Hypoadrenia

Hypoadrenia is a term for a hypothesised condition of the adrenal glands. The terms adrenal exhaustion or adrenal fatigue are often used (and connected to hypoadrenia) by complementary and alternative therapists, and can be fatal if in its later stages. It often causes frequent dizziness, fainting, incoherence, and loss of brain activity. Hypoadrenia can be treated by special healthcare professionals, though it is still not completely understood by medical practitioners.

The adrenal glands are part of the body's mechanism for short term stress response and management, they are involved in the production of the hormone adrenaline (also known as epinephrine), the famous fight or flight chemical released in stressful situations, which increases the body's metabolic rate and muscular contraction strength. Along with the thyroid gland they are also part of the body's metabolic energy regulation and control system, and thus control to an extent the energy available to body systems.

It has been theorized by alternative medical practitioners that under conditions of long term stress, the adrenal glands can become less responsive to circumstance, or maladapted, and cease to function optimally, leading to a wide (but slightly vague) range of fatigue and stress related conditions including a greater likelihood of psychological conditions such as depression and possibly certain other mood disorders. However, this hypothesis has earned little support from mainstream medical experts, with critics noting that most of the claims in support of adrenal fatigue are unproved or dubious.^[1]

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Biological background

Main article: Stress: neurochemistry and physiology

Biologically, long term stress is a modern phenomenon in the human environment (in evolutionary terms through most of human and mammalian history, stress was a reaction to a point incident, rather than a continuing way of life). As a result, the human body and its internal regulatory mechanisms are poorly adapted to handling many aspects of the types of stress found in civilized cultures. They evolved, so to speak, to react to predator attacks, rather than (for example) constant belittlement, decades long abuse, high risk hobbies, pressure to succeed, or existential and religious inspired worries about ones life and future.

Organs such as the brain, the endocrine system-- including the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, and the various glands contained therein, which were not evolved for, or designed to handle and respond optimally to, constant stimulation may therefore, under modern social conditions, become constantly or abnormally stimulated. Other organs which form part of the whole, such as the nervous and musculoskeletal system, are also made to work for decades under different (and comparatively abnormal) conditions than existed throughout the rest of human evolution.

Symptoms

Tendency to gain weight and unable to lose it, especially around the waist. High frequency of getting the flu and other respiratory diseases and these symptoms tend to last longer than usual. Tendency to tremble when under pressure. Reduced sex drive. Lightheaded when rising from a lying down position. Unable to remember things. Lack of energy in the mornings and also in the afternoon between 3 to 5 pm. Feel better suddenly for a brief period after a meal. Often feel tired between 9 - 10 pm, but resist going to bed. Need coffee or stimulants to get going in the morning. Crave for salty, fatty, and high protein food such as meat and cheese. Increase symptoms of PMS for women; period are heavy and then stop, or almost stopped on the 4th day, only to start flow again on the 5th or 6th day. Pain in the upper back or neck with no apparent reasons . Feels better when stress is relieved, such as on a vacation. Difficulties in getting up in the morning Lightheaded

Other signs and symptoms include:

Mild depression, Food and or inhalant allergies, Lethargy and lack of energy, Increased effort to perform daily tasks, Decreased ability to handle stress, Dry and thin skin, Hypoglycemia, Low Body Temperature, Nervousness, Palpitation, Unexplained hair loss, Alternating constipation and diarrhea, Dyspepsia.

Clinical views on hypoadrenia

Psychological conditions and mood disorders referenced above may be linked to hypoadrenia. Symptoms of chronic fatigue and depression could result from diminished adrenal stores, caused by prolonged exposure to a particular stressor (i.e. poverty) or a series of stressful events occurring closely together (i.e. loss of job, divorce, and children ill). The adrenal gland, responsible among other functions for producing cortisol, when in constant use may produce cortisol over a long period of time, resulting in a high amount of cortisol in the bloodstream. Cortisol functions to return the body to a state of rest/repose after a stressor or fight/flight stimulus. An individual with low cortisol levels may demonstrate mood disorders as anxiety, depression or fatigue as a result of the increased cortisol present in the bloodstream. An indication that psychological conditions may be linked to the amount of cortisol is that the hypothalamus, or master gland, is shared by both the nervous system and the endocrine system; endocrine system containing the adrenal gland and hormone cortisol.

See also

• Adrenaline junkie
• Stimulation (includes over-stimulation)
• Stress management
• Addison's disease

References

^[2]

• Adrenal Fatigue: A Generally Unrecognized But Pervasive Syndrome, by James L. Wilson.