Episode 137: Tired But Wired - The Real Deal with Adrenal Fatigue
Adrenal fatigue is used to define a number of symptoms related to your adrenal glands. Though its not always an accepted medical term, it doesn’t mean it's not real.
Adrenal fatigue is real and it’s affecting multiple people. Join me in this episode as I give you a brief intro into what adrenal fatigue is all about, my struggles and experience with it, and my process of recovery.
Have you heard of adrenal fatigue? Or maybe you’re experiencing it right now, you’re not just aware of it. Make sure you listen to this episode as a list of the common symptoms shared by many who struggle from adrenal fatigue.
Episode Highlights:
Adrenal fatigue in medical terms
Why you should remove gluten and dairy from your diet
The elimination diet and why you should give it a try
How to stabilize your blood sugar
Not forgetting to take a rest
Let go of your to-do-list
The most common adrenal fatigue symptoms
The healing process of adrenal fatigue
With the current events happening right now, I highly recommend that you should start giving yourself some attention!
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“Adrenal fatigue is a collection of signs and symptoms that results when the adrenal glands function below the necessary level. It’s often associated with intense or prolonged stress. The most common symptom is fatigue that is not relieved by sleep. People experiencing adrenal fatigue often have to use caffeine and/or sugar to get going in the morning and to avoid crashing later in the day.”
Read the Episode Transcript:
Before I jump into today’s topic, I want to share with you that I’ve just started offering a new coaching service - Food Journal Audits.
Long-time listeners of the show will know that I am a strong believer in using a food journal as a tracking tool. I’ve spoken over the past few episodes about observing is our reality matches our intentions; if our daily actions align with what we want for ourselves.
Many times we may think we’re eating (or even NOT eating) in a way that’ll bring us to whatever our health goals are, but in reality, there might be a thing or two that can be tweaked or addressed, and that is what a Food Journal Audit is meant to do.
How it works is that you keep a food journal for a minimum of 3-5 days, with at least one day being a weekend day, because I think we all tend to eat differently on the weekend vs weekday. Then, you email me a copy of your food journal, along with what your goals are. I’ll review it and will provide you with a written audit, with my observations and recommendations.
You can go to www.livefablife.com/foodjournalaudit, all one word, to find out more. After booking your audit, you’ll receive an email with my recommended tools for keeping a food journal.
Okay, let’s get to today’s topic.
So back in 2012, I set a PR, aka personal best, for the half-marathon, running a time and pace that I never dreamed possible for myself. It was such a surprise because I wasn’t expecting or even half-trying for a PR, it just happened. There were a ton of mishaps from car problems and almost not making it to the race, so leg pain where I even walked part of the race.
I was so excited that I tried to beat that PR at another half marathon a month later. And in that race, I put everything I had into, both physically and mentally, and I bombed.
In retrospect, I think that was the catalyst, not the sole reason, but the catalyst for my body slipping into adrenal fatigue.
And that’s what we’re going to talk about today, and what I’m going to be talking a lot more of, especially when talking about nutrition and gut health, and toxic load reduction and stress - I’m going to be talking about it in the context of Adrenal Fatigue because that is where this health trajectory that I’ve been on, really, started, and its something that I think more of you struggle with, especially those of you who have Type A personalities, who are driven high-achievers, and with this pandemic, even moreso, are prone to.
So after I bombed that follow-up half marathon, I continued to train and race all throughout the rest of that year, with minimal rest and zero breaks from training. My year was supposed to culminate with the New York Marathon that November, but it got cancelled at the last minute due to Hurricane Sandy - that’s a story for another day.
I had planned to take time off from training after that, but with the cancelled race, I went into 2013 feeling like I needed a redemption race and continued to train for the San Francisco Marathon in June.
And that year was a struggle to the nth degree. When I finally couldn’t run a mile without exhaustion or debilitating leg pain, and had severe IBS symptoms, that’s when I finally saw a functional medicine doctor for the very first time and after hearing my symptoms, my story and evaluating health history, she told me that I had adrenal fatigue.
I didn’t even know what that was. I didn’t even know what adrenals were. I only knew the word, “adrenaline.”
So of course, I came home and consulted with Dr. Google where I read that adrenal fatigue wasn’t a real thing. You might’ve heard that too. You might even think that too.
