What if there isn’t such a thing as burned out adrenal glands?
Adrenals? What’s that?
The adrenal glands sit on top of each of your kidneys. They are located at the lower back. Adrenals make cortisol among other hormones, which give you energy for the day but they also manage a lot of other functions in your body.
Symptoms of “adrenal fatigue” are very real!
Exhaustion
Numbness
Exercise intolerance
Loving the color black
Colors don’t look bright
Poor sleep
Weight gain
Irritability
Numbness
Feelings of being overwhelmed
A lot of folks complain about low energy symptoms these days and since doctors don’t seem to be of much help, the holistic health community picked up the slack and announced ‘adrenal fatigue syndrome’ theory. It’s an idea that one day your adrenals just burn out and say “that’s it, I am done making cortisol”.
Well, for the longest time I believed in this theory, but it turns out that’s just not how it works!
By the time people have gotten diagnosed with 'adrenal fatigue' they have been running off their adrenal hormones for some time.
Let me explain: stress hormones can feel really good when you start running on them. Cortisol is an anti-inflammatory, suppresses hunger, and gives you energy …
Higher-than-normal or lower-than-normal cortisol levels can be harmful to your health.
It can take years before you feel the repercussions of stress and the toll it has taken on you. Too many cups of coffee and living off caffeine, skipping meals and under-eating, staying up past midnight for years on end. Being in a constant state of fight or flight eventually adds up.
When you finally use up your cortisol, it leads to symptoms associated with burned out adrenal glands.
Checking your cortisol via urine or saliva tests, taking 4-5 samples per day will accurately show you your free and metabolized cortisol levels.
During periods of high stress, you require a a large amount of nutrients to sustain yourself. Making adrenal hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, norepinephrine, and DHEA requires lots of food and energy including:
Antioxidants
B vitamins
Carbohydrates for instant energy
Protein
Minerals
Those adrenal glands are quite small, but they are also mighty and produce dozens of hormones that regulate blood sugar, blood pressure, reproduction, mineral absorption, immune system, metabolism, etc.
Your body is so magical!
Well, I am sad to disappoint, but your lovely glands aren’t supposed to bear the weight of your BAD LIFESTYLE AND HABITS forever. Continuing with this process for too long turns into a catabolic state of existence, and your glands purpose is not to break down tissue in order to maintain homeostasis.
When you stress your body for long durations, it perceives that stress as if you are fighting for survival. You can only run from an angry tiger for so long until you collapse.
And what comes up, must come down!
And most of us have a hard time listening to our body until we come DOWN!
The caffeine adrenal fatigue myth:
Another common myth is that caffeine leads to burned out adrenal glands and adrenal fatigue.
This concept also is not black and white, and non-biased science should be considered. Coffee can actually support your metabolic rate and helps to burn fat.
The one practice that needs to be considered when drinking coffee is to have it WITH a meal. You do not want to drink coffee first thing upon waking. You get the most benefits and the least jitters when you drink your coffee with breakfast. If you need coffee in order to wake up you will want to investigate your thyroid, liver, and circadian rhythm.
Coffee tends to backfire when we have it on empty stomach, overstimulating your adrenal glands, and causing havoc when this pattern happens on a regular basis.
The first step to adrenal fatigue recovery:
Nourish your body. Eat breakfast. Stop dieting. Unless you are a yogi meditating all day long breathing in Prana, you need to eat! Your body needs building blocks and energy to function. The more you stress it, the more you activate fight and flight mode, the more your body will focus on survival. There are only a few things your body needs to stay alive in moments of attack (fight and flight). Your heart rate, blood pressure and breathing increase, and all your energy flows into you limbs away from your vital organs. This is not the right condition to be in 24/7, for years!
Food can be very calming to the body, and usually when you look around, people who are highly stressed crave carbs and sweets.
Craving carbs is a healthy mechanism we need to start listening to. Because sugar doesn’t burn out the adrenal glands, it does the opposite.
Sugar stops the body from having to manufacture its own fuel using stress hormones. Stress hormones signal to your body to mobilize glucose and when those reserves are empty it will break down fat and protein, aka muscle, organs, your brain and bones (teeth).
Sugar is a sedative – it calms the body down as long as it’s paired with enough protein and fat.
Instead, the first thing people do when they have 'adrenal fatigue' is they stop eating fruits and carbohydrates to reduce stressors, but it does the opposite. It just adds more stress.
What we really should do is ask “Why was stress so high for so long?”
Long term stress usually is caused by a lack of replenishing minerals and nutrients fast enough, or providing the body with enough fuel in the first place.
Adrenal fatigue recovery starts with salt and potassium.
Those Minerals get depleted first and are most used by your adrenals!
Having frequent balanced meals made with carbs, protein, and fat every few hours manually balances blood sugar which takes the burden off the adrenals because they won’t need to deal with secreting additional blood sugar hormones.
Though the symptoms of adrenal fatigue are real, burned out adrenal glands are actually the body being worn down after prolonged stress and malnutrition. The caffeine adrenal fatigue myth is a misrepresentation of the complexity of metabolic function. The path to adrenal fatigue recovery is through nourishing your depleted body. Sugar is your friend, and salt and potassium is the first thing your adrenal glands use up during hormone production!
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