Adrenal Fatigue

Adrenal fatigue is a condition in which the adrenal glands through chronic stress are unable to meet your body’s demands for cortisol production.

In today's fast-paced world, the chronic stress that many people experience on an ongoing basis is one of the contributing factors causing adrenal fatigue. Stressors may include noise, pollution, traffic, inclement weather, injuries, illnesses, emotional conflicts, deadlines, inadequate sleep and on and on. Chronic, unrelenting stress, whether physical or psychological or both, eventually leads to adrenal fatigue. The adrenals simply cannot produce enough cortisol to meet the demands. The result? We feel stressed out because we are.

• Are you exhausted?
• Do you drag yourself out of bed in the morning and drink a cup of coffee just to get up and going?
• Do you fight fatigue throughout the day?
• Does the slightest bit of stress send you over the edge?
• Do you find that you are not bouncing back from stress like you used to?
• Do you suffer from muscle or joint pain, recurrent infections, allergies, anxiety or panic attacks, or low blood sugar or blood pressure?
• Do you feel weak or often lightheaded?

You just don’t feel like yourself. Friends and family are worried about you, but don’t understand what’s going on. Doctors tell you that your blood work is fine and that you may need an antidepressant, but you’re not depressed. No one understands. If this sounds familiar, it’s possible you could be suffering from adrenal fatigue.

When your adrenal glands become exhausted, your natural cortisol levels drop significantly. Cortisol is your naturally occuring stress hormone. A young, healthy person produces 20-30 mg of cortisol per day. Physiological levels of cortisol are essential for good health as it bolsters your immune system, increasing your resistance to infections and inflammation. ln addition to bioidentical cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), another hormone produced by the adrenal glands, is also an important part of our approach to adrenal fatigue treatment. Levels of DHEA peak in young adulthood and then begin to decline. When blood levels are low, supplemental DHEA often enhances energy, immunity, and libido.

Adrenal glands are responsible for the production of several fat soluble hormones. Cortisol hormone production varies throughout the day and extreme levels - too much or too little - have an impact on health issues. These hormones are only evaluated by collecting saliva and by testing it at a specialized laboratory.

After the results of the salivary hormone test, the treatment would be aimed at treating the adrenal gland to help it work efficiently and make specific hormones by providing the gland with appropriate nutrients and extracts.