Adrenal fatigue isn’t something that shows up one day; it is a slow-progressing problem that eventually overwhelms people. Commonalities that seem to connect most people who experience adrenal fatigue are all fixable lifestyle pieces. While there are more adrenal stimulators, I came up with the nine most common that I see leading people to adrenal fatigue.
Adrenal stimulants are like living on drugs. They are crutches to get you through life because you don’t have enough energy to do basic everyday things. These are chemicals that come in and steal energy from you. You may think, “no, my coffee GIVES me energy,” and while it may give you energy at that moment, what its doing is stealing your energy for tomorrow.
Nine Most Common Adrenal Stimulators
Concentrated Sugars
Concentrated sugars like icecream, scones, cookies, and other desserts take your blood sugar for a roller coaster ride. Unstable blood sugar levels can cause headaches, fatigue, weakness, and moodiness. Some of the first signs of low blood sugar are changes in thinking and mood. The term “hangry” was coined from the irritability that people experience when they haven’t eaten in a while.
If you are regularly eating sweets throughout the day, you are experiencing that sugar high and crash, which is not sustainable for quality energy. Concentrated sugars are very common in drinks like fruit juices, lattes, and sports drinks. You would be surprised how many foods have tons of added sugars. Next time you’re at the grocery store, I challenge you to look at the amount of sugar in everything you are about to buy, and I’m positive at least one regular item on your list has more sugar than you probably expected. Stable blood sugar is crucial for us to have steady energy.
Coffee/Alcohol
Another adrenal stressor people commonly use when feeling sluggish and slow is coffee. Caffeine is the go-to in the morning when you can barely get out of bed and during the day as a pick me up. At night when there are too much adrenaline and cortisol in your system, alcohol is used as a depressant. This constant use of stimulants and depressants is unnatural to the body’s normal rhythms and screws up your adrenals.
Nicotine
Many people who smoke cigarettes, cigars, or e-cigs experience the stress-relieving effects of nicotine. However, nicotine is actually an adrenal stimulator and activates the nicotine acetylcholine receptor in the adrenal medulla, increasing adrenaline levels.
Food
A significant stressor for the adrenals can be caused by food. Eating foods that your immune system reacts to is called an allergic reaction. Allergic reactions aren’t always life or death or evident in a physical rash or throwing up. They can manifest as a stomach ache, headache, stuffy nose, or skin problems like eczema or acne. There are other types of “allergic” reactions that fire up your immune system, cause inflammation, and put stress on your body.
PUFAS – Poly-Unsaturated Fatty Acids
The unhealthy PUFAS are vegetable oils like sunflower, canola, soybean, corn, or peanut oil. All fried food is fried using PUFAS, and a lot of people cook their healthy food in these oils. Canola oil actually inhibits your ability to synthesize stress hormones. So if you consume a lot of these types of poly-unsaturated fatty acids, you are hindering your body’s ability to make more cortisol, which perpetuates the negative cycle of adrenal fatigue. You may think that you’re safe because you don’t cook with any of those oils, but a lot of products, even “healthy” products, use these oils. These are the most common oils used in all frying and processing because they are way cheaper than olive oil or coconut oil. Do yourself a favor, and always, always read food labels!
Artificial Sweeteners
Artificial sweeteners also make it hard for the body to produce stress hormones. If you can’t make stress hormones, then you can’t replenish what you have depleted.
Overtraining
Some people have a lot of will power, and despite the lack of energy, they still make it to the gym most days. However, the people who are pushing and exercising and not recovering are taxing their adrenals even more. Exercise is healthy, but overtraining is damaging. Movement is exceptionally healing, and some activities can put you into a relaxed or parasympathetic state, which will be beneficial for adrenal recovery.
Taking walks at a slow relaxing pace helps pump your lymph and keep your joints healthy. Relaxing yoga focused on breathing and stretching where you leave more relaxed then you came in is the type of yoga that you should be doing if you are working to rebuild your adrenals.
Inadequate Sleep
Sleep is one of the most critical missing components in people’s lives. We don’t brag to our friends or co-workers that we got 8 hours or 9 hours of sleep last night. We brag about how we got 5, 6 hours of sleep last night and how we have to be up and functioning until late again that day. This habit of poor sleep doesn’t allow our body to recover and ends up leading you to adrenal exhaustion.
Adrenal fatigue is what I like to call “accelerated aging.” A lot of people around 50 think this is how 50 is supposed to feel. Most people accept their new norm and start finding ways to help compensate for lack of energy with adrenal stimulators. That is a misconception about aging, you can have more energy in your 50’s than you had in your 20’s if you are fueling your body. These nine factors are the lifestyle pieces that create adrenal fatigue, which sounds like the standard American lifestyle to me.
Here’s To A Better Life,
Dr. Steve Puckette
