Adrenal Fatigue- Myth or Modern-day Malady?“0 Comments”
admin | 9:12 am | October 25, 2011 | Uncategorized
Corporate South Africa is stressed. Missing meals, pushing through fatigue and faltering on exercise are becoming common place as busy people live for work, moving hurriedly from one short term goal to the next. While a certain amount of stress is productive, too much could lead to burnout. Under optimal levels of stress, we are productive and creative. However, once we pass the level of optimal performance, we enter the negative phase of stress with low efficiency, productivity, creativity and poor interpersonal relationships, known as burnout. The manifestations of burnout can vary widely and can lead to a host of conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, anxiety or depression. While these are all medically accepted stress-related conditions, a more contentious one, known as adrenal fatigue, has begun to emerge as a new modern day illness. However, not all endocrinologists are in agreement as to what adrenal fatigue is or whether it even exists.
Dr Bhana, a Physician Endocrinologist treats patients for stress related disorders, including adrenal fatigue in his Johannesburg practice in Melrose Arch. According to Bhana, adrenal fatigue is not yet a widely accepted medical diagnosis, because its boundaries are still largely undefined.
Your adrenal glands, which are walnut-sized glands situated above the kidneys, respond to every stress you experience by secreting hormones (namely cortisol, adrenalin and nor-adrenalin) that mediate the many physiological accommodations your body must make to adapt to the stressor and maintain homeostasis. Long ago, as hunter-gatherers, our response to stress (known as the flight or fight reaction) was in response to impending danger and was usually short-lived. Today and especially in the corporate world, we face stress persistently and thereby eventually exhaust our adrenal glands, which have to work overtime to pump out stress hormones, explains Bhana.
Adrenal fatigue as a syndrome, according to Bhana, is caused by a gradual decline in adrenal endocrine function brought on by chronic stress. Adrenal fatigue should not be confused with adrenal insufficiency or Addison’s disease, which are accepted medical diagnoses for diseases not necessarily brought on by stress. Symptoms of adrenal fatigue, which may include fatigue, irritability, energy dips and reduced resistance to infections are non-specific and could be related to one of many other conditions, which is why it is important to first rule out things like diabetes, anemia, cancer, thyroid or blood sugar problems before making a diagnosis, explains Bhana.
Defining adrenal fatigue becomes even more difficult because of the lack of clinical studies and because the early morning reference ranges for the stress hormone cortisol are large. Bhana explains that if you consistently test cortisol levels throughout the day, you will find that with adrenal fatigue the circadian rhythm of the hormone starts shifting. Adrenal fatigue, according to Bhana, involves interplay between cortisol and another hormone, which is the building block for cortisol, known as DHEA. Chronic stress takes place in 2 stages, according to Bhana. In stage one, the cortisol is high and the DHEA is normal and in stage 2 (burnout) cortisol and DHEA are both low. When DHEA becomes low, Bhana often uses a schedule 5 DHEA replacement product combined with lifestyle changes and stress management techniques as treatment. Bhana states, “We need to take some time out and learn to relax. Busy people tend to spend most of the day using their left brain (logical, detail- oriented side), so doing exercises that help stimulate the right brain (feeling based and more creative side) will help. Physical exercise is also of the utmost importance and should be built up gradually to about 40 minutes per day for best results.”
Author: Ashleigh Caradas
A copy of the article appeared in Business Day Health News
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