Technically, I suppose that’s true because can your adrenal glands actually become “fatigued?” Here’s how it’s defined at the nutrition program I attended:
“Adrenal fatigue is a collection of signs and symptoms that results when the adrenal glands function below the necessary level. It’s often associated with intense or prolonged stress. The most common symptom is fatigue that is not relieved by sleep.
People experiencing adrenal fatigue often have to use caffeine and/or sugar to get going in the morning and to avoid crashing later in the day.”
So it’s not just ONE thing, but a collection of things like, a syndrome. Its burnout and exhaustion, to the point where it impacts the function of your adrenal glands and everything that depends on it like digestion, brain function, nervous system, detoxification - you get the idea.
Some of the most common, but not limited to signs of adrenal fatigue are:
Low energy and feeling rundown all the time
Feeling tired when you should feel energized, like in the morning, and feeling energized when you should be winding down for sleep and rest like in the evening
Trouble focusing, feeling overwhelmed and constantly stressed out
Difficulty recovering from illness
Craving salty and sweet foods
Gaining weight, especially around your middle
Now, you might be thinking - uh, isn’t this all yes? Because these are all common things that have come to be the norm, right? But what do I always say? Common doesn’t mean normal, and these things aren’t normal.
We are meant to feel energized, refreshed, rejuvenated, full of life - all the time. But the large majority of the population doesn’t. And that’s why I said earlier, I think more people have adrenal fatigue, they just don’t know it.
I personally had all of these things:
I was tired all the time and my sleep challenges didn’t help. My cortisol levels were out of whack so I’d wake up tired. At night, if I actually went to sleep when I first felt tired, my sleep would be okay, but I often pushed past that first wave and when I caught a second wind, my sleep would be wrecked for the rest of the night. That really contributed to my cortisol levels being out of whack where it was low in the morning when it should be high and high at night when it should be low.
I had a lot of anxiety and depression, which was NOT normal for me. I even remember one specific day, sitting at my cubicle at work and instant messaging this to a co-worker, how I was so anxious that I didn’t even recognize who I was anymore.
I had so much trouble recovering from workouts and injuries.
I slowly started gaining weight, especially around my middle.
I also had raging IBS symptoms.
The debilitating leg pain I mentioned.
I would wake up at 2 am drenched in sweat - which is a sign of poor liver function, and I would be absolutely starving - a sign of imbalance blood sugar
At the time, I thought it was all due to overtraining, but over the years, as I’ve learned and become a coach of Functional Nutrition, peeling back the layers, overtraining was just one aspect of it.
The overtraining meant that my body was in an intense, prolonged state of stress, because endurance training is physically stressful on the body.
But also contributing to my overall stress load was my work situation, not just being in a fast-paced, high-demanding job, but also being micromanaged and the anxiety that came with that.
Poor sleep added to my overall stress load.
Eating junk food, as well as foods that I was sensitive to and intolerant of added to my overall stress load.
And then when I really unpacked it all, it came down to my mindset.
My Type-A personality. My never-ending to-do list. This “need to/have to” mindset that I’m only now, 7 years later, am starting to unpack and understand what it “really” means and finally do some really deep inner work to release and repattern my mindset.
Do you hear the theme here?
When we’re looking at adrenal fatigue and adrenal recovery, it’s looking at our overall stress load, really taking and accepting the reality of it and then unpacking what you are willing to do to change it.
There’s multiple layers to it.
So let’s take look at what those self-healing layers look like, starting with food.
When it comes to adrenal recovery and nutrition here’s what I start with:
Removing gluten and dairy. These two things are inflammatory for people with stressed digestive systems, so let’s start with removing them and giving your system a break.
Doing an elimination diet to identify other foods you may be sensitive to or intolerant of. What other food are causing stress to your system? For me, at different times its been grains, its been nightshades, it’s been FODMAPS.
Did I have to avoid these foods forever? Nope. In fact, I eat all of them now, but it took a lot of repairing of my gut health to get it to be an environment where these foods weren’t disruptive anymore.
Removing sugar and high-sugar carbs to stabilize my blood sugar. Blood sugar imbalance is a stress on the adrenals so stabilizing blood sugar is key. So what does a balanced blood sugar meal look like? It’s one that has fat, fiber and protein.
Avoiding caffeine and alcohol also falls into the efforts of balancing blood sugar.
When it comes to your lifestyle REST will be the most important thing you can do for your adrenal health.
Avoiding foods that stress your adrenals is one way to embrace rest.
