Adrenal Fatigue Treatment

Treating Adrenal fatigue can be a complex and time consuming affair. First of all – it is not easy to get a diagnosis. Conventional medicine does not even recognise adrenal fatigue as an issue. Kind of ironic really when you think how many Doctors are stressed and rushed off their feet and suffer from adrenal fatigue themselves. Naturopaths recognise and treat this problem and so do some Nutritionists and herbalists.

How to Treat Adrenal Fatigue

In a word, the answer is to treat it “holistically”. For some people this means a thorough look at our whole life pattern. How much stress are we carrying and why? Is our job the problem and how much does our family contribute? And lastly how much can we improve our ability to cope?

Lots to sort out with your Health care provider. Here are some strategies you may find useful in treating adrenal fatigue.

1    Get organised! I know you are exhausted but you have too much to do and need to make a list of tasks. Having done that sort out how much can you ignore without serious problems. You can skip washing the car – you can’t skip feeding your children! Drop anything or postpone anything you can  – you need breathing space.

2    Clean your diet up. Deep fried food and soft drinks – sodas, stress your body and take energy away and you need all the energy you can get. Choose simple easy to digest foods and buy as fresh as possible. Soups are easy for a tired body to digest and are very nourishing. Soups along with salad will give you extra energy you need.

3    Supplements are crucial in recovering from adrenal fatigue and need to be chosen in consultation with a professional but here are some suggestions to help you get going and an idea of why you need them.

4    Magnesium capsules or tablets – 1,000 milligrams of magnesium helps to relax and unwind those tense muscles and will reduce neck and shoulder tension and pain.

5    Vitamin C – vitamin C fights inflammation in the body which saps our energy. It counteracts allergies and indigestion and strengthens the immune system which is weakened by stress.

6    Ginseng either Siberian or Korean is fine even thought are very different herbs are special herbs for helping us deal with stress and so are totally approppriate as an Adrenal Fatigue Treatment. They are both subtle herbs and may not notice any particular effects at first. There is no waking up the following day feeling like an energizer bunny. But ginseng is working in the background and making a lot of hormonal and other balancing and healing actions. When I take it I do so for about 3 months.

7    A specific herb for the adrenals is licorice. You can take this as a tincture or a tea -  it is very calming and strengthening and tastes delicious too.

There are lots of healing strategies you can adopt as a treatment for adrenal fatigue. Learning relaxation in a yoga class, getting a massage and generally being kind to yourself all help.

Most of all this is a wakeup call that some change is needed in your life and you need to pay attention. Adrenal Fatigue Treatment may take a long time but after all it is coreecting for a lifestyle that may have been out of balance for several years.
 
 

Adrenal Fatigue Diet

Adrenal fatigue is a common and serious state to be in and we need to not just get some proper treatment from a Health professional but also follow a diet designed for adrenal fatigue patients.

“I’m not a patient – I’m just tired” – yes I’m hearing you but being tired all the time and this condition going on for months or years means you are a patient and the condition is adrenal fatigue.

Adrenal Fatigue is a condition that we get into after long term levels of stress that totally deplete our reserves. Some big changes are required and that includes diet.

And the problem with changing our daily food choices is that we have big emotional ties with our favourite foods! That means we have to go slow with some of the changes so that we don’t add to our current level of stress!

Adrenal Fatigue Diet Checklist

1.    Avoid stimulants. For some of us it may to be too difficult to go “cold Turkey” on this because we all use some kind of stimulant – it may be caffeine, sugar, smoking etc. there are many and we should not drop them in one go but scale down step by step. So instead of a morning cup of coffee find a tasty herb tea like licorice that actually helps your health by supporting your adrenals instead of a high caffeine drink like coffee. Typically coffee has 2 or 3 times the caffeine than tea so switching coffee out in favour of tea helps. Be a little creative and work variety in to your daily beverages. Enjoy the changes!

2.    Choose mild balancing foods. So soup is on the menu and casseroles too. They are easy to make and digest easily too. Avoid anything that gives you digestive or allergic problems. You must give your system a break and choosing simple foods helps a lot. Salads with a simple dressing of olive oil or flax oil rather than dressing or mayo are recommended. As much as you can avoid “ready” meals and think up simple meals you can prepare from basic ingredients.

