My slow dance with Adrenal Fatigue

Last year my doctor told me that I had adrenal fatigue. Adrenal what now?! How did I ever get this far?

Turns out it is quite “easy” to fry your adrenals. This was my own very successful recipe:

1. Go on sleeping an average of 6-7 hours per night. Throw in a couple of shorter nights just for good measure and never get up feeling rested.
2. Live constantly under stress.
3. Get too much work on your plate and do not ever say no.
4. Beat up your body by competitive kayaking for years and by all means do not even attempt to fuel your body properly.
5. Once done with competitive sports continue to beat body down by training 6 days a week. Mix 100% effort in weight training sessions to a few CrossFit circuits and you’re all done!
6. Drink crazy amounts of green tea or coffee.
7. Eat bad foods for most of your life and make sure your gut gets so irritated that your body is no longer able to absorb nutrients properly. Or better yet, eat things you are allergic to. I mean, since you are at it, you might as well do a thorough job at busting your immune system, after all who needs it? (right?!)

But wait, I guess I should rewind a bit and tell you why I ended up at the doctor’s office in the first place. Here it goes short and not-so-sweet:

1. Lethargic.
2. Major decrease in sports performance.
3. Loss of muscle mass followed by a disturbing increase in body fat.
4. Poor sleep or lack thereof.
5. Awake during the night and sleepy during the day. I became a bat! Too bad the rest of the world didn’t work according to my body’s new schedule.

You think I would have stopped and analysed what I was doing as I went downhill wouldn’t you? Well, I didn’t. I kept on going, thinking I was “ hardcore” (yeah, whatever… in fact, yawn). After a while I started blaming my age, after all I was no longer in my twenties. (ugh). Only after my circadian rhythm flipped out completely and I realised that I was going to lose my mind from a lack of sleep did I drag my sorry butt to the doctor.

Blood tests and a 24-hour urine test confirmed that I had a Masters in Adrenal Fatigue. I had passed Cum Laude.

Horrified beyond belief, I listened as the doctor told me what I needed to do in order to revive my adrenals. Beat up, I left on a mission (how typical) to get myself all patched up.

Next time I will tell you what I did and whether it worked.