Prioritizing sleep by going to bed at the same time every night and allowing yourself to have at least 8 hours of sleep is another way of prioritizing rest.
Not overdoing it with intense workouts is another way to welcome rest. For some people this can mean a moderate workout like weight lifting. For others it can mean yoga and walking. And for some, it might mean no workouts at all. And all of these things can apply to the same person, depending on where they are in their recovery journey.
Taking daily naps is another way to embrace rest, particularly if you have trouble getting restful sleep every night.
And then letting go of your to-do list. If I don’t keep myself in check, my to-do can grow to be a mile long. I gradually was able to limit my to-do list to 3 things per day. But on some days, it’s only one thing a day. The biggest growth I’ve had here is accepting that and not pushing it. I’ve learned to accept what my energy for that day allows and release the “need to / have to” mindset and force myself to check everything off my list when its an unrealistic expectation.
Now, there are plenty of other ways to treat adrenal recovery from herbs and supplements, to other modalities like body work - meditation, reiki, cranial sacral therapy - all of which I have episodes on and you can find a list of those episodes in the show notes for this episode at www.livefablife.com/137 for Episode 137.
And then when you’re ready to go better, and explore what deeper change can look like for you, journaling, embodiment and even diving into my Human Design, topics discussed in Episodes 130 and 131.
So, the three takeaways I’d love for you to leave with today are:
That adrenal fatigue is real. You may also hear it referred to as HPA Axis Dysfunction, as many clinicians may call it, but let’s be honest, how many of us understand or speak in “clinician talk.” If you hear someone talking about adrenal fatigue versus HPA Axis Dysfunction / Disregulation/suppression - we’re talking about the same thing here.
If you’re experiencing any of the symptoms, while common, they’re NOT normal. I get that its easy to brush them off, or even have someone else brush them off by saying, “everyone has that” its NOT normal. And yes, “everyone has these symptoms” because as a society, we’re tired! Especially now during a pandemic, but even pre-pandemic, we’re all tired. We’re overworked and overstressed from bad diets to lack of sleep, to overstimulation from our devices, to societal norms and expectations. But YOU don’t have to suffer just because “everyone has these symptoms.” You CAN do something about it.
The road to adrenal recovery is multi-faceted. It’s multi-layered and it looks different for everyone. You may need to start by addressing your diet. Someone else may need to start with addressing their lifestyle with sleep and rest. And someone else who’s further along on their journey, like me, may be diving into the really deep mindset shifts. Or you may be just starting out, but you already have the understanding, acceptance and readiness to shift your mindset and so it makes sense of you to start there.
There is no one path for healing. There never is, in fact, dogmatic, rigid thinking is another way that contributes to adrenal fatigue - “need to / have to” thinking.
So, like I said, we’re going to be talking a lot more about adrenal fatigue, adrenal recovery. All the same topics I’ve always talked about on the show - diet and nutrition, sugar detox, gut healing, self-development, and we didn’t even get into reduction of toxic loads today, but that too is an important factor. We’re going to continue to talk about all of these things through the lease of adrenal fatigue and recovery.
Now, as always, I want to hear from you.
Have you heard of adrenal fatigue to HPA axis dysfunction?
Are you experiencing any of the symptoms of it?
What have you tried, or what are you interested in hearing more about, when it comes to adrenal recovery?
Come on over and let’s have a discussion over on the show notes for this episode at www.livefablife.com/137 or on my Instagram at @livefablifewithnaomi
Adrenal fatigue is real, I think even more right now with the current events going on in the world, and we need to take care of ourselves do something about it.
That’s it for this week. Next week, I’ll be back with another episode on how to address adrenal fatigue.
And don’t forget, Food Journal Audits are now open for booking and they’re a great way to start your adrenal recovery!
See you next week - bye!
Naomi Nakamura is a Functional Nutrition Health Coach. She helps passionate, ambitious high-achievers who are being dragged down by fatigue, burnout, sugar cravings, poor sleep, unexplained weight issues, and hormonal challenges optimize health, find balance, and upgrade their energy so they can do big things in this world.
Through her weekly show, The Live FAB Live Podcast, programs, coaching, and services, she teaches women how to optimize their diet, support their gut health, reduce their toxic load, and improve their productivity, bringing work + wellness together.
Naomi resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and can often be found exploring the area with her puppy girl, Coco Pop!
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