Overcoming Adrenal Fatigue
Stress is all around us, but if you’re finding yourself drained and exhausted on a regular basis, you may be suffering from adrenal fatigue.
Your adrenal glands, which sit right over your kidneys, play a really important role in your body’s everyday functioning. They’re responsible for secreting over 50 essential hormones, including adrenaline, cortisol, progesterone, and testosterone, all of which are critical to your body’s normal functioning and overall health and wellness. Hormones excreted from the adrenal glands influence your energy production, metabolism, fat storage, electrolyte balance, blood glucose levels, and even your immune system, among other things.
Since the adrenal glands play such an important role in stress, secreting both adrenaline and cortisol (the “stress hormone”), cumulative stress can be hard on them over time. When stress builds up, your adrenal glands can’t take the pressure, and many bodily functions become deregulated as a result.
Symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue
- Difficulty waking up
- Mid-afternoon feelings of sleepiness
- Cravings for salty, sugary, and fatty foods
- Mild depression
- Increased PMS or menopausal symptoms
- Lack of energy throughout the day
- Muscle weakness and fatigue
- Lightheadedness
- Allergies that are worse than normal
- Diminished sex drive
- Inability to handle stress
As you can see, the symptoms of adrenal fatigue vary, but they all surround around lack of energy and the inability of bodily systems to work at a normal or adequate level.
Luckily, there’s a lot you can do to overcome adrenal fatigue. Let’s take a look at a few tips!
Fight Stress and Overcome Adrenal Fatigue!
The first thing you need to do is get your sleep in check. Quality sleep is one of the biggest factors in your ability to handle stress and the resulting impact on your adrenal glands. It’s recommended that you get between 6 and 8 hours of sleep every night in order to properly regulate your hormone secretion.
HEALTH TIP: If you’re having trouble sleeping, try the natural sleep aid that tons of people swear by – Natrol Melatonin
The next thing you need to think about is your diet. Your eating habits also play a huge role in how well you handle daily stress. Overall, you need to have a diet that is balanced and nutritious, like fiber. Generally speaking, you want to look for foods high in protein, fiber, and vitamins and minerals, while avoiding foods that are full of fat, sugar, or salt. Omega-3 fatty acids have also been shown to be effective in reducing the impact of stress.
HEALTH TIP: An easy daily solution for handling stress and avoiding adrenal fatigue is to take a multivitamin like Optimum Opti-Men or Optimum Opti-Women.
Finally, you need to get your exercise in check. Regular exercise, whether it’s outdoors or in a gym, is an easy way to get your adrenal glands and your hormones in check. For optimal health and body balance, I recommend getting 5 days of exercise every week, at about 45 minutes to an hour each day. Cardiovascular exercise is important, but so is weight training.
HEALTH TIP: Try exercising at key times of the day. For example, if you find mornings are tough for you in terms of energy, start your day with a 30-minute run. Or if you find yourself dragging after work, stop at the gym on your way home. Be strategic, and beat adrenal fatigue once and for all!
Have any questions or feedback about overcoming adrenal fatigue? Please leave a comment below…
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Thank you for visiting! Weight Loss and Training is a health blog which features all the best weight loss tips that I have learned over my 20 years of training. My background includes a degree in Kinesiology from the world renown Simon Fraser University, certification in nutritional sciences from UBC, and Personal Trainer Specialist certification from Can Fit Pro.