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graphic showing quote from Dr Seyle, "It's not the stress that kills us, it's our reaction to it."

Adrenal Gland Fatigue

Your adrenal glands are vital to full body health and energy production. Without strong adrenal function you will experience adrenal insufficiency and chronic disease. Your adrenal glands are supported by your liver, pineal gland, and thyroid. Without these various organs working in unison or maintaining proper ratios and balance, then dysfunction with any organ can occur.

We largely work in supporting the adrenal glands for their overall impact and function on all organs. By zooming out, looking at the body as a whole with a checks-and-balance system, we can paint a better picture for creating, maintaining, and optimizing ideal balance, harmony, or homeostasis within your body.

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What Do the Adrenal Glands Do?

The adrenal glands work to regulate your metabolism by converting your food and oxygen into energy. This is not the only place this conversion occurs. Food and oxygen mixing to produce energy happens in every single cell in the body – within the mitochondria – besides red blood cells (RBCs).

Outside of producing energy for the body, the adrenal glands work on regulating blood sugar levels, balancing salt, water, and blood pressure levels, especially while supporting a pregnancy. Directly, the adrenal glands produce the hormones: cortisol (THE stress hormone), aldosterone, adrenaline, noradrenaline, estrogen, and testosterone.

6 Common Mainstream Medical Adrenal Gland Disorders and Causes

  1. Addison’s Disease – condition when the adrenal glands do not make enough cortisol (stress hormone)

  2. Adrenal Gland Cancer – various cancers of the adrenal glands

  3. Aldosterone-producing adenoma – benign, non-cancerous, tumor which makes too much aldosterone with potential high blood pressure

  4. Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia – Genetic disorder where the adrenals do not produce enough cortisol. The most common being 21-hydroxylase deficiency (CAH1)

  5. Cushing’s Syndrome – increased levels of cortisol within the body

  6. Hereditary paraganglioma-pheochromocytoma – genetic condition causing tumors to produce adrenaline and various hormones

Dig Deeper

Click on any item below to learn more about adrenal gland fatigue.

Is Adrenal Gland Dysregulation a Symptom or Cause?

Simply, the body cannot heal in a state of chronic stress. Under states of chronic stress, your body cannot produce enough energy to regulate all the various functions – let alone fight off pathogens. This causes an over-abundance of free radical production, adding more stress to the situation. This slows your body’s ability to repair, rebuild, and control all healing within. From a bird’s eye view, clinically, when facing adrenal fatigue your body has been under long-standing stress from too high production of cortisol. At first this may produce high levels of cortisol, but then under long-standing distress, the adrenals cannot keep up that level of production, in turn producing too little cortisol – AKA adrenal fatigue.

All forms of stress – physical, chemical, hormonal, emotional, etc. – end up producing cortisol dysregulation. There is nothing wrong with this and is largely fine – until it is not. Problems manifest once it becomes chronic. Unchecked stress is the cause of all disease.

How Mainstream Wisdom Addresses Adrenal Dysfunction

How to “Fix” Too Much Cortisol Production Via Conventional Wisdom

When the adrenal glands produce too much cortisol, there are typically two reasons. The main reason being too high dosage of glucocorticoids over time. These medications are used to treat asthma, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and lupus1. Within this population, we have seen wonders with our Breath Restoration course and genetic testing. The second issue is stimulation from the Pituitary gland. The deeper question becomes – why is the adrenal glands and/or pituitary glands doing so? This requires further thinking.

How to “Fix” Too Little Cortisol Production Via Conventional Wisdom

When the adrenal glands do not produce enough cortisol, conventional wisdom is to supplement with hormones. Various steroids such as hydrocortisone and prednisone are used to supplement or replace the cortisol. This will work over the short-term; however, it does not get into the underlying reason why cortisol production has hit the floor. The ultimate reason why cortisol hits the floor is long durations of stress.

Our Approach to Treating Adrenal Gland Conditions Naturally or Holistically

We thoroughly enjoy helping treat those with adrenal gland challenges, looking for a different perspective or are wanting to address your adrenal dysfunction through more natural means. Remember, metabolism and energy production occur in all cells within the body, besides RBCs. To address adrenal conditions, we must assess the collective pathways which produce energy and regulate energy production or functions. The body is a collective unit – up and down regulating its function(s) based on other areas performing their functions.

Our approach to testing, assessing, and addressing adrenal conditions is through an intricate system which looks at various organs and energy producing mechanisms through non-pharmacological interventions. We work to embody Hippocrates statement, “food is thy medicine,” as much as possible before any form of supplementation(s).

The Importance of a “Balanced Diet” for Adrenal Fatigue Conditions

Without a deeper dive into your weekly nutritional “regiment” we cannot identify the holes within your eating habits largely causing your adrenal fatigue. Again, the adrenals regulate metabolism, mixing your food and oxygen to produce energy. If the foods you eat are not supporting your adrenal health, you are going to face massive challenges. You cannot outrun poor eating habits.

The Importance of Mineral and Vitamin Levels for Adrenal Fatigue Conditions

Through analyzing your eating habits, and lab work if needed, we look into mineral and vitamin inadequacies. Think of hormones (AKA enzymes) as your vehicle and minerals as the keys to your vehicle. You can have a Ferrari sitting in your garage, but if you do not have the key to start your Ferrari, then the Ferrari is useless. To have ideal adrenal function many things need to occur correctly, in proper ratios, to support optimum hormonal production, conversion, and regulation.

Your adrenal glands are your Vitamin C “holding” organs. Different forms of Vitamin C may function, uptake, and regulate differently within your body. Simply taking an over-the-counter (OTC) Vitamin C supplement may not be right for you. Or, your Vitamin C levels may be getting suppressed by other mechanisms. We dive deep into this within our Function Health Consultations. Regardless, we need adequate levels of Vitamin C for our adrenals to function optimally.

The Importance in Genetic Expression for Adrenal Fatigue Conditions

Genetics is a booming industry for health. It will lead the way in not only guiding you to an ideal eating program for optimal health but understanding your genetics will also help you understand why your body responds better with variations of food, supplements, and medications. Genetic testing will be a game changer for so many and will revolutionize healthcare. Learn more about our genetics testing options.

Treating the Symptoms or Treating the Cause of Adrenal Dysfunction

The problem with all these conventional, mainstream, medical approaches to adrenal distress is they are treating the symptom and kicking the can down the road. The underlying problem is still occurring and now they have masked the problem. It will not go away or truly get better without addressing the underlying problem. We must separate short-term benefit from long-term gains. Our traditional approaches are not working when zoomed out and looking at longer timeframes. If you have been taking adrenal medications, have you asked yourself when will I be able to get off my adrenal medications? If there is no end in sight with treating your adrenal complications via medications, maybe you should ask yourself – is there another way? The answer is overwhelmingly yes.

We can help you rebalance your adrenal glands and adrenal function naturally; but are you ready to make a real, long-lasting change to your health, is the better question.

Content written by Dr. Keith Sparks, DC | Root Cause Protocol (RCP) Consultant, Buteyko Instructor
Content reviewed by Dr. Rachel Sparks, DC | Root Cause Protocol (RCP) Consultant

Stress is the body's inability to make energy for the mind to respond to its environment quote graphic
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