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Overview - Adrenal Fatigue Treatment

• You need more than supplements for adrenal fatigue treatment
• Recovery from adrenal burnout takes time

You can recovery from adrenal fatigue. But there is a lot to learn and many aspects to consider.

Most people start by focusing only on supplements. ....trying lots of different herbs, vitamins, minerals, etc.

You won't recovery with supplements alone.

Supplements are helpful, but there is much more you need to do as part of your adrenal fatigue treatment plan.

The nice thing is that many of the treatment techniques are free......or at least cheap.

There is no quick fix for adrenal burnout. You will need patience.

This page provides a big picture overview of things you will need to focus on.

If you want to dive right into the details.....the hub for all treatment and recovery articles can be found at: Adrenal Fatigue Treatment

Understand Stress and Adrenal Fatigue

First....you need to understand the sources of stress. There are probably more sources of stress than you realize.

To make sure you truly understand the causes of stress that you need to avoid, see the following article: Sources of Stress.

For any adrenal fatigue treatment plan to work, it is important that your have a good understanding of stress.

Meditation and Mindfulness

• Meditation is a must for adrenal fatigue recovery.

Most people say I can't meditate because I am too wired !.

I get that. I felt like a caged animal when I first tried to meditate.

But training your mind is like training a puppy to stay and pee on the newspaper. With enough practice ..... the puppy gets better at going on the paper.

If you do it every day, twice per day, it will get easier.

And you will get better and better at catching yourself spiraling into anger, worry , and all the other negative mental states that increase stress.

Meditation has been shown to deactivate stress related genes ⁶.

To read about more of the amazing benefits of meditation, please see the article:
Meditation for Adrenal Fatigue .

You simply must make meditation part of your adrenal fatigue treatment regimen.

EMF Protection

• Electromagnetic Fields are a source of stress.

One source of stress that we are all exposed to is EMF. Several studies show that EMF causes stress to individual cells and entire organisms, impairs sleep, and results in oxidative DNA damage.^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

It is all around you....and getting worse everyday.

The good news is that you can protect yourself with things like Earthing, filters for your home, and wearable EMF protection.

There is a bit for you to learn. But all in all, this part is pretty easy to fit into your adrenal fatigue treatment plan.

Breathing Exercises

• Breathing Exercises can lower your blood pressure, reduce your heart rate and calm your nervous system

Breathing exercises can calm your nervous system. Your breath is one of the few ways you directly influence your nervous system.

Do you experience shortness of breath?.....Do you sigh or take sudden gasps of air? These are signs of sub-conscious hyperventilation, which is common if you are stuck in fight or flight. There are specific breathing exercises to help with these symptoms and reduce hyperventilation.

See the article:
Breathing Exercises for Adrenal Fatigue
for more details on why breathing exercises should be part of your adrenal fatigue treatment.

Supplements for Adrenal Fatigue

Oh boy....this part is confusing. Adrenal Fatigue treatment does require supplements. But there are so many different schools of thought, it can be very confusing.

Many adrenal fatigue support supplements have stimulants such as Rhodiola Rosea. These might make you feel better initially.

But you will probably crash and feel worse after using stimulating supplements. This happened a few times to me. So please make sure you avoid stimulants.

Herbs or amino acids that help calm the nervous system can help. Although I don't believe they are truly addressing the root cause.

There are important vitamins that support the adrenal glands, namely Vitamin C and the B Vitamins.

Many people use hormone replacement such as DHEA, progesterone, or pregnenolone, which are available over the counter in the USA.

I used progesterone and pregnenolone for a while. Progesterone helped quite a bit with anxiety (I believe it is because it helps lower copper by reducing estrogen dominance⁷)

Hydrocortisone is something people use in extreme cases, but it is very hard to wean off. This should be an absolute last resort. I have seen many people on Curezone.com end up in worse shape after using hydrocortisone.

Detoxification and Mineral Balancing

• After years of stress, you accumulate toxins, and minerals become imbalanced

Stress seriously impacts your ability to remove toxins. So toxins accumulate over the years. Many of the symptoms people experience are related to a sluggish liver. See the article:
Liver Issues and Adrenal Fatigue for more details.

Supplements and minerals that help remove toxins and balance minerals seem to be very helpful. I have seen many people make great progress by focusing on this aspect, including people that nothing else seemed to work. Nutritional Balancing is a more reliable way to focus on this aspect.

Many people with adrenal fatigue end up with copper toxicity (here is a sample lab). Note the very high copper. After years of chronic stress and adrenal fatigue, you will likely have copper issues.

A great place to start to understand copper toxicity and adrenal fatigue is Ann-Louise Gittlemans book Why Am I Always So Tired? Her research on the subject is fantastic. However, I believe the Nutritional Balancing program is a better protocol for balancing minerals and removing toxins.

The Nutritional Balancing program is what I have been focusing on since August, 2012.....and symptoms that I have had for years are gone, with more going away all the time.

I truly believe that the Nutritional Balancing program is the most successful adrenal fatigue treatment protocol out there.

Growth, Emotions & Spiritual Development

• In some ways...adrenal fatigue is a blessing

The idea that this is somehow a blessing usually makes people angry the first time they hear it....... sure made me mad the first a stumbled across that idea.

But as people gradually make the emotional changes needed to recover, they come to realize that they are a better person than they used to be.

Most people emerge a completely different person than when they started. I never saw anyone get better that was stuck in a mode of anger, panic and self-pity.

