its origin (emotional, physical or chemical). When the threat has passed, corticosteroids are released to help the body recover.
However, when the body is in a constant state of stress, eventually the adrenals reach exhaustion, and that’s when symptoms set in.
Symptoms include:
- Fatigue – You wake up tired even after a good night’s sleep and no matter what you do, the fatigue continues throughout the day. The cortisol hormone in your sleep/wake cycle has become deregulated.
- Food Cravings – You begin to crave salty foods and sugar because your body can no longer regulate sodium and sugar balance.
- Dizziness or lightheaded – When you stand up you get light headed. This is called postural hypotension, and because the adrenals regulate this function, when they’re not working you feel dizzy.
- Joint pain – With adrenal exhaustion comes ligament laxity. Joint pain associated with a adrenal fatigue most commonly occurs in the low back and knees.
- Low Immune System – When your body systems are constantly in a fight or flight state, the immune system’s ability to fight off bugs becomes diminished.
- Inability to tolerate stress – When your adrenals are diminished, your life tends to look worse. Normal things that wouldn’t bother you affect you more. The person that cuts you off, the co-worker that annoys you, your home life all seem like they are unbearable. They’re not – your adrenals have just reached their limit.
Unfortunately, there is no magic pill or quick fix to cure adrenal fatigue, but with a little work, a full recovery is possible.
At Whole Body Health, we teach out patients how to give their bodies what they need to heal. The adrenals need a combination of nutrients and minerals to restore good cellular function. A balanced diet along with supplementation of Adrenal Food are the key ingredients to overcoming adrenal fatigue and restoring your vitality.
