What’s Adrenal Fatigue and why do you have it?
“Why am I always so tired?”
By Michelle Hirsch LAc, M.S.
The most common question I get asked by my patients is, “Why am I always so tired?” It’s not surprising in this day and age that so many people are tired when you look at what we juggle; careers, parenting, advanced education, student debt, social lives, traffic, overtime hours, health problems, unhealthy food options, and so much more. Basically, we all have tons of stress and we have little time for rejuvenation. Before there was electricity, people went to bed as the day grew dark giving them up to 14 hours of winter rejuvenation time for their bodies. Today we tend to work hard throughout the day, into our evenings, and squeeze in exercise and screen time. Going to bed early is not popular and rejuvenation time is limited. Stress wins and we end up living in a state that takes a toll on our bodies. The good news is that with functional medicine testing, we can measure how your stress levels are affecting your physical body. And with natural medicine, we can get your body back into balance quickly.
Fight or flight
Being able to run from a tiger is not only a necessary adaption, but it’s also a pretty interesting one. If we are face to face with a tiger, our instinct is to avoid getting eaten (thank you instinct). Our brain secretes loads of adrenaline which stimulates our respiratory system and we literally run as fast as we can. The stress hormone cortisol is also secreted which increases glucose (sugar) into the bloodstream and brain which gives us the quickest energy form to use in our pursuit. What also makes us able to run this fast is that our brain shuts off the other bodily systems that we do not need while trying to survive. We definitely do not need to procreate while running from a tiger, so there is no need for our reproduction system and most of our endocrine system to function during this time. We do not need our digestion system to work, because who wants to stop to use the restroom while we are running for our lives? The same thing is true for the urinary system. In response, our body simply turns off these systems as we switch to our sympathetic nervous system. Furthermore, if we run out of energy, we can actually “borrow” some energy from our gut lining and other muscles to make quick ATP (energy) in a process called the Cori Cycle. Banks would like this loan because you actually “borrow” more energy than you have so in the long term it makes you run out of energy quicker, but in the short term, it’s a great survival technique. Basically, we are primarily focused on breathing, pumping blood and turning our stored energy into sugar that we can utilize quickly. We are pretty smart animals to do all of this to save ourselves. And once we are out of danger, our brain stops producing as much adrenaline, and most likely, we end up pretty exhausted from the experience, but hopefully in one piece. And once we are free from the danger and have a chance to rest, our brain restarts all of our other body systems so we can go back to our healthy functioning bodies.
This process works: Stress-Respond-Survive-Rest-Recover. Stress-Respond-Survive-Rest-Recover. Repeat. It’s a well-oiled machine that stays true to our genetic makeup. But there is one major problem; What happens when we have too much stress? The adaptation of the sympathetic nervous system is in place for ACUTE stress, and not CHRONIC stress. And most people in the twenty-first century are exposed to chronic stress.
Let’s replace running from a tiger with having a stressful job in the US where usually the minimum timeframe is 40 hours a week. So that is hour after hour of deadlines, dealing with your boss, not having enough time to eat lunch, commuting in traffic, unproductive meetings, unhappy co-workers and more. And then let’s say you also have children and have to rush home from work to make them dinner and take care of all the business of running a household. This is chronic stress. We start living in our sympathetic nervous system which is Stress-Respond-Survive. Stress-Respond-Survive. There is no time for rest and rejuvenation, which embodies our parasympathetic nervous system. And our brain does the same thing as the tiger, while in this stress, we secrete adrenaline, cortisol and increase our blood sugar, while we shut off most of our other body systems. Furthermore, when we run out of energy we become “catabolic” and start borrowing energy from our gut lining. But without any rest, we really have no way to pay this back and our bodies start to suffer. This is all problematic.
Chronic stress puts our adrenals at risk. When we are in stress our adrenal cortex secretes cortisol (a stress hormone) and DHEA (a steroid) to help us respond to the stress. The cortisol quickly converts our stored energy into glucose, and we use up most of our energy as we try to deal with the stress. Cortisol is supposed to be highest in the morning to help us be productive and gradually decreases throughout the day so by nighttime, it is at its lowest and we can go to bed comfortably and reenergize for the next day. With chronic stress, we are spiking our cortisol throughout the day which in turn dysregulates the once healthy circadian rhythm of our bodies. And it also dysregulates our blood sugar levels because we have so much rising cortisol. This in effect causes adrenal fatigue. If your cortisol levels are out of whack, you are eventually going to run out of energy.
Stage one adrenal fatigue
Stage One Adrenal Fatigue is when your output of cortisol is chronically higher than your body’s normal rate and you are in a state of chronic stress. People in stage one adrenal fatigue often appear like they drank a ton of coffee. We may wonder where they are getting their endless energy and they often like their own productivity. But we know now that they won’t be able to sustain this and over time their cortisol levels will drop and stay low causing them to have symptoms of being tired all the time. Often their cortisol becomes dysregulated and drops too much during the day but raises at night, causing relentless insomnia. All the while their blood sugar is dysregulated so it’s easy to gain weight and hard to lose weight. Now they are tired, gaining weight, and often having trouble sleeping at night. They are entering adrenal fatigue stage two. This doesn’t sound fun!
stage two adrenal fatigue
Stage Two Adrenal Fatigue is when your cortisol levels are in decline. Luckily your DHEA which is secreted by the Adrenal Cortex gland is still active and you can recover from this stage with the right amount of support and rejuvenation. But if you continue to sustain a chronically stressful life, both your cortisol levels and DHEA will drop putting you into Stage Three Adrenal Fatigue. Stage two and three adrenal fatigue are often linked to Chronic Fatigue syndrome.
Also, let’s not forget that not only is your blood sugar unbalanced, but when we are this exhausted, we start to become catabolic which leads us to eat our own gut lining to make energy. The result of this attack on our gut lining causes all sorts of digestive issues. (This is discussed further in “Why are digestion issues so common these days?”)
Functional Medicine & adrenal testing
The good news is functional medicine is here to help you. We can actually test your individual cortisol and DHEA levels by taking a saliva or urine sample four specific times throughout the day. Once we see your personal outlined map of exactly where your cortisol and DHEA levels are at during these specific times, it is easy to devise a treatment plan to address your adrenal fatigue. An adrenal lab isn’t too expensive, running around $125, which can be done in the comfort of your own home. When you work with Beyond the Mountain Wellness, I have the lab shipped to your home, and once you do the collection, you mail it right back to the lab with the FedEx label enclosed. The results are quick and once we analyze them together, we can devise a specific treatment plan that works exactly for your body.
feel better quickly
Our brains are smart, and once they get a reminder of how to function properly, they often take over and do it correctly very quickly so the need for supplementation is temporary. Typically, the treatment for adrenal fatigue is a 2-6 month protocol and usually by the second or third-week people start to feel better. And by the end of the protocol people often feel amazing and ready to adopt a life with less stress, healthier food and lifestyle choices. Treating Adrenal Fatigue is a great place to start the domino from to set yourself up for a life full of energy and health.
If you would like to test for Adrenal Fatigue and learn more click the button below for a free 15 minute consultation.