Adrenal Fatigue

Oh boy. This two words are cause for a dog fight between many western medical professionals and complimentary professionals, such as N.D.'s, homeopaths, herbal practitioners, and acupuncturists. The difference centers around whether or not there is such a condition as fatigued adrenals. The arguments are pretty much as follows.

Adrenal Fatigue is a Condition

Those who believe it is an actual condition, syndrome, or collection of symptoms point to usage of the term as far back as the 1800's. It is often referred to as a condition that impacts almost every adult. The symptoms include a litany of ills that relate to fatigue. They can appear as fatigue in the morning, with difficulty getting the day started, an energy drop between 2 and 4 p.m., an inability to sustain energy during a day with a craving for caffeine, sugar and salt. Anxiety, nervousness, depression, diarrhea alternating with constipation, low blood pressure, decreased ability to handle stress, muscle weakness, absent mindedness, decreased sex drive, increase in blood sugar under stress, strong PMS or menopausal symptoms, headaches.

The adrenals are two small glands that right over the kidneys. They produce and secrete into our bodies a huge array of hormones – over 50 including estrogen and testosterone, progesterone, cortisol and epinephrine and cortisol, the stress-regulating hormone. It is rather easy to see how stressed out adrenals can impact our systems quite dramatically.

The argument goes that in Adrenal Fatigue, the glands are functioning at sub-optimal levels, though not poorly enough to be readily diagnosed with a blood test. When the adrenals are severely weakened, the condition is known as Addison's disease and the functionality of the adrenals will show up on tests.

Fatigued adrenals are considered to be directly stress-related. Under high stress levels we produce increased amounts of cortisol to handle stress and protect our immune system. After intense amounts of stress or prolonged periods of it, the adrenals get worn out from trying to meet our high need for stress control.

Though it cannot be directly diagnosed, some cortisol-associated tests can, according to this theory, give an indicator for diagnosis.

Adrenal Fatigue is not a condition

Detractors of this theory argue that it is no more than a pop medicine theory that is thrown around in alternative health care circles and on the web. It is not surprising that western doctors are skeptical. Conditions and diseases are diagnosed through tests that produce answers.

In the case of adrenal fatigue, there are not tests to prove or disprove its existence and it is therefore not an accepted medical diagnosis. The symptoms vary enormously and range from aches and pains to sleep and digestive issues. Some of these symptoms are similar to those found in other conditions such as fibromyalgia, depression, lupus, and others.

The concern therefore is that an unproven diagnosis could be interfering with or hiding the real condition or disease, which would then go undiagnosed and untreated. This has the potential to put the patient at risk.

Furthermore, it is argued that the treatments for the symptoms may actually do more harm than good. If there is an undiagnosed condition, it is possible that remedies for adrenal fatigue could interfere with the body's ability to cope with and combat the real condition.