Adrenal Fatigue?

Why does it matter what you think? Facts win - opinions are common.....

Because no matter how long you debate - facts still win....

I don't believe that it is a 'hoax' in the sense of malicious deception, but rather an effort to categorize a set of symptoms that might be the result of chronic stress or some other chronic yet subclinical issue (also a stress (adrenal, thyroid, food intolerances, infection, and inflammation; maybe even vitamin deficiency or nutrient malabsorption)). Perhaps "adrenal" was a presumptuous word to choose. There are several diseases that start messing with you before they become detectable... could it be something like a subclinical form of addisons? We all accept that depression exists, and symptoms of AF seem to be similar. From what I have seen, the treatments for AF include many of the same treatments suggested for depression: Get adequate sleep, manage your stress, exercise, mindfulness, social connections, nutrition and keeping your blood sugar stable. Maybe it's just depression.

hpacaro wrote: »

I can speak from experience. I spent several years convinced something was wrong with me after going to multiple doctors and having everything checked out perfectly (on paper, I was the picture of health in every way)... yet, I could barely keep my head up in the afternoons I was so fatigued, I was physically and emotionally exhausted every night but unable to sleep, every time I would exercise, I would puff up for several days. I've never had depression in my life and yet, I could barely make myself get up in the morning and put one foot in front of the other. I've always managed my weight and have had a relatively actively lifestyle, carried a stressful corporate job for 18 years and have 2 very active and sporty kids. The doctors explanation was "You're 40, this is life". I call B.S. on that excuse and since I started managing the symptoms and taking the supplements my chiropractor had recommended, I rarely have issues unless I push myself too far (which is likely still an extreme to how the average person operates on a daily basis). I now teach group fitness and can easily teach 2-3 relatively intense classes in a day without issue. None of my blood tests have changed despite how much better I feel and my doctor (new Functional Med Doc, not one who told me I was just old) has outright told me that while Adrenal Fatigue isn't recognized by Western Medicine, she does believe there is truth to it. For me, I don't think it was simply depression as that was the symptom I felt the least. The wired and tired from cortisol being "off" was the worst causing an inability to get to sleep at night then being so fatigued in the AM you couldn't move. You could say it was caffeine (it's typically the drug of choice for people in this situation) but I forced myself to quit early on in hopes it would help... and it may have improved slightly but did not resolve the overall issue. So you can debate the name and recognition (I don't really care what you call it to be honest!), but I can't debate the symptoms I experienced and the progress I've made in getting my life back.

The bolded, exactly, is me with depression. It is not just feeling sad.
But I am very glad that you have found something that has helped.
Are you taking ashwagandha? I took it for awhile and *think* it helped, but there really was no way to measure it. I rely 100% on lifestyle changes now.

It's the kind of nebulous complaints that we used to get from fibromyalgia patients when phycians were still trying to determine if it was a physical or psychological problem, or perhaps symptoms of a different disease entirely.

Obviously fibromyalgia turned out to be real, but many of the patients that thought they had it, didn't. In a funny twist, there were a number of patients that had been diagnosed with atypical lupus that actually had fibromyalgia.

That said, I'm pretty certain adrenal fatigue is either a load or misdiagnosis of other actual syndromes. Transcriptomics is very capable of detecting the existence of a syndrome like this is supposed to be. Where is the study? All it would take is a blood draw from a good number of supposed affecteds, run microarray or RNAseq and compare expression patterns to healthy. If it is a thing, there should be a detectable difference with some consistency in the affecteds given an allowance for misdiagnosis. That would be enough of a pilot test to warrant further study. But it doesnt exist, which makes me think no one with any kind of legitimacy sees any merit in it.

Obviously this thread will run and run on distinct lines, those of us who have no/never had health issues and those on the other side who know they have been failed by general western medicine on the other. AF feeds into the Hypothyroid debate because it is part of the same feed back cycle including the pituitary gland, they both can drag the thyroid down if not treated properly, endocrinologists are supposed to ensure there are no issues but they don't. As long as our darling doctors refuse to measure our available t3, and thyroid antibodies, for Graves or Hashimoto' this will always be declared unsubstantiated. I believe this negativity s underpinned by the outcry of "hysteria" which was directed at women in the past because the male dominated medical profession did not and still do not recognise the different needs of and demands made on the bodies of the male and the female and need for t3 as well as a nutritious diet.

Before the official testing system was set in place there was one simple answer, Natural Desiccated Thyroid in all unexplained circumstances of ....(any of the 300 possible symptoms which gravitate to the poor health of primarily women. Today the tsh test, has been usurped by the medical profession, even the person who's name I forget, was known to have wished he had not provided the world with this test because it is not being used properly. STTM the American thyroid support site says of the "Numbers game", which all our specimens are held up to is unreliable because the status of the patients who's blood was tested in the initial research were not asked, 1. if they had a thyroid problem or 2.if a relative had a diagnosis: so this is not reflected in the pattern of expectations to which we are supposed to conform; then add that women are 10 times more likely to be compromised by these symptoms than a man so it is responsible for the lives of predominantly women being victimised as charlatans because of the lack of understanding.

Society is also to blame expecting women to look like stick insects (mo), demanding they eat like emaciated beings and tells them not to worry about the value of their nutrition, to Western Medics and Fashion gurus it matters not that the girl/woman before them is not receiving the nutrients, at least the 150 microns of iodine daily and other minerals and vitamins to enable her system to achieve all the demands this modern "caring" society requires.

To me, as one of the "in the know" persons, my husband is a believer too, he has seen me grow from the diminished, difficult to live with person I'd become following the old western medicinal rules, in constant pain and totally miserable, to someone who will tame the world, without the help of the people to whom I was supposed to show due deference. Our general health system closes the door to health to so many women causing them to leave the workforce because the persons to whom we turn will not keep up with the latest science, indicating the detrimental effects of antibiotic over use, poor diet. Look to the advice given by Functional Medicine who are helping many of us live a longer healthier lives once we have turned the tanker round. I've more going form me now than I had over 38 years ago, you only have my word for that so.... It was not my age, me being lazy or any other derogatory term used towards me over those years. It was having to follow the very worst advice going, in WGM.

Nay Sayers, please fell free to continue but allow us who know better to get on with our regained full and active lives before its too late which it would be if I still trusted my designated doctors.

ETA.

I'm confident to set a challenge to anyone who has poor health, at least gives this a go. Look into Functional Medicine. You have nothing to loose but your poor health.