Say Goodbye to Symptoms of Fatigue

Do you wake up tired and lack energy most of the day? Is deep, restful sleep an issue? Are your hormones out of balance? These could all be signs that your adrenals need support. 

As you delve deeper into discovering what is causing your collection of “mysterious symptoms,” you may stumble upon the concept of adrenal fatigue. Is it a real thing? Some organizations don’t think so. There are several that deny the condition exists, including The Hormone Health Network of The Endocrine Society. This outlook can be discouraging when you are trying to get to the root of your health problem — especially when you know fatigue is a problem and you are brushed off by your doctor. 

According to Dr. Richard Shames, who has undergone extensive training with the NIH and co-authored Thyroid Power, years of research does support adrenal dysfunction, dating back to Dr. Fuller Albright’s work in the 1930s.1 Based on his 30 years of experience in medicine, Dr. Shames disagrees with the Endocrine Society’s rejection of adrenal fatigue. 

Perhaps what makes some medical organizations reject the concept of adrenal fatigue is the term adrenal ”fatigue.” Today functional medicine practitioners are now using the term, “adrenal dysfunction” instead of adrenal fatigue. They feel a more accurate way to describe this lack of energy as a hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis dysfunction because these organs are all involved.

Dr. Isabella Wentz, Pharm D—who has written three best selling books on Hashimoto’s thyroid disease and a new best seller for the adrenals—prefers the term,” impaired stress response”—as do I—because It better targets the most likely cause of adrenal dysfunction. Dr Wentz’ book,  The Adrenal Transformation Protocol is available on Amazon, and you can listen to a podcast with Izabela and I HERE.

No matter what you call it, adrenal dysfunction is a complex condition with many causes including toxins, infections, poor diet and unhealthy lifestyle habits like over exercising, under-exercising, broken sleep, frequent travel and skipping meals. Let’s not forget about stress, EMFs and too few computer breaks during work or from social media.

Adrenal dysfunction does make a person feel tired and heavy, but also depressed and anxious. ADHD is another sign of an adrenal deficiency, even if you feel hyper, wired and nervous. 

Are you regulating your light exposure throughout the day and night? 

Countless studies support the importance of the adrenal glands to regulate circadian rhythms. Clock genes can be found in the outer adrenal cortex layer of the adrenals—where cortisol is produced. These clock genes are regulated by light. When researchers remove these genes in mutant mice the hypothalamus/pituitary/adrenal axis becomes dysfunctional 2  In other words, to have a healthy hypothalamus/pituitary/adrenal axis your adrenals need early morning light and very little light at night. When the adrenals start to go haywire, every part of the body can be affected.

Before rebuilding your adrenal support system, be sure to account for and manage adrenal stressors.

6 Steps to Rebuild Your Adrenal Health

Adrenal exhaustion can make a person feel tired, heavy, and sick. When the adrenal glands are exhausted, they are no longer able to maintain appropriate levels of cortisol.

Fortunately, there are five ways you can fight adrenal fatigue and reclaim your health:

1. Feed your adrenals minerals. It’s critical to nourish the adrenal glands as poor digestion wears them out. Diet is one of the most important factors in healing the adrenals. When you nourish these precious organs with essential minerals, they can continue to create energy for your body. Remember, the adrenal glands love high-quality minerals, and Body Ecology’s Ancient Earth Minerals are the highest quality humic, fulvic, micro, and macro minerals — the perfect combination to nourish the adrenals and support your body’s digestion, detoxification, and sleep.
2. Cleanse toxins. Cleansing can have a huge impact on your adrenals. An overburdened liver may make it almost impossible to bring the adrenal glands back into balance. To support the adrenals, you must also give the liver the extra detox support it needs.
3. Conquer gut infections. Research shows that pathogenic microbes in your gut are a significant source of stress. Stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline will kill the good microbes in your digestive tract and change them into pathogenic ones. Stress will make Candida infections even more virulent and toxic to the body. Displacing the harmful microbes with the help of good, probiotic microbes is one of the best ways to get rid of long-term infection. 
4. Rebuild the gut. Rebuilding your gut with friendly probiotics can not only prevent adrenal fatigue in the future, but it can improve whole-body health — by balancing immunity, controlling inflammation, supporting weight loss, clearing the skin, aiding in detoxification, and even reducing the risk of disease. And only a few ounces of a hardy probiotic liquid like InnergyBiotic can help to maintain energy levels in place of caffeine or a sports drink. All our probiotic liquids, including InnergyBiotic help to strengthen the gut and make important B vitamins that the adrenal glands need to heal.
5. Replenish good bacteria. While our Probiotic Liquids have an amazing diversity of hardy microbes they are not a good source of Bifidus. Restoring levels of these other essential key beneficial bacteria in the gut is another step in adrenal recovery: A Bifidus probiotic capsule covers all the bases by helping you better digest food, assimilate nutrients, and strengthen immunity. Healthy gut bacteria help to naturally boost energy levels by aiding in digestion — when your body can easily digest and absorb, it can create energy more efficiently.
6. Digestive Enzymes. Since many of us do not digest our foods, digestive enzymes might be the other most important supplement to take with every main meal besides probiotics. We were created to obtain energy from the food we eat.  So eat only the healthiest foods you can afford to buy, but also be sure you are breaking it down efficiently with the help of digestive enzymes. 

Check out my podcast, The Role of Adrenals in Sleep and Chronic Illness, featuring the esteemed thyroid expert, Dr. Izabella Wentz. By tuning in, you will further understand the connections between the adrenals, sleep disorder, and chronic illnesses.

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