THE ADRENAL FATIGUE THEORY

What is adrenal fatigue? What are the causes of adrenal fatigue? How can you test for adrenal fatigue? How do you treat adrenal fatigue? 

So. Many. Questions!

First things first, let's back this up a bit. 

The adrenal fatigue theory is simply that - a theory! It states that prolonged stress has a dramatic impact on your adrenal glands, causing them to work less efficiently, leading you to feel tired (exhausted, really), experience poor sleep, be subject to intense food cravings, and unfortunately have a harder time recovering from injury and stress.

There are over 17 million different sources available to you if you Google ‘adrenal fatigue’, to which I‘m not completely surprised. This theory is extremely marketable in the areas of magic supplements, fad diets, and lifestyle changes. Someone somewhere has a solution for you and your adrenal fatigue. Plus, the symptoms that accompany adrenal fatigue are common things that we as humans go through at some stage or another so when we turn to our trusty friend Google and type in our symptoms - guess what pops up?

Adrenal fatigue - the exact validation that we need from a quick google search, am I right?

Except, according to science, it's not technically a real thing.




It is assumed that during adrenal fatigue that your adrenal glands actually are fatigued and stop doing their job - one of which is to release cortisol (If you want to read all about cortisol, CLICK HERE, as we have a blog that dives into it). However, when adrenal fatigue has been tested, what scientists find is that cortisol is still being released and the adrenal glands are still working properly. Which, allows us to conclude that the adrenal glands are not, in fact, fatigued. Symptoms may still be present, however, there is nothing to conclude that the adrenal glands are responsible for these symptoms.

What I’ve learned in my research is that Adrenal Fatigue just so happens to be a thing that allows people to overlook what might actually be going on. Symptoms that lead people to believe that they have Adrenal Fatigue are very much real, however, so it's important to understand that just because Adrenal Fatigue might not be your diagnosis, you might have another.

Like, stress, for example.

OOOOOOOOH, STRESS.

Let’s talk about stress because if I’m honest, I’m guessing you’ve used the word at least once this week.

Some stress is good. For instance, adding stress to your body in the gym (in the form of weights) actually benefits your body and makes it stronger. Small amounts of stress, with the appropriate recovery afterward, is beneficial to us as humans. It's actually something that helps us to grow stronger.

Stressful situations in our personal life (that don't drag on forever) potentially have the ability to help us get stronger too, if we take the time to recover and reflect. Learning from things is key to our success.However, if you have too much stress (phyiscal or mental) the opposite can likely happen, and things for you can get dramatically worse. What does too much stress look like?

• Poor Sleep

• Tight Muscles

• Forgetfulness

• Self Doubt

• Changes in Digestion

• Heartburn

• Stomach Aches

• Higher Heart Rate

• Inflammation

• Tough Workouts

• No Motivation

• Intense Cravings

• Irritability

As always, I want you to remember that I am not a doctor. If you’re feeling any of these things and you’re worried about it, please see your doctor. Ruling out any medical conditions is important before you go ahead and just start waving the IT MUST BE STRESS flag. 

However, if you’ve been reassured by a medical professional that nothing is going on deep down, and still don’t have any idea what the cause of these sorts of things - think stress.

The bad kind, because there is a good kind, remember?Identifying what's stressful in your life can be hard because when you’re stressed, you often feel like everything is to blame and you adopt an all-or-nothing mentality. However, I have found a really great resource from Precision Nutrition that helps us to identify where stress is occurring in our life. The goal of their Stress Web is to identify where stress is happening in our lives so that we can make clear adjustments that will benefit our overall health. 

For instance, if the main cause of your stress is work and over-exercising, taking it all out on your family is likely not going to solve any of your problems. 

Let's have a look.

If you need to, feel free to print out your own copy of this Stress Web. Once you’ve done so, you can take a look at each section (financial, emotional, physical, etc) and decipher how stressed you feel in each of the areas. If you’re going through a lot of grief at the moment, you might color in all four sections of the emotional category. If you are, however, currently paying all your bills on time and generally happy about your finances, for the most part, you may only want to color one section of the financial category.

Filling out this web will allow you to step back and see where it is you are feeling stressed (the most stressed) and then allow you to make changes and adjustments that make sense for you. What you focus on this week may very well differ from what you may go through in September, however, so keep in mind that it's important to check in with yourself on a regular basis.Brainstorm either by yourself or with someone you trust, some ideas of how you can replenish your stress zones. Turning off notifications, noise-canceling headphones, time blocking, boundaries, rest, bedtimes, stretching, therapy, swimming, and hiring a nutritionist are all ideas that may replenish your stress levels. However, there are a ton more and it’s important that whatever you choose, you make sure they’re specific to you and your situation.

The idea is simple, you need to balance what goes in and what goes out. 

Like, a water jug.

Or a jug of beer.

Or a bowl of strawberries.

If all you’re doing is taking from the jug, you will have nothing left. It’s important to replace the things you’re using so that you always have something to pick from. 

Precision Nutrition is to thank again, for the idea behind this visual. https://www.precisionnutrition.com/

Stress items, in terms of the jug, are things that are depleting your reserve (pouring out).

Recovery items are things that replenish your reserve (fill up).

So what is adrenal fatigue? It’s a thing that's not necessarily real, but that feels REALLY real. If it were a real thing it would feel like extreme tiredness, aches and pains, difficulty sleeping, poor sleep quality, intense cravings, and a few other undesirable things. Even though its not technically a thing, the symptoms are real, and one of the things that could be the root of what you’re feeling is stress.

WHAT CAN I DO TO REDUCE THE SYMPTOMS OF STRESS?

Stress is not the only thing that can cause your symptoms, which is why it's important to see a doctor if you think there is something else going on. However, if it is stress at the root of some of your symptoms, there are a few things you can do.

First, complete your stress web. Then, discuss with someone you trust or brainstorm on your own some ways that you are going to try to lessen the stress in your life. Now is not the time to try to tackle all the seemingly-crappy things in your life at once either. Now is the time to step back and come up with some tangible things you can start doing today so that over time you can rid yourself of some of these awful symptoms. Heck, even if you aren’t suffering from the symptoms that lead you to potentially Googleing adrenal fatigue, maybe you’ll want to do this just to develop a better relationship with stress.

Then, act! Don’t let your jug get empty.

Replenish, replenish, replenish!

And then, surprise surprise, we have FOUR MORE SUGGESTIONS.

FOUR KEY THINGS TO DO TO REDUCE THE SYMPTOMS OF STRESS

1. Get enough exercise

2. Make sure you’re eating nutrition-packed
   foods and are appropriately fueling your body

3. Drink water. Some is better than none, but we do
   recommend drinking 1oz of water for every 1lb of body weight.

4. Sleep. Whatever you have to do to ensure you’re
   sleeping enough and getting quality sleep - do that.
   
   
   
   

With all that being said, if you want to assume you have adrenal fatigue, please, go ahead. You and millions others might find comfort in that. However, if you want to address it from a different lens, we would love to hear from you!

The important thing is that you’re doing something about your symptoms (or your stress) that essentially will benefit you in the long run and we are absolutely here for that!

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