Are you tired of feeling tired? Like so many of my Personal Program patients, Tom came to me suffering from fatigue and sleep problems. It had been a tough year and a half for him.
Tom explained, "I think it all started when my wife and I finally had to tell our daughter to move out. She had been quite the problem child for a few years: drugs, drinking, non-stop fighting with the rest of us, and a few other things I'd rather not go into."
"All the energy that went into dealing with her got me distracted from my business. It wasn't long before I started developing some serious financial problems. Then, I began waking up in the middle of the night worrying about my daughter and my finances. I couldn't do anything to get back to sleep. And I'm still having that problem, so I get about 4-5 hours of sleep a night, and I know that's not enough."
"So I drink coffee throughout the day. At first, it helped keep me going, and I felt a little better. But now it seems like I'm exhausted by lunchtime. I've been a weight lifter my whole life, and these days I have a really hard time finding the energy to get to the gym. Sometimes I'll grab a double espresso on the way over there, but even that doesn't always do the trick."
It was pretty obvious that Tom had run himself into the ground. Between the family problems, the financial problems, the over-training at the gym, and the all-day caffeine consumption, it was no wonder that he was feeling fatigued. That was just an early symptom of what could be more serious health problems. Since Tom had recently had a complete physical with his medical doctor, he was confident he didn't have any life threatening conditions.
I agreed to work with Tom, and he went on to complete the 13-page Starting Point assessment that I use with my patients. I sent him a Functional Adrenal Stress Profile lab kit so we could see what kind of shape his adrenal glands were in.
The Functional Adrenal Stress Profile is a saliva test that measures stress hormone levels throughout the day. It's an inexpensive and non-invasive way to get a picture of how the adrenal glands are functioning.
The adrenal glands are responsible for making your stress hormones - the chemicals your body naturally produces to help you meet the physical and mental demands of your daily life. Prolonged or poorly managed stresses can start to burn out your adrenal glands, and you can start having trouble getting through your days.
Some of the symptoms can include:
- Fatigue - from mild to severe. Poor sports performance (feeling like you've lost your edge).
- Inability to lose weight.
- Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep.
- Digestive problems like bloating or gas.
- Depression, anxiety or irritability.
Those are just a few common symptoms that can be associated with adrenal gland burnout. There are generally 3 stages of adrenal burnout:
- Stage 1 (early adrenal burnout). In the early stages of adrenal burnout, your stress hormone levels (cortisol and DHEA) will be high. Your adrenals are still able to keep up with your high-stress lifestyle.
- Stage 2 (mid-stage adrenal burnout). In stage 2, one of the stress hormone levels will drop. This indicates that you've dug yourself a "hole" and you need to take steps to let your adrenals recover, including sleeping more, eating right, and taking supplements to support your adrenal glands.
- Stage 3 (late-stage adrenal burnout). In the later stages of adrenal gland burnout, but stress hormones bottom out. When lab testing reveals such severe burnout, bio-identical (natural) hormone replacement may be necessary to help your adrenals recover. I often work with my patients' primary care doctors in these situations. Fortunately, most of the patients I treat are in Stage 1 or Stage 2. Tom's test results showed that he was solidly in stage 2 of adrenal gland burnout. His cortisol was low, but his DHEA was normal.
The information I was able to gather from his 13-page Starting Point assessment pointed to many different changes we could make. These changes included:
- Cleaning up Tom's diet, and helping him kick his fast food habit. Low-quality food can prevent your adrenals from recovering.
- Tapering his coffee consumption down. I'm not against a couple of cups of coffee in the early part of the day, but drinking it all day long will burnout the adrenals. Improving Tom's sleep. Help Tom work on managing his stresses.
- Creating an exercise program that allows him to work out without burning out, including kettlebell interval training.
- Helping him avoid foods that he's allergic to or intolerant of. Tom had a pre-diagnosed gluten intolerance, but was not avoiding foods that he should have been staying away from. This is common.
- Putting Tom on an appropriate adrenal support supplementation protocol, so his adrenals could heal and his body could start naturally producing more cortisol. Tom was eager to start his program, and accepted all the changes that he needed to make. We worked on his exercise program together for 6 weeks. He learned to use kettlebells, and we integrated them into his gym workout.
We cut his workouts from 6 days a week to 3 days a week. After 6 weeks, we moved him back to working out 4 days a week. We met in the office for his bi-weekly coaching sessions, and that really helped him stick to the program.
After about a month, he really started noticing that he felt better. The exercise was helping him get rid of some of the anger he was feeling, and that helped him deal with his stress. It also helped him start sleeping better.
He cut down to two cups of coffee in the morning, and occasionally broke the rules and had a cup after lunch. He took his supplements and faithfully stuck to his nutrition program.
The toughest change we made was keeping him away from the gluten. Since gluten is a part of most baked goods, it's tough for people to stay off of it. Tom did his best but wasn't perfect. I made Tom aware of the relationship between the gluten intolerance and stressed adrenals. This made it easier for him to see the "big picture" and that helped avoid gluten.
At 3 months, we took Tom off of his adrenal support supplements and re-tested him. His cortisol levels had come up nicely, so we kept him on a high-quality multi vitamin / multi mineral. He's doing much better these days.
If you think you're been suffering from the symptoms of adrenal fatigue, you may enroll in one of Dr. Hyman's programs, or schedule a 45-minute initial consultation to discuss your situation.
The information contained in this article is for educational purposes only. Do not use this information for self-diagnosis or self-treatment. Have any symptoms evaluated by a licensed doctor in your state. Never start this or any other exercise, nutrition, supplementation, or stress-management program without consulting a licensed medical doctor. Working out can cause injury and / or death. The author is in no way trying to do anything other than share information with you. He accepts absolutely no liability for any damages you may incur in relationship to anything you read or saw on this website.
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