How To Identify The Symptoms Of Adrenal Fatigue

Your doctor's probably not looking for adrenal fatigue, and will usually attribute your problems to stress, depression, or a number of other common complaints.

Many diseases cause symptoms of adrenal fatigue due to the stress they put on your body.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, fibromyalgia, alcoholism, ischemic heart disease, hypoglycemia, rheumatoid arthritis, and chronic and recurrant respiratory infections generally all have compromised adrenal function involved in their illnesses.

Typical Symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue

- Depression (atypical).
- Fatigue (tired all the time).
- Low sex drive (poor libido).
- Trouble concentrating and brain fog.
- Poor memory.
- Difficulty getting up in the morning.
- Having more energy in the evening.
- Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).
- Symptoms increase if meals are skipped or inadequate.
- Craving for salt or salty foods.
- Being thirsty all the time.
- Increased effort to do every day tasks.
- Decreased ability to handle stress.
- Increased time to recover from illness, injury, or trauma.
- Poor exercise tolerance.
- Low blood pressure (light-headed when standing up quickly).
- Less enjoyment or happiness with life.
- Irritability.
- Decreased productivity.
- Alcoholism.
- Allergies.
- Asthma.
- Arthritis.

You may have only a few of the fatigue symptoms or most of the list depending on it's severity. 16% of the population have moderate to severe symptoms, where as around 67% may have milder symptoms.

Some adrenal fatigue symptoms are dead giveaways; like salt craving, morning fatigue, cold intolerance, and cold hands and feet. Others are less obvious.

Less Known Symptoms of Fatigue

- Light sensitivity.
- Headaches/Migraines.
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (sore wrists).
- Wide range of body temperatures from day to day.
- Moody (Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde).
- History of mononucleosis or EBV (Epstein-Barr Virus).
- Anxiety (panic attacks, worry, fear, insecurity, impending doom).
- Startle easy "bad nerves".
- Heart palpitations.
- Low total cholesterol (less than 160).
- High HDL cholesterol.
- High blood serum potassium.
- Low blood serum sodium.
- Low DHEA.
- Low testosterone.
- Lowered white blood count(WBC): CBC (3.5-5.0).
- Lowered platelets: CBC.
- Low mean corpuscular volume(MCV): CBC (Often 93 or higher).
- Higher reticulocyte distribution of width(RDW): CBC.

Signs of Adrenal Fatigue

There are methods of finding symptoms of adrenal fatigue, which don't require you to have invasive blood testing for cortisol levels.

Temperature Tracking

The most common method is to chart your body temperature at the same time everyday. If you have fluctations in temperature from day to day (taken at the same time every day) over 0.4*C or 0.8*f, it is a strong indicator of impaired adrenals.

When your adrenals are tired, your metabolism shuts down (from reduced cortisol) resulting in colder temperatures. The reasons for the differance in temperature from day to day is from the "sputtering" effect of the adrenals.

It's like a car running on fumes... once you hit a hill the engine may shut down, but when you're coasting the engine usually kicks back in again. It's a way for your body to preserve itself during times of stress. The problem with this model is it's not very supportive for you having a high quality of life.

Sergent's White Line

Using a smooth cap of a ball point pen, lightly trace a 6" mark on your belly. If a white mark appears, and stays for a couple minutes, it is a very strong indicator you may have adrenal fatigue.

A normal reaction with this test is for your skin to turn red, indicating proper circulation to the outer layers of your body.

Pupil Contraction Test

While sitting in a darkened room, flash a small flashlight across the side of your eye (not in it). Positive symptoms of adrenal fatigue will indicate an alternating opening and closing of your pupil. The dilation of the pupil should last for around 2 minutes, then will contract again after 30-45 seconds, if adrenal fatigue is present.

If your adrenals are healthy, your pupil should remain contracted indefinitely.

If sunny days or bright lights bother your eyes, or you find yourself squinting a lot, it is due to this pupil contraction effect. Your eyes are too tired, allowing too much light to enter, causing an uncomfortable reaction.

Blood Pressure Test

Finding symptoms of adrenal fatigue can be done by comparing your blood pressure from a standing to lying position. With adrenal fatigue, your body has problems maintaining correct blood pressure. You may appear light headed after getting up quickly due to a loss of blood to your brain.

Make sure to lie down for around 10 minutes, then test your blood pressure using a regular electronic blood pressure machine.

Stand up, then quickly measure your blood pressure again. If your blood pressure decreases you most likely have adrenal fatigue. The lower the drop the worse the fatigue.

If your adrenals are healthy, your blood pressure should rise 10-20mmHg, since blood is pumping harder against gravity, allowing for blood to get to your brain.

To ensure proper recovery, adrenal fatigue treatment should be performed to enable your body to get healthy again.