Are you chronically tired? Do you wake tired no matter how much sleep you get? Struggle through each day relying on caffeine or sugar to get you through but then find it hard to wind down and get a decent sleep at night? Low libido? Does everything feel like it requires more effort than it should?
If you’re tired of being tired it might be time to consider the health of your hard working adrenal glands!
Fatigue and stress related health complaints are some of the most common complaints the women who I work with are experiencing. Stress affects us all differently but can be a driving factor behind many health complaints including: fatigue, insomnia, digestive issues, hormonal issues, weight gain, headaches, skin problems and infertility.
We all have different capacities to manage with daily stress. Healthy adrenal glands are essential to help you cope with stress as well as regulating your energy and sleep cycles and playing an important role in your hormone balance.
Many of the women whom I work with are suffering from adrenal stress, adrenal fatigue or even adrenal exhaustion (also known as adrenal burn out).
How do you know if you have adrenal fatigue? A thorough discussion of your symptoms and health history gives me plenty of clues as to whether adrenal fatigue be the cause of your low energy or other symptoms. There are physical signs which I look out for and in addition I also find adrenal salivary hormone testing very helpful as it allows us to see your cortisol rhythm over a 12 hour period. Deviations from the ideal rhythm (amount of cortisol produced at different times of the day) can allow me to see where on the scale of adrenal stress or fatigue you are currently, therefore influencing the treatment approach.
Your adrenals are small, walnut sized glands which sit above your kidneys. Their job is to help your body cope with stress for survival. They enable your body to deal with stress from every possible source from physical injury, emotional stress, infections (glandular fever is a common one which really affects the adrenals, but many respiratory infections can also be triggers) and illness and daily work, family and relationship stress. Your resilience, energy and vitality depend on their proper functioning.
The hormones secreted by your adrenal glands influence all of the major physiological processes in your body. They affect how you utilise the macronutrients from your food, blood sugar regulation, fat distribution and storage (adrenal stress is a major component of fat around your middle), digestive function, heart function and inflammatory response. They also have an influence on your hormone production (especially during and after menopause), libido, muscular strength and stamina.
Your adrenals produce cortisol in response to stress and over time this cortisol production can become affected by daily stress and other factors such as caffeine, lack of sleep, over exercise, prescription medications, allergies, infections, high sugar diet, poor quality diet, emotional and psychological stress, trauma, smoking and lack of relaxation or ‘down time’.
Signs of adrenal fatigue:
- Poor ability to cope with stress/ easily overwhelmed/ bothered by little things
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Low energy
- Insomnia
- Headaches
- Cravings for salty foods
- Weight gain around the middle or difficulty losing weight from your waist/belly
- Frequent infections and slow recovery from illness or injury
- Light headed when standing up quickly or blood pressure issues
- Increased PMS
- Difficulty concentrating or foggy thinking, poor memory
- Developing food intolerances or allergy type symptoms
Many people can function with reasonable high levels of daily stress before their adrenals become fatigued, for others the adrenals can become depleted much quicker. Fortunately Naturopathy and Nutrition offer many effective options to restore adrenal health and energy levels and increase your resistance to stress.
If you that your adrenal glands might be in need of support to help you get your energy back find out about my individually tailored 6 week package here: https://blossomwellbeing.com.au/breath-body-balance-more-energy-less-stress/ - now taking bookings for January!
