Feeling tired or exhausted? Fatigue is a symptom that is commonly experienced, and those experiencing fatigue often wonder why they are experiencing fatigue. For many, adrenal fatigue may be the answer as to why they are feeling so run down and exhausted.
Adrenal Fatigue and Stress
The adrenal glands are designed to help us cope with stressful situations. Throughout history, this has helped us survive attacks of the sabertooth tiger, battles, natural disasters, and other events where our lives were at stake. Today our first responders and soldiers face most of these events for us.
For some, excitement comes from the adrenalin rush they get when trying something new, dangerous, or physically challenging. We have all seen a shot of adrenalin being used to save a life on TV or in the movies. Yet, for most of us, the stresses that we face can be ongoing and not exciting at all — but still trigger our adrenal glands. Our adrenal glands were designed to work over short bursts of time, like a sprinter. A sprinter cannot continuously keep sprinting. Rest and recovery are important to every sprinter.
Our adrenal glands, located on top of our kidneys, secrete various hormones such as epinephrine, cortisol, and norepinephrine, which help us respond to stressful situations. But our adrenal glands need to recover and recharge before the next stressful event — they can’t keep continuously secreting hormones. When we move from stressful situation to stressful situation or get hit with multiple types of stress at the same time, we place ourselves at risk of adrenal fatigue.
The Main Cause of Fatigue is Stress
Stress that isn’t managed properly is the number one cause of fatigue. Webster says stress is, “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.” Each of us has to deal with stress from time to time, and each of us will tolerate stress differently. Here are some common causes of stress.
Common Causes of Stress
- Bad diet
- Death of a loved one
- Financial difficulties
- Lack of exercise
- Loss of sleep
- Relationship problems
- Responsibility for taking care of ill family members
- Stress at work
- And many more!
When you compare the causes of stress to the symptoms of adrenal stress, you will notice how directly they relate to each other.
Symptoms of Adrenal Stress
- Brain fog
- Cravings for sweet or salty snacks
- Reduced sex drive
- Depression
- Difficulty getting over an illness
- Feeling fatigued for no reason
- Failure to get restful sleep
- Inability to think clearly
- Insomnia
- Low energy levels, particularly in the morning
- Muscle and bone loss
- Muscular weakness
- Poor memory
- Weakened immune system
Lifestyle Generated Fatigue
Times have changed. The rising and setting of the sun is no longer the controlling factor for our circadian rhythm. Since the advent of electricity and lightbulbs, we have been staying up later and later. TVs used to be so expensive you might have only 1 per household, and then there were only 3 or 4 channels that went off the air at 11:00 PM every night. Today, TVs are just a part of our electronic entertainment that goes on 24/7, 365 days a year. There are hundreds of TV channels, a quickly growing number of streaming services, the internet, smartphones and tablets, computers, video games, and more. These electronic devices typically emit light in the blue spectrum range, which interferes with our body’s ability to sleep. Some manufacturers, like Apple, have added the ability to reduce the blue in the light at night — and I highly recommend you turn on this “night shift” setting, and while you’re at it, turn on the “do not disturb” feature at night too.
Many people are unaware that while you are sleeping between the hours of 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM the systems in your body recharge — including your adrenal glands. Have you ever experienced that burst of energy at night, which some refer to as “getting your second wind”? When this happens, your adrenal glands have just kicked in, all ready to start a new day, but you haven’t even gone to bed yet. This means your adrenal glands will not get the chance to recharge and be restored that night.
When we do not allow our adrenal glands to be restored, we start a chain of consequences. You will start to feel more sluggish in the morning, it will become harder to deal with stress, you won’t be as productive at work, this leads to more stress, and over time your body will start to experience fatigue — adrenal fatigue.
Recovering From Adrenal Fatigue
There is no quick fix for this. Sleeping in on Sunday morning will not repair all the harm you have done to your body. It will take a conscious commitment to live a healthy lifestyle, eating right, and getting the sleep and rest your body needs.
Steps to Recover from Adrenal Fatigue
- Go to bed early so you are asleep before 11:00 p.m.
- Eat healthy so your body will receive the nutrients that it needs. Stop eating at fast-food restaurants.
- Remove the TV from your bedroom and sleep in the dark. Turn off the TV by 9:00 PM/
- Exercise regularly.
- Avoid stimulants like soda and coffee, particularly at night.
- Rest when you feel tired. Short naps can be helpful.
- Avoid sugars to help keep your blood sugar levels even.
- Eat breakfast early in the morning to keep your body from running out of fuel. Avoid eating sugary cereals and grains. Try to eat healthy fats and proteins.
- Don’t eat after 7:30 at night. Your body cannot properly restore its systems and organs if it is busy working on digesting your food. Digesting food takes energy and redirects the blood flow to your gut.
- Take the time to relax. Many find prayer and meditation restorative.
- Keep your immune system and central nervous system performing optimally by having regular chiropractic adjustments.
- Eat small meals or snacks every 3-4 hours to keep your energy levels up.
- Avoid big meals.
- Drink plenty of filtered water.
- Be patient and consistent. It may have taken you years to burn out your adrenals. It can take from 6 months to 2 years for complete recovery depending on how severe your fatigue is.
Finding out if you have adrenal fatigue can be frustrating since the most common test, an ACTH (Adrenocorticotropic Hormone Test), which checks the function of your adrenal glands, only recognizes the top and bottom 2% of overproduction or underproduction of hormone levels. Since symptoms of adrenal fatigue occur starting at just 15% off, your adrenal glands could be functioning 25% below where they should and not register on this test. Because of this, some in the medical community think that adrenal fatigue is an unproven theory or not an accepted medical diagnosis. A salivary cortisol test is much more accurate. This inexpensive test will recognize adrenal fatigue at every stage.
Chiropractic Care Helps Reduce Stress
At Tuckahoe Family Chiropractic, we work with the spine and nervous system, which includes the brain, spinal cord, and the nerve roots that exit between the vertebrae or bones in the spine. Stress, whether it is physical, chemical, or mental/emotional, can cause subluxations (misalignments) to the spine and put pressure on the nerves. When this occurs at the T11-L2 area of the spine the adrenal glands will not function as they should, and adrenal fatigue can occur. Also, subluxations that occur in the cervical spine (neck area of the spine), especially the upper cervical spine can have a major impact on our body’s ability to handle stress. The nerves from the neck go back up towards portions of our brain that help our immune system function, control our sleep patterns, process emotions, help us react to stressful situations, and think clearly. If the neck is subluxated, the adrenal glands’ ability to handle stress will be more difficult and taxing.
Chiropractic adjustments remove these subluxations or interference in the nervous system, restore proper nerve function and help your adrenal glands perform as they should.
Chiropractic Care Can Help You Avoid Adrenal Fatigue
Ideally, you want to avoid getting adrenal fatigue altogether. Dr. Andy Lombardozzi can assist with that.
Regular chiropractic treatments and adjustments provide wellness and preventative care. Dr. Lombardozzi will find and remove subluxations to ensure that your internal organs, including your adrenal glands, function correctly.
Call Tuckahoe Family Chiropractic at 804.740.3434 to arrange an appointment or use our convenient form. Let us help you and educate you on how to deal with your fatigue and stress. If your friends and family can benefit from this information on adrenal fatigue, please recommend this article to them.