What is 'Adrenal Fatigue ’? It's a term that describes the (very real) effects on the body after a prolonged period of stress. But here's the catch, your adrenal glands aren't actually 'fatigued'. It’s an incorrect term. A more correct description is 'HPA axis dysregulation'.
So what does that mean?
Stress activates the HPA axis (H= Hypothalamus, P = Pituitary gland, A = Adrenal glands). Yes the adrenals are involved, but it’s a much more complex neuro-endocrine system that involves more than just the adrenal glands pumping out cortisol when we’re stressed.
Let’s quickly go through what actually happens in the body when we switch into fight or flight mode.
Want to listen to a brief explanation, rather than read? Click below:
It starts with our senses that have discovered a threat, which sends an alert to the brain. In response to this alert, our hypothalamus releases ‘corticotropin releasing hormone’ (or CRH) which makes its way to have an effect on the pituitary gland (also in the brain). The pituitary responds by releasing adreno-corticotropic hormone (ACTH) to travel through the bloodstream to our adrenal glands (located on the top of our kidneys). Our adrenal glands produce and release stress hormones (mainly cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline) in response to stress. These hormones are involved in activating our ‘fight or flight’ response, (aka activation of our sympathetic nervous system).
These stress hormones have a quick action throughout the body to give us the sudden energy, strength, attention and quick responses we need for surviving danger. The stress hormones direct our energy & blood flow towards life saving functions such as increasing our heart rate to pump more oxygen around the body, increasing our lung capacity to draw in more oxygen, our pupils are dilated, and our blood sugar is raised so that we have a fast source of energy… you get the idea - basically everything we need to FIGHT OR RUN! And naturally, when we’re in this state, our body brings energy away from non-life saving functions such as suppressing digestion, our immune function and our reproductive system. All of this happens in a split second which is totally amazing.
In acute situations, once the danger is over we can go back to our ‘rest and digest’ mode (aka our parasympathetic nervous system state). Our body first has to recover and repair from the expended resources we just used to deal with the danger, but as long as the DANGER/stress doesn’t come back while we’re recovering, then things pretty much just go back to normal.
The HPA axis dysregulation occurs when we’re chronically stressed. The HPA axis functions to help us to respond super quickly to a stressful event (eg. DANGER) and then recover fairly quickly as well >> we need to recover quickly to ensure we have the available resources to respond to another stressful event if that occurs (eg. like a bear chasing us while we run like hell, then the bear disappears. When the bear is gone, we can recover from stress and reactivate the parasympathetic nervous system (aka - rest & digest), But then the bear comes back again & we reactivate the HPA axis (aka: the fight or flight response) so that we can fight the bear or run away.
These days, we have a HUGE amount of stressors activating the HPA axis constantly - Eg. running late for work, drinking caffeine, working through a giant pile of work at the office, meeting that deadline, dealing with a rude customer, fighting with your partner, worrying about finances, not to mention big life events such as the loss of a loved one, divorce, legal battles, major injury, etc. This constant barrage of stressors can deplete our body because we haven’t had that time to recover, and it can lead to all kinds of issues. It starts with chronic stress, then leads to adrenal fatigue, and ultimately burnout.
So what kinds of symptoms can you expect to see when adrenal fatigue kicks in?
Feeling tired when you wake up in the morning
Needing coffee to wake yourself up.
Getting energy dips and sugar cravings in the afternoon.
Getting sick with all the bugs going around.
Dealing with salt cravings.
Having more energy or a ‘second wind’ in energy late at night
Taking a long time to fall asleep.
Getting dizzy or starry eyes when you stand up quickly.
Finding it hard to concentrate
Foggy brain or mind blanks or difficulty finding the words to say
More forgetful
More easily irritable and having much less patience
Weight gain (especially around the middle) or stubborn weight loss.
Bloating, reflux, indigestion, constipation, diarrhoea or food intolerances
Skin issues such as acne, dermatitis, eczema or psoriasis.
These symptoms occur for many reasons:
Nutritional deficiencies - which comes from expending too many nutrient resources while in fight or flight, particularly zinc, B vitamins, magnesium and vitamin C, PLUS malabsorption from poor digestion (remember, we’re not allowing our body to ‘rest and digest’ if we're stressed), and also poorer food choices due to stress, being short on time, and increased cravings for sugar, salt and processed foods.
Imbalanced Circadian Rhythm, aka our sleep and awake cycle. This is mostly due to cortisol imbalance from the dysregulated stress response, increased adrenaline and nutrient deficiencies, but we’ll cover this more another time.
Hormone imbalances - one of the most common we see is oestrogen dominance. We would like to see a balance between progesterone and oestrogen, but when the body needs loads of cortisol, it can actually steal progesterone to make cortisol, leading to an imbalance between more oestrogen and less progesterone. Oestrogen dominance can come about due to high levels of oestrogen, or normal levels of oestrogen but with low progesterone (hence oestrogen being the dominant hormone in that ratio).
Blood sugar imbalances - like I mentioned earlier, the body releases more glucose into the blood stream so the body has a super fast source of energy. Cortisol also triggers the body to make MORE glucose for the body to use. Because of this, we can end up with a blood sugar crash. When we’re triggering cortisol at all different times of the day due to the stressors we face, our blood sugar becomes imbalanced as a result. This is often why we crave sugary foods when we’re stressed.
Sodium loss and blood pressure changes - Aldosterone is another hormone released by the adrenal glands in response to stress. Aldosterone helps to maintain our blood pressure and our electrolyte balance in the body. It does this by retaining more sodium in our kidneys, and excreting more potassium. When we have adrenal insufficiency from prolonged stress, we can produce less aldosterone which in turn causes us to have less salt in our blood, leading to low blood pressure and salt cravings. This is also the reason we may need to use the bathroom a lot more at night, and low blood pressure can be behind our fatigue and dizziness when standing up quickly. It can also be behind regular muscle cramps.
There are many, many more ways that prolonged stress causes havoc upon the body, but this should give you some idea of just how much of an impact it really does make.
P.S: Have you joined my program: The Cortisol Balance Reset? Click below to start today! xx
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