Do you feel stressed out? You could be suffering from Adrenal Fatigue. Fatigue is the most common complaint of adult patients. If you have symptoms such as chronic tiredness, reduced memory, difficulty concentrating, insomnia, fearfulness, anxiety, depression, and inability to lose weight after extensive effort—you may be suffering from adrenal fatigue (hypoadrenia).

Your adrenals are your body’s built in mechanism to deal with stress. With chronic stress, poor health, or over consumption of coffee or sugar, your adrenals can become fatigued and weak.  You may feel “burned-out”. Over time, your adrenals can become inoperable, such as in Addison’s disease.

Work pressures, the death of a loved one, moving, changing jobs, illness, relationship problems, worry, fear, a fast-paced life or anything that causes recurrent stress can cause adrenal fatigue. Skipping or eating meals too far apart creates an imbalance in blood sugar (which affects the adrenals). Late hours/sleep deprivation, toxic exposures, gluten intolerance, food allergies, excessive exercise, anxiety, anger issues, an infection in the body (causing an inflammatory response) and chronic pain…all add to the issue.

Adrenal fatigue can begin a domino effect causing a myriad of symptoms. Your adrenal glands produce over 50 different types of hormones in your body, including sex hormones and cortisol, the most important anti-stress hormone. When you do not have enough cortisol, your body is unable to cope with stress.

These are the three stages of adrenal fatigue:

1 Flight or fight response—your body tries to keep up with the high demand for cortisol.
2 Exhaustion—your body is unable to produce enough cortisol, and goes in the “crash” stage.
3 Failure—cortisol has been called “the hormone of death,” as excessive stress can and does kill. In adrenal failure, people have a high chance of cardiovascular collapse and death.

Additional results of adrenal fatigue include hair loss, hot flashes, reduced insulin sensitivity (that can lead to diabetes), osteoporosis, viral infections, yeast overgrowth and herpes. It also causes an increased fat accumulation around the waist and protein breakdown that leads to muscle wasting and the inability to reduce weight AND creates high blood pressure and estrogen dominance.

Kinesiology identifies the problem at its beginning stages; whereas blood tests may be misleading. For example, your body will continue in the progression until Addison’s disease can be fully diagnosed through complete failure of your adrenal glands.

Janet L. Hall is a Certified Naturopathic Doctor, Medical Intuitive, Clinical Hypnotherapist, Kinesiologist and Biofeedback Specialist. Her center is dedicated to healing and preventative health, life change and empowerment…helping people to “rise above!” www.alternativewellnesscenter.org,  (505) 294-WELL (9355).