Do you ever get tired? Do you ever feel rundown and overwhelmed? Do you ever find it really hard to get out of bed in the morning? Let me guess…You’ve not only felt them, you feel them all the time. And you accept it as “normal.” But have you ever thought to yourself that maybe this is completely unnatural? Have you ever thought that there may be something wrong and it could be killing you?
I didn’t either. I thought to myself, “Just suck it up.” Mainly because I didn’t have any distinctions for a much deeper issue. It’s not depression. I actually believe this is one of the causes of depression. It’s called adrenal fatigue.
“Adrenal fatigue is produced when your adrenal glands cannot adequately meet the demands of stress. The adrenal glands mobilize your body’s responses to every kind of stress (whether it’s physical, emotional, or psychological) through hormones that regulate energy production and storage, immune function, heart rate, muscle tone, and other processes that enable you to cope with the stress” – AdrenalFatigue.orgOnce the adrenals are shot, lethargy ensues and our immune functions are weakened entirely. Years ago I lived with a chronic sense of tiredness, getting sick constantly until I had this distinction. Feeling tired had become so common I actually forgot it, and I only remembered it again when my healers took a look at me and said, “Your adrenals are shot.”
Has your doctor ever taken a look at you and said, “I think we should test your adrenal glands?” Probably not. Unfortunately most doctors are not aware of it. But I don’t find that surprising considering doctors don’t spend any time learning about nutrition, which I believe is amazing medicine.
I think the biggest evidence that this has become a prevalent disease is how much we self-medicate with caffeine. Coffee is the second most traded commodity next to oil.
But do you actually know how the drug works? Most people don’t realize that when you drink caffeine, you’re not actually getting energy from the molecule. The molecule is creating a chemical reaction in your brain such that it makes you steal your own energy. It creates a small emergency in which the pituitary glands respond by releasing your own adrenaline. The Oatmeal explains it best:
That said, many people (like me) have tapped our adrenals without even using caffeine.
The good news is that the disease has a cure. This is the best book on the subject of Adrenal Fatigue, and I highly recommend it to get a complete view on how it works, the symptoms, and what you can do to shift your lifestyle. But here are a few highlights:
- Eliminate caffeine as much as possible (Just know that it’s a drug. If anything, treat it like a drug, rather than like a food source).
- Alcohol and sugar further exacerbate the disease.
- Get sleep between 6am and 8am as often as you can. It’s when the body produces the most adrenaline, so it will greatly increase your recovery time.
- If you have chocolate cravings, it may really be magnesium that you need.
- Take a ton of Vitamin C (see the book for dosing)
- Don’t be afraid of salt. Unless you have high blood pressure, salt is very helpful (especially healthy kinds, like RealSalt)
- Don’t tolerate stress. If you really think about it, the amount of stress we have in our lives is the amount that we will tolerate. If that seems impossible, then you may need to consider your lifestyle (e.g. – Do you really think you can watch dramatic TV shows and they won’t affect your psyche?)
I don’t like to write about disease, but having these distinctions have really saved my life, and if this sounds like you or someone you know, I hope you’ll consider looking into it.
When you do, you may find something even deeper. You may find that all that work, all that stress, all that running around town like a chicken with its head cut off was really covering up something within you… A passion you forgot or never knew about, a purpose for your life that makes everything suddenly make sense. Or just that amazing and natural feeling that you’re safe… surrounded by the right people, at the right time, doing the right things, and that life couldn’t be any better.
Robert Richman 