I realized in yesterday’s post I didn’t give you any list that would compel you to believe that you also have adrenal issues. Today, I will remedy that mistake!
Pay attention, because some sources claim that 90% of Americans are in some stage of adrenal fatigue! I also didn’t tell you that it simple to heal these little glands that we need so much! Just takes some effort.

Link to the company that ran my saliva adrenal test (4 times throughout the day), good information about adrenals and their functions here too.

Here are some symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue:
Craving salty and sweet foods
Difficulty falling asleep at night, sleep lightly or wake early or often
Overwhelmed by or unable to cope with stressors
You feel most energetic in the evening
Difficulty relaxing, nervous, anxious or hyperactive
Often spacey, or foggy thinking, even memory loss
General exhaustion
Hormone imbalances
Weight gain, especially in abdomen and waist area
Hair starting to gray, thin out and become dry
Loss of appetite
Asthma, broncitis, cough
Allergies
Recurrent infections
Low Blood Sugar (hypoglycemia)
Swelling
Auto-immune disease
Poor digestions (poor GI health)
Inflammation

Sources:
Adrenal Fatigue, Do I have it?
Thyroid.about.com
Natural News
Body Ecology
- Not recommending any of the products on those pages! The sites just have some good explanations!

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To preface my adrenal writings…. you need to know this is going to be a post from a non-scientific prospective (which is the only way I understand them). There will be links at the end of the post to give you a better and deeper view.

For years I has heard the words Adrenal Fatigue and thought it was an old lady problem and a weird sounding issue (to be frank I also thought “whiners” when I heard someone complaining about it). The first time I took it seriously was when I watched to Dr. Rind’s and Anne Fischer Silva’s presentation at the 2010 Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) conference.

So, what do the adrenal glands do? Here is a summary from my (non-scientific brain)
- Adrenals are our stress handling glands.
- Adrenals put out the adrenaline when we need it.
- Adrenals are integral in our ability use our hormones.
- Adrenals are a factor in our emotional well being. (attitude!)
- When we are experiencing changes (internal or external), Adrenals help us regulate those changes in a way that makes sense to our body.
- When our blood sugar goes to high or too low, Adrenals regulate our internal balance.
- Adrenals control our immune system responses (this relates to cortisol levels and inflammation, more on that later…. just keep in mind this reason is why steroids are given to people with inflammation issues)
- When I drink coffee or other caffeine items my adrenals surge to balance my body.
- Stress (like disease, lack of sleep, emotional stress, etc) makes the adrenals work harder (remember the internal balance?)

Allright, so I realized they were important. Dr. Rind also said something terrifying (I am paraphrasing here), “If you have a thyroid problem you are almost guaranteed to have an adrenal problem and vice versa. I take extreme notes and study the person when they only have one issue or the other….. it happens so rarely.” I thought “Oh no! I have that old lady disease too!” Then Dr.Rind said something even more terrifying (again, I am paraphrasing here), “If you have been taking Armour or some other thyroid hormone, you are giving yourself an adrenal rush and will damage your adrenals and then you will be in even worse shape than before.” AAHHHH!!! I had been taking Armour for at least 7 months now, I knew my blood sugar had MAJOR lows, I had started drinking coffee to compensate, I wasn’t going to bed early enough, I had NO ABILITY to handle frustration (think mean mommy here), and I had an inflammatory based disease that was killing my thyroid (which is auto-immune). I had to admit I had major adrenal issues.

So, I called Anne Fischer Silva and set up a free appointment to consult her to see if she could help me. She told me, “Yes I can help. Go off gluten immediately, read Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms, and….” a long list of other information I had to gather for a 2 hour appointment to go over everything with a fine toothed comb. One of the tests she wanted to me to have before the consult was an adrenal saliva test from here. As you can imagine my Adrenals were in fatigue. Anne told me “this is what I would expect from a 45 year old women who is not feeling great.” Grrreeeaaaatttt…….

Anne’s recommendations for healing my adrenals were this:
Rehmannia complex, Licorice (one bottle), and 7 Keto DHEA (to support DHEA levels). She had some very specific product and amount recommendations for these and only the Rehmannia she suggested for long term use. So, I am not recommending you readers just go start taking these, as the amounts, brands, and way to take them are dependent on your adrenal situation. I learned that taking these supplements without specific recommendations can be more damaging than not taking them at all.

