We all know about the body’s system of fight or flight, designed to help us escape predators or battle rivals, but what happens in the modern world when we become stressed?

The system that we have for dealing with stress is heavily reliant on the adrenal glands. These small glands, located over the kidneys, play a key role in your body, producing over 50 hormones including epinephrine (adrenaline), cortisol, progesterone and testosterone.
One of the most crucial hormones is cortisol – it not only controls the strength of your immune system, but also normalizes blood sugar and regulates blood pressure. When you are stressed, the changes in your cortisol levels can therefore weaken your immune system – which is why people are more susceptible to illness when they are stressed – and also leads to increases in blood pressure.

The problem is that whereas the system is designed to deal with occasional stresses that require instant action – fleeing from a large wild animal, for example – our modern lifestyle rarely produces these kinds of stresses.

Instead, we are bombarded with an almost constant array of low-level stresses from sources such as work, traffic, or social problems. In addition, various lifestyle factors, such as smoking, sleep deprivation, poor eating habits and high caffeine intake, can further weaken our adrenal glands. It’s here that we require adrenal support.

Ironically, although the adrenal glands are designed to help us deal with stress, they themselves are highly susceptible to the effects of stress. When we experience prolonged periods of stress our adrenal glands themselves fail – this is called adrenal fatigue. This is increasingly common in our modern society and adrenal fatigue treatment can help.

When stresses become too much for us, we often describe what we experience as a nervous breakdown – the reality, however, is that it is often the adrenal glands themselves that have broken down. While adrenal fatigue used to be rare, it is becoming increasingly common. The problem is many doctors fail to diagnose it.

This is partly because doctors only look for the extremes of adrenal malfunction – Addison’s disease, which is when the glands produce far too little cortisol, and Cushing’s syndrome, which is excessive cortisol production. The need for adrenal fatigue treatment is often overlooked.

However, while these diseases only occur when the adrenal system has almost completely broken down, adrenal malfunction can occur at much lower levels of adrenal failure. So how do you know if you’re suffering from adrenal failure? There are several common symptoms to look for.

One of the biggest categories is related to your energy levels and alertness. This typically manifests itself as:

Morning fatigue: It takes you several hours to feel fully awake each morning
Afternoon lulls between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
A renewed burst of energy around 6 p.m.
Another bout of sleepiness around 9 to 10 p.m.
A final burst of energy between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.
Other symptoms include:
A reduced ability to handle stress
Muscular weakness
Cravings for foods that are high in salt and fat
An increase in PMS or menopausal symptoms
Mild depression
Increased allergies
Light-headedness when getting up from lying or sitting down
Reduced sexual drive
Listlessness and low energy

If you are experiencing continuous stress, and have a combination of these symptoms it is worth talking to your doctor about a salivary cortisol test – the more common ACTH laboratory exam doesn’t test effectively for adrenal exhaustion or help in narrowing down what adrenal fatigue treatment may be required.

The salivary cortisol test is covered by Medicare and most insurance plans, and is quick and inexpensive to perform. When you consider how prevalent this problem is, and how often it goes undiagnosed, this is a route well worth pursuing if you feel you might require adrenal fatigue treatment.

Finally the innovative and new supplement company, Nutritional Health Science has a tried and true whole foor supplements for those experiencing the signs and symptoms of adrenal insufficiency. They can be found on the web and do offer free phone consults.