Typically, adrenal fatigue is a term applied to a collection of nonspecific symptoms. For example, the Mayo Clinic indicates symptoms such as body aches and extreme fatigue. The Mayo Clinic also indicates symptoms such as nervousness, sleep disturbances, and digestive problems. At Optimum Health, we start with the root of the problem. Therefore, we view adrenal fatigue slightly differently. Adrenal fatigue is a term used to describe a person experiencing prolonged periods of stress. In turn, the stress leads to anxiety and panic, causing overworked/fatigued adrenal glands. This is what leads to the collection of symptoms mentioned above. The groundwork for the concept of adrenal fatigue is actually taught in medical school as the fight-or-flight response.
Adrenal Fatigue Can Start as the Fight or Flight Response
Adrenal fatigue, starting with the fight-or-flight response, makes a lot of sense when you really stop and think about it. First, let’s think about a scary movie scene where someone is running through the woods, trying to get away from the bad guy. The camera usually flashes one scene after another through the woods as the person tries to pay attention to every detail, since they do not know which part the bad guy will jump from. Fight-or-flight is much like this. Your body sends most of your nutrients and blood flow to your arms and legs so you can run away from or fight the bad guy. Your body begins to create extra hormones like adrenaline, cortisol, DHEA, and insulin
In this situation, your mind switches to surveillance mode so you can pay attention to everything and get the first indication that the bad guy is appearing. This means that you don’t focus on any one thing, and this can make you appear to have ADD or ADHD.
While running from the bad guy, do you think you will want to stop to sleep, urinate, or eat? No, because the fight-or-flight response causes you to postpone these normal body functions as long as possible, though you may grab something to snack on as you run. During the fight-or-flight response, your adrenal glands pump adrenaline as fast as they can, which can lead to adrenal fatigue. Once you are finally able to stop and settle down, you may feel extreme fatigue as your body tries to function at maximum capacity to “escape the bad guy.”
Prolonged Fight or Flight Response
With prolonged activation of the fight-or-flight response, the adrenal glands can become overworked. The adrenal glands may even get stuck functioning at maximum capacity and become fatigued. In the natural health world, we call this adrenal fatigue.
In this case, our use of the term “adrenal fatigue” is not an attempt to diagnose; only physicians can do that. Adrenal fatigue is simply a name we use to refer to this situation. We need a way to state what we are talking about! Since the traditional medical world tends to ignore the reality of this situation, it simply treats symptoms while overlooking the root cause.
In the natural health world, we believe adrenal fatigue is a serious situation. It is affecting many people today. Due to the stressful lives that we lead, we feel like we are running through life. What is needed is to begin understanding adrenal fatigue. Only then can we address the cause and stop just treating the symptoms. In every case that we have dealt with at Optimum Health, we soothe and nourish the adrenal glands. Then, all symptoms subside.
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References:
adrenalfatiguesolution.com/stages-of-adrenal-fatigue/
www.drlam.com/articles/adrenalexhaustion.asp
