Are you experiencing any of the following symptoms?

• Stress?
• Anxiety?
• Depression/low mood?
• Energy slumps?
• Unrefreshing sleep?
• Difficulty falling asleep?
• Strange aches and pains?
• Waking in the night?
• Feeling tired but “wired”?
• Cravings for sugar, caffeine or alcohol?
• Frequent colds/flus or infections?
• Persistent, unexplainable fatigue?
• Lack of motivation?
• Hormonal imbalances?
• Weight gain around the middle?

If you can relate to several of these symptoms, you may be suffering from adrenal dysfunction, also commonly referred to as adrenal fatigue. This can be the underlying culprit behind all of these symptoms as well as more serious health issues such as auto-immune disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome, thyroid and hormonal issues and fibromylagia just to name a few.

What is Adrenal Fatigue?

Your adrenals are small endocrine glands that sit above your kidneys and secrete hormones such as adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol. If you’ve been under stress for a considerbale amount of time (and btw, stress isn’t just lifestyle things like work pressure or going through a messy divorce, your BODY can experience ongoing stress from a variety of insidious factors such as certain nutrient deficiencies, eating foods you don’t digest well or not getting enough good quality sleep for example)  your cortisol levels can get drastically out of whack…

This usually occurs slowly over time in stages:

STAGE 1 The “Alarm” Stage

At first, as the body becomes acutely stressed cortisol levels usually shoot up really high. Some people (you adrenaline junkies!) can even get a bit of a kick out of this stage, with a boost of energy but may have problems feeling jittery or falling asleep.(This is pretty much what too much caffeine does to your adrenals too!)  After too long in this stage, the immune system and gut can become adversely affected, and gut issues and frequent infections may begin to present themselves.

STAGE 2 The “Adaptation” Stage

After too long in the first stage, the communication between the brain and the adrenal glands really starts to get off track due to ongoing, unrelenting stress, and your cortisol levels can start to swing from too low at certain times of the day, to too high. This could show up as waking up really tired in the morning but getting a “second wind” late at night and not being able to fall asleep, having to rely on coffee or sugar to pep you up during the day or alcohol to wind down, and beginning to feel generally run down and tired.

STAGE 3:  The “Exhaustion” Stage

During this stage which occurs after months or years of ongoing stress, cortisol levels become very low resulting in exhaustion, burnout, needing to sleep excessively yet waking totally unrefreshed. Other hormonal systems may start getting affected in this stage too such as issues with thyroid hormones, blood sugar and for women, problems such as PCOS, cycle abnormalities, extreme menopausal symptoms and even infertility.

STAGE 4: The “Inflammatory” Stage

Cortisol is also the body’s main natural anti-inflammatory, so if cortisol levels have been low for too long, widespread inflammation or auto-immune issues can start showing up, such as inexplicable joint and muscle pains, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue or auto-immune problems like Hashimoto’s, Graves, Fibromyalgia, Inflammatory Bowel Disease etc.

Seeing a naturopath or functional medicine practitioner is a good idea if you think you are suffering from adrenal fatigue, as they can help you to get your cortisol levels tested and make individualised recommendations, but whichever stage you may be in, there are some lifestyle changes to make that will help your adrenal glands to recover:

Lifestyle Support For Adrenal Fatigue

DIET: Diet is REALLY important in healing your adrenals, because as mentioned, any food that you may not tolerate well can be an ongoing form of stress on the body. Your practitioner will most likely put you on a specific anti-inflammatory diet and make tweaks for your individual case. Avoiding sugar, wheat, dairy, and processed seed oils (such as sunflower, canola oil etc) is a good start. It’s also SUPER important to keep your blood sugar levels stable if you have adrenal problems, by eating something every 2-3 hours and never skipping meals, and by eating a filling breakfast that consists of protein, good fats and fibre, and having breakfast within one hour of waking up. Intermittent fasting, low calorie or very low carbohydrate diets are not ideal for people while they are overcoming adrenal issues.

EXERCISE: Even though we all know exercise is important for a healthy lifestyle, too much exercise is actually NOT a good idea for adrenal fatigue, especially for those in the latter stages. Cardio and weight-lifting should be avoided, and more restorative forms of “movement” should be done instead, such as restorative or “yin” yoga, tai chi or walking. (Pssst…I have a free downloadable 60 min yin yoga class you can try here 🙂 )

SLEEP: Getting enough sleep is absolutely essential, and a minimum of 8 hours a night is needed and more if possible. Proper sleep “hygeine” can help you to have fall asleep and stay asleep more easily, such as taking time to wind down an hour before bed, meditating (you could try my free guided sleep meditation!) and switching off sources of “junk light” from electronic devices after 9pm. Get to bed before 10pm and if possible try to get some sunlight into your eyes by going outside for a few minutes when you first wake up to rebalance your circadian rhythms.

MEDITATION: If you’ve been following me for a while, you know what an advocate I am for mindfulness meditation! You seriously CANNOT underestimate the power of this very well-studied practice that can help to switch off the body’s stress response naturally, and even just 10 minutes a day can have a significant impact – you can get started with my free 10 minute guided mindfulness meditation.

LIFE-BALANCE: For a lot of people with adrenal fatigue, there can be an underlying mindset of overworking, being too ambitious or just taking life much too seriously. Taking time to rest and slow down is vital, as is prioritising your social life and connections with others – take having fun seriously, it can help the brain to release oxytocin which will switch off the stress response!

NUTRITIONAL AND HERBAL SUPPORT: Seeing a naturopath or functional medical practitioner is ideal to find out which specific herbs and nutrients can help to heal your adrenal glands, but some good starting recommendations include an activated B vitamin supplement, additional vitamin B5, magnesium as well as herbs such as withania and Siberian ginseng.

A word of caution though: It’s VERY important to understand that there’s no quick fix or “magic pill” to fix adrenal dysfunction instantly. While herbs and supplements definitely help over time, these diet and lifestyle changes are crucial.. Stressors must be eliminated at the source where possible, and any ongoing sources of stress may limit your recovery, for example you can’t “out-supplement” a highly stressful job, toxic relationship or bad diet, so do commit to making these lifestyle changes so that you can get your vitality back!

If you’d like a complimentary, confidential discussion on how you can get started overcoming adrenal fatigue, go here.

And if you have any questions about adrenal fatigue, pop them in the comments box below, I’d be happy to answer them!