This part of adrenal fatigue treatment is free. Well...accept for a bunch of books that you might read as part of your growth.

It doesn't happen overnight. This part takes years.

But eventually, you should transition to hope, kindness, acceptance, and love as your primary states.

And try to stop worrying about everything. It is completely a choice to worry. Back off watching the news. Learn to accept that bad things happen, and you can't stop them by worrying about them. It's OK to be a little ignorant of what is going on in the world.

Adrenal Fatigue Doctors

• You likely won't make progress with local Doctors

It is getting a little easier to find doctors that provide adrenal fatigue treatment.

Many of them have been through it themselves (Dr. Lam, Dr. Larry Wilson, others). But in reality, some of the best options are not necessarily M.D's (medical doctors).

Since the best solutions do not require prescription medication, you can receive great treatment from naturopathic doctors, nutritionists, etc.

Regardless of the type of practitioner, it seems like the best ones are the ones that went through adrenal fatigue recovery themselves. Possibly because they have had to do so much research to dig themselves out it, they have a deeper understanding of how to treat adrenal fatigue.

What is confusing is some of the most prominent adrenal fatigue doctors have completely different treatment methods. Some of them have very large gaps in their understanding. They each tend to work in a bubble and do not seem knowledgeable of the work of others. Therefore, the information you read can be contradictory, which can be very confusing.

I have been on various adrenal fatigue forums for about 10-yrs. I also tried many treatment protocols myself. So I have a good feel for what never seems to work, what works for some, what often makes people worse, and what seems to help most people.

Most people do not recover by working with local doctors, local naturopathic doctors, etc. Your typical local practitioner might have heard of adrenal fatigue, and know what it is. But they usually don't have much experience in actually helping people recovery.

You should try to find a specialist who is very familiar with adrenal fatigue, and how to treat it. You can work with them over the phone. With certain labs, and a description of your symptoms, they can guide you over the phone, or even with email.

Adrenal Fatigue Diet

This is less confusing that trying to figure out which supplements you should take. But there are still a few conflicting opinions out there.

One diet than should be avoided is veganism or vegetarianism. In fact, it is often a contributing factor that accelerates how quickly adrenal fatigue progresses.

There are many active or ex-vegetarians hanging out on the adrenal fatigue forums. There are a variety of reasons. Although I appreciately the ethical reasons behind veganism or vegetarianism, they are not natural diets. Weston Price has a great article on nutritional issues from Vegetarianism.

There is also much debate over high fat / low fat, juicing, etc. In general, I've seen people do quite well by following what would be considered a Paleo Diet, or something similar to what is promoted by Weston Price Organization.

LifeStyle

• Be careful what you expose yourself to
• Thrills and excitement should be minimized

You need to be mindful of the things you expose yourself to. There are many fun or exciting activities that should be minimized as part of your adrenal fatigue treatment plan.

Some of these lifestyle changes can be difficult. They are all intended to lower your total stress load.

Aggressive exercise or anything that elevates your heart rate for more than a couple of minutes should be avoided. People often crash if they exercise to much. Each time you do this.....it sets you back and makes you a little worse. Gentle exercise is fine. See the article Exercise and Adrenal Fatigue for more information.

Learn how to catch yourself rushing around the house or work like a stressed squirrel. If you find yourself answering the phone before it is even done the first ring.....you are in an extreme state of stress. Practice intentional slow movements to calm your nervous system. Mindfulness is essential to become skilled at this, which is why meditation so important. The article Move Tai Chi Style has more details.

Minimize exposure to action movies, horror movies or other thrills. These are all little stressors. I have often found that if If I watch too many dramas on TV, my startle reflex starts to become exaggerated again. We seem to be more prone to become sympathetic dominant than others.

If you find yourself obsessing or worrying about the news, learn to unplug. You can not change anything that you read about. I have essentially stopped watching 24-hr news on TV.

I scan the headlines online so I have some idea what is going on in the world, but am very mindful of my emotions. Do not read the comment sections of any news article or Youtube video ... it only exposes you to the stress of people arguing.

In summary.....more meditation, slow walks, gentle yoga....less thrills and excitement....less news.

Other Adrenal Fatigue Treatment Techniques

There are a variety of things that do not quite fit into any other category.

Hypnosis can be used to calm your nervous system. If you are super wired, you may have a hard time meditating.

Some other things you can use as part of your adrenal fatigue treatment plan:

• Blue light therapy to help control your melatonin
• Acupuncture
• Massage therapy
• Yoga

Summary

That covers the big picture of the areas you should should work on. It is not easy. I wish that it was. But it is possible to recover from adrenal fatigue and get your life back.

Now that you have an overall idea of the things you should consider as part of your treatment, please check center for all treatment articles:

Adrenal Fatigue Treatment

Thanks....and good luck. I wish you all the best.

References

1. Weak electromagnetic fields (50 Hz) elicit a stress response in human cells.
2. Electromagnetic fields stress living cells.
3. Exposure to 2.45 GHz electromagnetic fields elicits an HSP-related stress response in rat hippocampus.
4. A 50-Hz electromagnetic field impairs sleep.
5. Oxidative DNA damage in rats exposed to extremely low frequency electro magnetic fields.Oxidative DNA damage in rats exposed to extremely low frequency electro magnetic fields.
6. Genomic counter-stress changes induced by the relaxation response
7. Gittleman, Ann Louise (2010-07-18). Why Am I Always So Tired?: HarperCollins.