There were also lifestyle changes I needed to make which included avoiding these:
Pushing yourself to exhaustion
Sugar, caffeine and junk food
Being critical and harsh with yourself
Skipping meals
Eating carbohydrates by themselves
Staying up late and catching your “second wind”
Arising early if you don’t have to
Food that you react to or are allergic to
Drinking sodas, coffee, alcohol, juice
Making someone else responsible for your health
People who steal your energy
Taking care of everyone and everything else Feeling guilty about caring for yourself
Excessive seriousness
“The grind”
Aggressive exercise

The alternatives to those damaging adrenal activities are:
Pace yourself
Eat real, whole, fresh food
Be compassionate and kind to yourself
Eat every two hours
Eat a combination of carb, fat and protein
Set to bed by 10:00-ll:00pm
Sleep until 7:00-8:00am when possible Eat nutrient-dense food.
Drink H20, lactofermented bev. or herb teas
Become empowered and informed about your health
Be with people who are concerned for your
well-being and are helpful in your recovery
Take care of and nurture yourself
Find an inner balance and sense of peace with taking care of yourself
Find things that make you laugh
Do things you enjoy
Mild to moderate exercise

Anne’s other recommendation for me was to take all high sugar foods out of my diet. Including maple syrup, cane sugar, rice, potatoes, high amount of honey, etc.
I switched to using almond flour and coconut flour instead of gluten free flour mixes (they have potato & rice flours) for baking. At this time we were in a MAJOR house remodel so I was not able to completely relearn how to cook and eat. I continued to use some maple syrup, eat potato and rice with suppers, and use honey in cooking (sorry Anne!). But, I did not eat high starchy items for snacks (like granola bars, fruit bars, crackers, or bread), instead I ate almonds, other nuts, or a almond/coconut flour based snack. If I did have some rice it was mixed with a lot of veggies, a fat source, and a meat source. We also ate a lot of quinoa as a starch because it does not raise your blood sugar like the other grains do. The difference in how I felt was absolutely amazing. I no longer felt nauseous every two hours (a sign of low blood sugar), followed by a high carb snack, then another blood sugar crash. I felt like I was getting my brain back! I was also nursing my 1-year old at this time, so I had some extra demands on my body.

After 4-5 months of the adrenal supplements Anne wanted me to retest my Adrenals, in doing so I had to wean off the 7-Keto/DHEA, as that is a hormone and not good for long term dependency. I hated going off the 7-Keto. I had headaches, shakes, and felt stressed. I am back on the 7-Keto because my tests showed I continue to need the DHEA. Before speaking with her the first time, I had purchased a DHEA pill before (that I never took) and told her I had some, she said it was a dangerously high amount. So, I’m tentative to give a blanket DHEA 7-Keto recommendation.

There were also some other supplement recommendations and further testing Anne wanted me to do. But those are not about the adrenals – and I need to stick to one topic today .

For those that are wondering about my current adrenal state. My initial stage showed me in stage 7, and my retest recently showed me in stage 4 (maladapted stage II). So, I do have some improvement to work on – but I feel much much better. I can’t imagine how I’ll feel when I get to stage 1 or 2!
Here are the reference levels:
CORTISOL-DHEA CORRELATION SPECTRUM
1. Adapted to stress.
2. Adapted with DHEA slump.
3. Maladapted Phase I.
4. Maladapted Phase II.
5. Non-adapted, Low Reserves 6. High DHEA.
7. Adrenal Fatigue.

I would say if you have blood sugar issues, feel sluggish, stressed, and are not in tip top shape – then you have adrenal fatigue and need to do something about it!

The other very interesting thing I learned about the adrenals relates to steroid use. When someone has a cumbersome autoimmune disease (like Rherumatoid arthritis, Crohns, or ongoing inflammation), steroids are recommended. Here is a link about how steroids work. Basically, steroids mimic your adrenal system, suppress your immune system, and cause long term damage – both to your adrenals and other body systems. I continue to be amazed at how modern medicine focuses so largely on suppressing symptoms and not causes. Research for yourself the damage that steroids can do, even if they do provide a quick fix (short term).

Oh! And I learned that Adrenal Fatigue can cause Leaky Gut Syndrome, as our immune barriers become compromised because of Adrenal Fatigue. Can’t wrap my brain around that today though to give a thorough explanation. But basically, my adrenal fatigue was a contributing factor to my autoimmune disease.

AND I learned that a pregnant woman in adrenal fatigue can actually draw the adrenal hormones FROM HER BABY in the latter part of pregnancy. The LITTLE BABY can then be born with adrenal stress already as an issue! This could lead to a myriad of problems, but I would say leaky gut as one of the top issues that go along with adrenal fatigue. This totally freaked me out when I read it, and was an extra motivator for me to clean up my health issues before bringing another child into this world.

Here are those recommendations I promised you:
- The 21st Century Stress Syndrome, by James L Wilson, N.D., D.C., PhD., Smart Publications, 2001
- Adrenal Fatigue Home Page

Happy Reading! Take care of those adrenal glands!

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Sadly, for a good 6 months after being diagnosed with a clear case of Hashimoto’s (my TPO antibodies were 416)…. I did not have my normal brain, I could sit in a chair and feel as if the room was spinning, I did not have good a train of thought, I was not loosing weight at a good rate, I was VERY easily frustrated, and I did not have enough energy. Certain things did improve while using Armour once again though… I was no longer constipated, my eyes no longer had a yellow jaundice tint, I lost a little weight, I had a little more energy, and that’s about it! Not enough improvement to feel I wanted to spend the rest of my life like this! During this time my lab numbers improved (not antibodies), things like TSH & free T3/T4 were normal.

