Adrenal Fatigue – Are you a slave to your exhaustion?

Discover what it is and how Natural Medicine can help you beat the fatigue!

Is your alarm clock your worst enemy? Do you drag yourself out of bed every morning? Are you guzzling down five cups of coffee a day so that you can feel the least bit…normal?

You may be suffering from adrenal fatigue!

Adrenal fatigue condition whereby your adrenal glands are no longer able to produce the right hormones in your body to keep you going every day. Your adrenal glands, which sit on top of your kidneys, are responsible for producing roughly 50 hormones in your body, including cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones are the key stress hormones produced by your adrenal glands when you come across a stressful event and your body switched into a temporary “fight or flight” mode.

What causes Adrenal Fatigue?

Adrenal fatigue can develop when your adrenals are burnt out. Through chronic or a major stressful event (whether it be emotional or physical stress), long-term high coffee intake, lack of sleep, poor diet or major infections (such as glandular fever, pneumonia) or other chronic diseases, your adrenal glands will pump away the key stress hormones until you are running on an empty gasket.

Symptoms of adrenal fatigue includes:

Chronic fatigue
Feeling unrefreshed in the morning
Anxiety/Depression/Mood swings
Muscle tension and pain
Palpitation
Dizziness upon standing
Salt cravings
Sleeplessness
Low libido
Gut issues
Weight gain

If you have ticked off more than four of these symptoms, you may have adrenal fatigue!

What can I do?

There are simple dietary and lifestyle changes that will help you get back on the road to recovery, such as:

Slowly weaning off coffee and other stimulants.
Aim to sleep before 11pm every day.
Relax! (Do relaxation techniques such as slow breathing, meditation or yoga daily.)

However, it is often not enough, or very difficult to treat adrenal fatigue through dietary and lifestyle changes alone.

Natural medicine, using amazing herbal extracts, adrenal nucleics and other vital nutrients, can help to promote relaxation, increase your tolerance to stress and restore your adrenal function. Naturopathic practitioners can also provide appropriate testing to eliminate other possible causes of your stress, and refer to other health professionals for a complete holistic approach to treating adrenal fatigue.

Kohei Iguchi

Qualified Naturopath, Medical Herbalist, Advanced Hemaview Practitioner

Channel Magazine: Issue 58 September 2015