Post by ascnat on Jan 19, 2020 8:53:28 GMT
In recent years, some symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, and weight gain have become so widespread that it has attracted intense scientific studies. Research results show that although these symptoms are shared among many health conditions, hormonal abnormalities, namely adrenal hormones, play a key role in the appearance of these symptoms.
In this article, we look at Adrenal Fatigue from the perspective of naturopathic medicine and the solutions it offers.
What is adrenal fatigue?
The main theory about adrenal fatigue was first popularized by Dr. Hans Selye who was studying the effect of stress on physiology and called it “general adaptation syndrome” but the term “adrenal fatigue” was first used in 1998 by James Wilson, a naturopathic doctor.
Dr. Wilson described it as a group of related signs and symptoms that appear when the adrenal glands function below the necessary level. He believed adrenal fatigue is usually associated with constant stress and often starts after chronic infections like flu, bronchitis or pneumonia. People with adrenal fatigue may not have any physical signs of disease, but still may feel tired and fatigued that does not dissolve with more sleep and rest. They also have cravings for salty foods!
To truly understand adrenal fatigue, we must know adrenal glands and their function.
Adrenal glands are two glands located on top of each kidney that are mainly responsible for producing your fight or flight response in stressful situations. They release hormones such as cortisol, adrenalin, DHEA, pregnenolone along with sex hormones like estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and also neurotransmitters such as dopamine to regulate blood pressure, metabolism, electrolyte balance, blood sugar, digestion, and immune response. The stressful situation can be internal or external, mental or physical resulted from chronic illness or environmental pollution, poor diet, too much exercise, lack of proper sleep and emotional abuse.
When faced with these stress triggers, your body provides a surge of energy and suppresses any energy expenditure to survive. It releases cortisol to increase blood sugar, breakdown protein and carbohydrate stores, and suppresses the immune system.
If the stressful situations become too frequent as it is in modern daily life with all the air and noise pollution, traffic, digital radiations, intense work schedules, relationship complications, and inadequate dietary nutrients, these intense chemical reactions are repeated constantly leading to insulin resistance, immune system damage and muscle loss. When adrenal glands constantly work hard to release required hormones, they being overworked over time and through three stages they become unable to produce enough hormones to the point where hormone production is below the normal range, which leads to adrenal failure.
Among functional medicine community, Dr. Chris Kresser believes that the term adrenal fatigue does not appropriately describe these symptoms and has suggested the term “HPA axis dysfunction” which is more holistic and takes into account the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal system that regulates your long term stress response in contrast to sympathoadrenal medullary system (SAS) that is responsible for short term stress response. These systems protect you from danger, but overstimulation will eventually lead to harm from the system itself.
Dr. Kresser believes that adrenal fatigue is not just about low levels of cortisol, which is often diagnosed by cortisol saliva test. 3 to 5 percent of total cortisol produced by adrenal glands are unbound from a protein carrier and the rest are cleared out of the bloodstream by different mechanisms until they release through urination; therefore, low levels of cortisol test result is not necessarily an indication of total cortisol production!
In addition, the normal cortisol range considered by laboratories can affect the interpretation of the result as well in which if the range is too broad the actual low level cortisol is not diagnosed, but if the range is considered too narrow, every test will fall in low range cortisol.
The saliva sample collection is another important factor as 50% of total cortisol production happens in just half an hour after waking up in the morning so if the test is collected any other time, it misses the peak production window; therefore, test results are falsely low!
He believes some diseases like Addison or chronic adrenal insufficiency which causes very low levels of cortisol might be diagnosed as adrenal fatigue as well.
HPA axis function is to protect you from its released hormones when the production is dangerously high or consistent which will cause in less sensitivity in receptors leading to cortisol resistance that naturally causes reduction in cortisol production which does not result from adrenal fatigue but by protective mechanisms in the brain, central nervous system or tissue-specific regulatory mechanism. Decreased bioavailability of cortisol hormone might be perceived as adrenal fatigue as well while high-level conversion of cortisol to cortisone is the actual cause.
In this article, we look at Adrenal Fatigue from the perspective of naturopathic medicine and the solutions it offers.
What is adrenal fatigue?
The main theory about adrenal fatigue was first popularized by Dr. Hans Selye who was studying the effect of stress on physiology and called it “general adaptation syndrome” but the term “adrenal fatigue” was first used in 1998 by James Wilson, a naturopathic doctor.
Dr. Wilson described it as a group of related signs and symptoms that appear when the adrenal glands function below the necessary level. He believed adrenal fatigue is usually associated with constant stress and often starts after chronic infections like flu, bronchitis or pneumonia. People with adrenal fatigue may not have any physical signs of disease, but still may feel tired and fatigued that does not dissolve with more sleep and rest. They also have cravings for salty foods!
To truly understand adrenal fatigue, we must know adrenal glands and their function.
Adrenal glands are two glands located on top of each kidney that are mainly responsible for producing your fight or flight response in stressful situations. They release hormones such as cortisol, adrenalin, DHEA, pregnenolone along with sex hormones like estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and also neurotransmitters such as dopamine to regulate blood pressure, metabolism, electrolyte balance, blood sugar, digestion, and immune response. The stressful situation can be internal or external, mental or physical resulted from chronic illness or environmental pollution, poor diet, too much exercise, lack of proper sleep and emotional abuse.
When faced with these stress triggers, your body provides a surge of energy and suppresses any energy expenditure to survive. It releases cortisol to increase blood sugar, breakdown protein and carbohydrate stores, and suppresses the immune system.
If the stressful situations become too frequent as it is in modern daily life with all the air and noise pollution, traffic, digital radiations, intense work schedules, relationship complications, and inadequate dietary nutrients, these intense chemical reactions are repeated constantly leading to insulin resistance, immune system damage and muscle loss. When adrenal glands constantly work hard to release required hormones, they being overworked over time and through three stages they become unable to produce enough hormones to the point where hormone production is below the normal range, which leads to adrenal failure.
Among functional medicine community, Dr. Chris Kresser believes that the term adrenal fatigue does not appropriately describe these symptoms and has suggested the term “HPA axis dysfunction” which is more holistic and takes into account the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal system that regulates your long term stress response in contrast to sympathoadrenal medullary system (SAS) that is responsible for short term stress response. These systems protect you from danger, but overstimulation will eventually lead to harm from the system itself.
Dr. Kresser believes that adrenal fatigue is not just about low levels of cortisol, which is often diagnosed by cortisol saliva test. 3 to 5 percent of total cortisol produced by adrenal glands are unbound from a protein carrier and the rest are cleared out of the bloodstream by different mechanisms until they release through urination; therefore, low levels of cortisol test result is not necessarily an indication of total cortisol production!
In addition, the normal cortisol range considered by laboratories can affect the interpretation of the result as well in which if the range is too broad the actual low level cortisol is not diagnosed, but if the range is considered too narrow, every test will fall in low range cortisol.
The saliva sample collection is another important factor as 50% of total cortisol production happens in just half an hour after waking up in the morning so if the test is collected any other time, it misses the peak production window; therefore, test results are falsely low!
He believes some diseases like Addison or chronic adrenal insufficiency which causes very low levels of cortisol might be diagnosed as adrenal fatigue as well.
HPA axis function is to protect you from its released hormones when the production is dangerously high or consistent which will cause in less sensitivity in receptors leading to cortisol resistance that naturally causes reduction in cortisol production which does not result from adrenal fatigue but by protective mechanisms in the brain, central nervous system or tissue-specific regulatory mechanism. Decreased bioavailability of cortisol hormone might be perceived as adrenal fatigue as well while high-level conversion of cortisol to cortisone is the actual cause.