3.    For the period of your adrenal recovery plan forget weight control diets and other diets too – they can wait until you have more energy. If you avoid a healthy adrenal diet in favour of some idea of being heart healthy etc you will complicate your recovery. Doubts or confusion of this kind should be sorted out by Seeing a Naturopathic Doctor or a good Nutritionist.

4.    Check the glycaemic index of your foods. Yes you should drop sugar and chemical sweeteners too. Probably Stevia is the best sweetener but check out a list of glycaemic index foods and avoid the high glycaemic index foods because these are foods that stress the body.

5.    Following a diet that keeps your blood sugar steady and avoiding the roller coaster of high sugar levels and then low sugar levels is important. Eating 5 or 6 small meals a day helps with this but so does choosing the low glycemic index ( G.I.) foods.

6.    The best information on G.I. is from the University of Sydney which did the original research.

Adrenal Fatigue is a real and serious condition that you have to take seriously but you can recover with the right advice, diet and supplements. One last word – as well as following this kind of diet I would advise seeing a practitioner of EFT such as Robert Smith. Emotional Freedom Technique can wipe out problems causing you stress and help get well much faster.
 

Adrenal Support Supplements

Adrenal Support Supplements help us recover from the long term stress condition of Adrenal Fatigue aka “burn out”. Yes we need other kinds of support such as the right Adrenal Diet and the right Emotion Support too but supplements have their place too and can reduce the time taken to recover and get our energy back.

Let’s look at Adrenal Support Supplements step by step.

Adrenal Support Supplements – basic vitamins

From a basic health point of view vitamin C is crucial in supporting and helping the adrenals. How much to take is best sorted out with an expert but I would start with 2 grams a day and see how much help that gave before raising the dose.

B Complex vitamins – yeah, vitamin B is really several vitamins but they work together to help the body get its energy from the food you eat. A pretty strong B complex formula is needed. I’ll put some possible products at the end of this article.

Vitamin E – like vitamin C is a major anti-oxidant and fights infection. Part of the level of stress we carry long term and often don’t realise it is a background burden of infection. Taking proper amounts of these vitamins reduces the energy drain on the body and helps you recover faster from adrenal fatigue.

One Last point on vitamins for adrenal fatigue / chronic fatigue you cannot get adequate amounts from your diet and you need more than the small amounts in Multi-vitamin tablets and capsules. If you doubt this last point please do get reassurance from a Nutritionist or naturopath which are the only professionals trained in using vitamins and other supplements properly.

Adrenal Support Supplements – minerals

Well the first thing I do is ask all patients to get a laboratory test done for their mineral balance. The easiest way to do this is to use a hair sample and send it for analysis of trace minerals. I have mostly used a company called Mineral Check and have been very pleased.

The main mineral nearly everybody needs is magnesium – especially in adrenal fatigue. At least take 1,000 mg at bed time to help relax the muscles and reduce energy drain and encourage circulation of the blood and lymph.

Adrenal Support Supplements – Herbs

Two main herbs spring to mind with many possible variations. The crucial ones are Ginseng and licorice.
Ginseng is a wonderful, mild and helpful herb. Sadly some people are put off by all the rubbish published about it. But whether you use Siberian ginseng, or Chinese or Korean ginseng you will get relief.
But it is subtle. You will not get an energy rush because this is genuine healing and that takes time. It starts working right away but it may be days or weeks before you realise that your energy levels are returning.

You need to keep taking the ginseng and keep looking after yourself because the temptation will be to get back to the unbalanced lifestyle you lead which got you in to burnout and adrenal fatigue in the first place.

And the licorice – can be taken as a herb tea. It helps restore energy and your digestion and is an all-round tonic.

There are plenty of other herbs that may suit an individual recovering from adrenal fatigue but these 2 are the most important and can do a lot of “heavy lifting” by themselves. Together with the vitamins and minerals above, you will have a very helpful adrenal fatigue formula.