Adrenal exhaustion, also known as adrenal fatigue syndrome, is one of the most under-diagnosed illnesses in the United States. Often, doctors overlook key indicators or attribute symptoms to other causes. Many times patients end up feeling like hypochondriacs and give up. If you think that you have adrenal exhaustion, consult your physician and tell them your suspicions immediately.
Function
The adrenal glands are triangular organs located just above your kidneys. They regulate the amount of adrenaline in your system and also control libido to a limited extent. Using adrenaline, a hormone that causes your senses to sharpen and your heartbeat to speed up, they regulate the body's "fight or flight" response.
For example, in the event that you need to act quickly and decisively due to danger or excitement, your adrenal glands will pump this energy-creating hormone into your system and enable you to move with speed and atypical agility.
Adrenaline helps draw more blood to the large muscles in the body and the digestive system is slowed down. This was to enable our ancestors to flee an immediate physical danger.
Significance
When your adrenal glands are not healthy, they may be literally exhausted. This fatigue causes them to slow in their production of important hormones and can fail to supply enough cortisol to your system.
Cortisol is sometimes called the "stress hormone" because it helps protect you from unexpected stress. For example, it can lower your sensitivity to pain, making things that would normally be too painful to accomplish suddenly within the bounds of possibility. However, even when you are not under stress you need cortisol in your system to help you think productively and function normally without fatigue.
Effects
Adrenal gland exhaustion is characterized by fatigue and lethargy, particularly in the early morning, between 3:00 PM and 5:00 PM in the afternoons and around 9:00 PM at night.
You may also experience nausea and hair loss. Blood sugar levels are typically lower than usual and you may have difficulty concentrating and remembering things.
In women, the symptoms of PMS are more noticeable and both men and women can develop mild depression.
You may also crave salty or sugary foods, experience periods of extremely low blood pressure and may gain weight specifically around the waist.
One of the reasons that adrenal gland exhaustion can be hard to diagnose is because its symptoms are similar to those of other hormone-related disorders, so you may have to do some testing and investigation to determine exactly what the problem is.
Identification
If you you have adrenal gland exhaustion, then you need to take steps to pinpoint and identify the problem. There are a variety of tests available that can help you accomplish this. Adrenal function tests measure your cortisol levels over four days to determine if you are low. There are also a number of online assessments that can help you determine if adrenal fatigue is a factor in your current health.
Other tests include cortisol tests, hormone profiles and ATCH (adrenocorticotropic hormone, a hormone secreted by the adrenal glands that impacts your levels of cortisol).
Challenge tests, all of which must be ordered by a doctor. They involve taking one or more urine samples over a period of hours or days. These samples are then analyzed by a lab to determine if you have too much or too little of hormones that are regulated in whole or in part by your adrenal glands.
Misconceptions
Many people think that being tired, unable to concentrate or mildly depressed are simply symptoms of stress. While this can be the case, there may be a physical reason that you are experiencing these symptoms. Adrenal gland exhaustion is a real, treatable problem that causes these issues, and you should definitely rule it out before you start ignoring these symptoms.
Warning
Long term adrenal is a serious health hazard. Lower levels of cortisol in your system render your immune system unable to work and can cause you to feel lightheaded and to gain weight. Over time, your body may have serious difficulties recovering from infections and you may become chronically unwell if you let this condition go untreated.
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