Adrenal Fatigue

[BigMommaOf4]

Think I may have this. Have suffered from lightheadedness (constant) and foggy headedness for 5 years now . Also get continuous panicky feelings, carb cravings and am tired all the time (9 week baby's night wakings not helping that ).

I have been under stress for oohh, as long as I can remember! and can't handle it anymore obviously. GP prescibed Prozac for anxiety which made it worse although it did motivate me start baking for a while!!

From what I have read about Adrenal Fatigue, it all adds up. I am going to my GP next week to see what he says but it seems some GPs will not recognise this as real, so will probably be told it's all in my head again [anger].

Anyone had this and if so, did the supplements with the glandulars work for you (before I order some)?

The lightheadedness is a bloody nightmare, especially as it means I am wary of picking up my baby as I worry I may drop him. Have all sorts of tests and nothing showed up.

You can check your adrenals with a home test here
You may want to try some licorice extract before you hit the glandular extracts.
I don't think a GP will recognise your problem but you could ask him for a thyroid test to rule that out.
Have to go out now but will check back later.

You mentioned carb cravings; IME we often crave what is bad for us; try cutting out all wheat (including good wholemeal) you can substitute with rye (Waitrose do good pure rye bread) and whole rice. HTH

sorry you're feeling ill, sounds horrible.
I think you might or might not have some sort of adrenal fatigue... your symptoms are ones which fit in to many problems unfortunately.

Perhaps try the home test as the thing is with adrenal fatigue, is that it is subclinical. Hence, you are still making some cortisol and adrenaline, just a reduced amount to what your body should be running on. And modern medicine doesn't allow for that kind of ambiguity.

Exhaustion might be more a term used by med professionals, but they don't tend to be able to prescribe anything for that really. If you had adrenal failure it's obviously quite serious and the treatment is long term steroids amongst other things, which mess up your adrenal glands.

I think it would be ok to do a home test but I'm not sure about gland extracts etc... I think liquorice is a better bet, along with plenty of very nourishing food, sleep and gentle exercise.

Hope that you can get some relief though xxx

I have adrenal failure, which came on slowly, many years ago now.

|from my experience of the early days of adrenal failure, I think if you were suffering from adrenal fatigue, or low adrenal reserve, you would also notice:

• loss of appetite, which is quite distinctive. Tasty food will have the appeal of cardboard.

• a severe increase in symptoms when under physical stress, or to a lesser extent, emotional stress.

I didn't suffer from panicky feelings, or carb cravings.

Also, no endocrinologist has ever ordered me a cortisol test, because cortisol levels vary so hugely depending on time of day, and state of health that the results are thought to be meaningless.

BigMomma let us know what your GP says next week

Well thanks for all your replies. GP sent me for blood tests which show low iron (perhaps because I recently gave birth and was breastfeeding?) and low cortisol. He did not think the test results important enough for me to see him at the surgery, he told me over a telephone consultation so I won't worry too much.

He did say he will come back to me on whether they are going to investigate it further. I am rather of the mind that they should . Read some worrying things about low cortisol and what problems it can cause. Definitely makes sense wrt Adrenal Fatigue - from a website I found, it looks like I am at stage 3 on the scale .

Have started taking Adrenal Glandulars, an Adrenal Support complex (chinese herbs) and a Vit B complex. Am thinking I may be overdoing it on them as have bloody diarrohhea [sic] as well now!

I think it's quite unlikely you have adrenal fatigue.

To be more precise, I think it's quite unlikely that adrenal fatigue exists.

It is, to the best of my knowledge, a term that has been used in recent years by pharmaceutical companies to sell unregulated supplements.

This is not intended to ignore your symptoms, or to doubt them but just to indicate that you may be looking in the wrong direction.

Pubmed, the library of medical research doesn't acknowledge the term and the articles like this might you give you an idea why.

I would pursue the low iron (anaemia can cause your symptoms) and follow up the low cortisol, as I'm sure your G.P will do.

Hope this is clear and of help.

My cortisol levels were 51 at 12pm which I am told is pretty low so I had the ACTH [sic] cortisol test today to see if my adrenal glands are producing enough with the stimulation of the ACTH. Am awaiting the results (sometime this afternoon hopefully) with baited breath!

They did not use the term 'adrenal fatigue' but 'adrenal insufficiency', they also mentioned problems with the pituary gland that could explain it.

At least my Gp has referred me to an endocrinologist now, after 5 bloody years!!

Hope you get on OK. If you do turn out to have adrenal insufficiency, it really is OK to live with.

big momma
how are you getting on?