So, after about 6 months I knew the clouds had lifted enough for me to try to get to the bottom of this. I knew the Rx, Armour, was just treating the symptoms of my disease, but I really wanted to get to the cause! I submitted myself to the idea that “Even if I have to take a medication for the rest of my life because my thyroid is damaged, I HAVE to stop this autoimmune reaction to improve my quality of life and not get another autoimmune disease!!!”

In my research I found very few other women writing healing and having success (even among natural sources). Oh, they wrote about hypothyroidism, Hashimoto’s, drugs to use, supplements to try…. but not about healing it (or putting the disease into remission) – the common theme was: frustration! Women were frustrated they weren’t getting better, that the doctors told them they’ll be like this for the rest of their life, and to just take anti-depressants. Was that ever incentive for me to work harder at researching!?!

In February 2011 I attended a gathering of the Weston Price foundation, where they showed videos from the 2010 WAPF conference. Two of the three presentations dealt specifically with thyroid & adrenal health. This was a major blessing to me, as those were my exact issues. Here were the speakers:

1) Fat: An Endocrine Organ -Stephanie Seneff, PhD
2) Thyroid-Adrenal-Lyme Connection -Bruce Rind, MD
3) Stress and Hormones, What’s the Connection? -Anne Fischer-Silva, CNT, LE

The book Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms When My Lab Tests Are Normal? was sold at this event, and I got to reading! After reading that book, and speaking with Anne Fischer Silva (one of the above speakers) personally, I went off of gluten immediately (and have yet to purposefully have another bite). Going off of gluten and keeping my blood sugar more regulated (by eating less carbs) have TO DATE been the most obvious improvement I’ve felt in all of the healing I have done.

Just avoiding the gluten didn’t fix my problem though! The adrenals were next. And that’s where I’ll start next time!

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Last time I wrote (Part 3) I had gotten off the phone with the midwife who INSISTED I go see an endocrinologist to figure out what in the world was happening with my thyroid! Before heading to the endocrinologist though, she wanted me to have an ultrasound of my thyroid, ASAP! Everyone around me kind of freaked out. It was a Friday afternoon and the hospital was 40 minutes away. I was just going to wait until Monday, but my friend, Rochelle insisted that she was going to drive me there right away…. another friend watched my kiddos. The ultrasound was to make sure there were no growths(cancer) that could have accounted for the extreme change in TSH.

When I got to the hospital they took me right in to see the ultrasound tech. She was the same lady who told me my baby boy was a boy! Anyways, she looked all around my thyroid and saw only an enormous inflamed thyroid (Inflammation Nation anyone?). So, that was a relief there was no obvious cancer growths… but I could not get off the inflammation part. WHY was I so inflamed? I didn’t think I had any of the symptoms of yeast, leaky gut, allergies, or autoimmune diseases……. I was young and healthy! What was the deal?? Well, it would take me about 6 months of minor research and getting my brain back together before I began attacking the root problem….. But we’ll get to all that in time.

A few days later I drove the hour and a half to see the MD (endocrinologist) and I noticed her take note of me in the waiting room. Once I got into the room with her, she told me “I saw your file and wondered what in the world could account for such an extreme change in TSH….. Then I saw your baby on your lap. You have postpartum thyroiditis. I am going to run your blood to see if you have antibodies, but that doesn’t really matter, it will just tell me what is going on. Oh wow, your thyroid IS large, but that’ll go down once you start medication. Basically, you are going to have to go on Synthroid for the rest of your life. Your thyroid needs help. Ok? Ok! Your baby sure is cute. You know he is very intelligent for looking at me and talking with me at such a young age. Women who have thyroid problems generally have lower IQ babies, but not this little guy. No need to worry. The lab is this way……”
HAHA! She was nice, but I can’t remember if I talked except to ask why Armour wasn’t the better choice. Her answer was “Because Armour can’t be regulated as easily.” Well, now I know that the vast majority of people who are on Armour greatly prefer it to synthroid. BUT – REGARDLESS of what hormone you take (synthetic or from a pig), the thyroid hormones are just treating the symptom and NOT the cause.

After that $250 appointment and $215 bloodwork bill, I decided I was going to take the Armour thyroid and not the synthetic version, as everyone I had ever talked too about the difference suggested Armour (and that was what I was on during my pregnancy). I never saw that MD again, mostly because I have a $10,000 deductible health insurance plan, and the office visit and lab they used was just too darn expensive. I could have the same labs done for less than $70 at my local family practice.

Like I mentioned above, for the next six months I studied and knew I needed to tackle this from the ground up. I am thankful for the Armour Thyroid that allowed my liver, hormones, and the rest of me to function. Oh! I forgot to tell you…. I had yellowish eyes at this point in the story. That is a strong indication that my liver was not working (your liver needs your thyroid…. and so on the circle goes). Anyways, I took my daily pill, got to a more normal life after the flood, taught my kids, helped my husband, and was semi-normal. I still had MAJOR low blood sugar issues and NO energy to exercise (or anything above and beyond my must-do tasks). Symptoms of that, along with blood sugar/adrenal stress/ autoimmune could be it’s own post (which is may be next!).

Okay, well next post will be some of the things I learned during that six months.

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Uhhh…. I finally updated my ‘about’ page! Here is the photo from it

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