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In this article, we are going to be discussing the three mistakes adrenal fatigue sufferers make.
When I talk to them through my Facebook groups, my social media like Instagram, YouTube, and create content, I get a lot of feedback with the questions that they ask, knowing, oh, my goodness, you’re way off base here, you’re not focusing on the right things that you need to focus on.
What I want to convey most important, is that it is not your fault.
I had the same challenges when I suffered from my own adrenal fatigue based problem. And it’s very, very frustrating to not be accepted by traditional medicine when they don’t even look at the definition of adrenal fatigue as being legitimate.
On top of that, you’re exhausted and you’re burnt out.
On top of that, you don’t focus, you don’t have concentration, you crash in the middle of the day, you have very little exercise tolerance, there’s not a lot of libido.
Bottom line…you just don’t handle stress very well
For me, an example of not handling stress very well, I remember having an exam after exam or finals, or a competition, and just being overwhelmingly stressed to the point where my stomach was killing me.
I couldn’t focus, I couldn’t concentrate.
I wasn’t a happy person to be around. I didn’t have the energy to exercise the way I wanted to. My circadian rhythm was disrupted.
My circadian rhythm would be disrupted, and I would have more energy at night and less in the morning.
Probably the most frustrating thing is that you’re not getting the help that you need, and you’re not being listened to.
So what I want to talk to you about is what I find to be the number one biggest mistake that most people make when it comes to dealing with an adrenal fatigue based problem.
The First Big Mistake Adrenal Fatigue Sufferers Make:
The number one problem is the definition of adrenal fatigue.
That’s why I have created the truth about adrenal fatigue. Sadly, research shows that it takes 17 years for research to come out before it’s going to be applied and traditional approaches.
So basically, it takes 17 years from the scientists in their labs, to have the population use the results of their experiments.
That’s a sad thing. Because think about how much we’ve changed. Like the speed of light, our cultural changes, technological changes, environmental pollutant changes.
What’s happening is that as the technology advances, I really feel it’s impacting us on a biochemical, physiological level.
When you combine that with genetic susceptibilities, meaning you’re not the perfect person to be able to signal your immune system, or turning off the signaling of your immune system, or being able to support different phases of the immune system, or being able to support clearance and detoxification of the chemicals and the toxins that you’ve processed at an alarming rate every day.
Or there are problems with making or clearing out neural transmitters or transporting nutrients.
Basically, making and breaking anything things in your body.
Anything you are required to make or break in the body requires proper biochemistry that is being impacted by our environmental triggers, from Wi-Fi to EMF, to pathogens to chemicals to toxins, to depleted soils, to different gases.
So, it is really important to have a proper definition of what is going on in the body when dealing with an adrenal based problem.
This is important for bridging the gap. We need to be able to have doctors be able to communicate to doctors, or PhDs and researchers to be able to communicate with other doctors.
So specialists should be able to talk to specialists in a common, understandable language.
A proper definition of what is going on is also important to have doctors in different disciplines talk to each other in common, understandable languages.
And most importantly, we need to have the patient, the person who’s suffering from that exhaustion or fatigue based problem, to be able to ask the questions, get the information and ultimately impact their health as quickly as possible in a favorable way.
When you think about the current term “adrenal fatigue”, it’s really a terrible term.
It really is.
When I suffered from my own adrenal fatigue based problem, I had no idea what it was.
I just graduated from chiropractic college, I had my wife was pregnant with twins, I had a lot of student debt.
I grew up in Canada, and I moved to California. And then we decided to reside in Florida, all of that I had a physical injury.
I was exhausted, and I was burnt out.
I was just starting my career thinking, “oh, my goodness, how am I going to do this?
Then I learned about a book called Why do I have thyroid symptoms when my thyroid tests are normal?
And I thought, well, I don’t have thyroid problems.
So a patient friend of mine, who’s an acupuncturist brought that book into me.
I started reading it, I’m like, oh, my goodness, this is exactly me.
But this was under the section of the adrenal fatigue.
I thought, How do I not know about this?
I mean, not to brag, but I had an exercise physiology degree. I had a psychology degree.
I had just graduated from chiropractic college, I was also a certified strength and conditioning specialist.
And I had never heard of this.
I mean, I heard of adrenals.
I know what the adrenals do, they’re responsible for when we have stress, but what does it mean to for them to be fatigued?
I eventually went down that rabbit hole, and here I have 20 years later coming up for air, and telling you what I’ve learned, and want to make sure that the 17 years of research are not 17 years of research that has to go by.
So ultimately, what I learned was there’s a controversy with this term, because number one, people don’t even know it exists when they’re feeling fatigued and suffering.
When they do find that there’s this term called adrenal fatigue, it makes a lot of sense to them.
Now the can be validated and can hold on to a diagnosis that explains what’s going on so that that can reestablish some hope.
But when they go to the traditional based doctor, they’re going to be told tell there’s no such thing as adrenal fatigue.
Because in the medical world, in the research world, in the peer-reviewed journal world, there is no such thing as adrenal fatigue.
Even in the curriculum, there isn’t.
The biggest problem with that is, you the sufferer, like the baby, is being thrown out with the bathwater,
Why?
Because when, as a physician, you dismiss someone that presents to you with an exhaustion and fatigue and multi system based problem like a mitochondrial based problem.
The doctor tells you “sorry, there is no condition that exists like that.
In my mind, that’s arrogant, because you’re throwing away what the patient is telling you.
Because the doctors are potentially annoyed, or they just don’t have time, or they are too arrogant to entertain, and diagnosis that’s not accepted in traditional medicine, even though you the patient is going to the doctor with an exhaustion and fatigue based problem.
That’s a huge problem.
You’re not communicating with each other.
So the definition of what is going on needs to be redefined and agreed upon.
I propose adrenal fatigue can be thought of as “an incomplete healing cycle”.
Meaning, that your body after one stressor after the next, does not repair itself effectively.
Proper repairing requires reestablishing optimal sleep, optimal activity, and optimal wakefulness. For that to happen, healing needs to happen during sleep and wakeful time.
When that doesn’t happen, then the next stressor that you go into, you are going to be less than ready to perform.
As a result, that’s going to continue to break down or make changes in your body. which could impact you in a wide array of ways, such as POTS syndrome.
Where you don’t control your body temperature, your blood pressure, your heart rate, there’s a lot of sympathetic escape.
So, think of adrenal fatigue as an incomplete healing cycle, and that there are certain things that need to happen effectively, for that healing cycle to make it from one stage to the next to the next for you to be able to repair your body, and be able to meet the health challenges that you come up with.
Let’s not call it adrenal fatigue anymore.
The Second Mistake Adrenal Fatigue Sufferers Make:
I find the second mistake adrenal fatigue sufferers make is not having a nutrigenonic test. This test can determine biochemical challenges that the individual will have challenges with.
Such as detoxification, cell signaling, immune health, neurotransmitter health, energy production, and basically how well your body deals with stress at the biochemical level.
The Third Mistake Adrenal Fatigue Sufferers Make:
The third mistake I find adrenal fatigue sufferers make is following an ineffective recovery strategy.
Given that the definition is wrong, the nutrigenomics test is missing, I find that adrenal fatigue sufferers approach their recovery from a reductionistic point of view.
Meaning, too many times, only an adrenal saliva test is performed. The results will typically be divided into 2 camps: High cortisol and low cortisol.
Then supplements will be prescribed that try to lower cortisol when/if it levels are high, or other supplements when/if the cortisol levels are low.
This seldom works. Because as we mentioned, an incomplete healing cycle will not be fixed by taking more of something to raise or lower your cortisol levels.
Those are the three mistakes I find most adrenal fatigue sufferers make.
If you are looking for support with your adrenal fatigue nightmare, be sure to click here to find out how to work with me.