Thyroid UK has been contacted by a journalist who has been commissioned to write an article on adrenal fatigue for a UK-based women's magazine. The journalist would like to speak to a woman aged 50+ about her experience of adrenal fatigue.
If anyone would be interested in speaking to the journalist to raise awareness, please send a message to un_piacere
Im sure many of us have adrenal fatigue but the GPs don't bother/ understand the possible causes of our fatigue!!
She would be far better to write an article about a medical condition rather than one that isn't recognised by the medical community. Adrenal Fatigue was made up by a chiropractor in order to make money! sciencebasedmedicine.org/ad...
Interesting, what would you say it's due to then? Some people can have decreasing adrenal function before they are then diagnosed with Adrenal Insufficiency which is a life threatening condition but it has to be diagnosed by biochemical evidence & not symptoms. There are no tests for adrenal fatigue.
Anyone who has had afrenal fatigue knows it exists, just because it is not understood and recognised as yet does not mean it doesnt exist. I can only go by my own experience but adrenal supplements helped me when I was really struggling with 2 decades of low thyroid function and t4 not working for me . The thyroid and adrenals are closley linked.
Adrenal insufficiency is recognised and one of the main symptoms is weight loss. As many thyroid challenged people know weight gain is one of our symptoms.
I think it was Vanderpump who stated on his pages that there is no.such thing as AF because when stressed the body produces more cortisol. But. What if it doesnt? Surely if this was true wouldnt that mean AI didnt exist either?
Maybe AF is diff to AI in that there are comorbidity at play that impacts the symptoms list?
How long have other conditions bern denied but have eventually been accepted into the medical world.
Too many report AF alongside thyroid dysfunction for it not to exist.
As I stated off with. When you have experienced the complete and utter debilitation of AF, you know it is real.
If the adrenal glands don't produce cortisol then there is usually a reason behind it, it can be due to an adrenal adenoma, an autoimmune condition (which causes Addison's Disease) TB & other morbidities, somewhere there has been a failure in the HPA axis, so testing would show that there is an issue & it can then be treated with steroids. Not everyone who has Adrenal Insufficiency has weight loss, my own story is that I had Cushing's Disease which caused my adrenal glands to produce excess cortisol. You can also have Cushing's syndrome from an adrenal tumour. Once the tumour is removed then you have adrenal insufficiency until the HPA axis starts working again. Often this doesn't happen so you are left with adrenal insufficiency & will need steroids for life. My pituitary doesn't produce the ACTH to stimulate the adrenal glands to produce cortisol, it's a life threatening condition where if I stop the steroids I will die within a couple of days. I need to carry an emergency injection kit of Hydrocortisone with me at all times in case of accident or illness. So I DO know what it is like to have Adrenal Insufficiency that isn't sorted by some adrenal supplements, it impacts on all areas of my life daily.
I am not undermining Adrenal insufficiency or any other adrenal condition. I do think that this is an area of limited knowledge that need much more research. I was saying that just because AF is not YET recognised that it does not mean it does not exist. Sadly when my adrenals are compromised and AI/ Addisons or Cushings are not identified, investigation tends to stop. y Until the symptoms we experience are taken more seriously how will we ever know the cause. Any adrenal insufficiency of any sort should not be ignored. Sadly in many cases it is.
My understanding of the difference between adrenal insufficiency (AI) and adrenal fatigue (AF) is that in both cases cortisol levels are low.
But in the case of AI the levels drop well below the reference range and levels cannot recover because whatever is supposed to make cortisol can no longer do so because one or more (permanent) problems have occurred with the hypothalamus, the pituitary or the adrenal glands themselves.
And in the case of AF the cortisol levels usually (but not always) stay within the reference range, but low in range. And the cortisol levels can recover with the correct treatment.
It's like having low B12 or low iron. Levels can be in range - anywhere in range - and doctors will say the patient is absolutely fine. But the patient may need levels to be 50% of the way through the range, or 60% or 70% etc to actually feel well. Having a level of 5% or 10% through the range just won't cut the mustard.
In some cases people with AF have improved their low cortisol levels by optimising their nutrient levels or changing their diets or taking more salt or they optimised their Free T4 and/or Free T3. There are no doubt other conditions which can lower cortisol which can be treated, and once treated cortisol levels will improve.
One of the first stages of AF for some people is that their cortisol levels go very high. If the adrenal glands can keep that up they will stay alive but feel unwell. But I am aware of some people who had high levels of cortisol who then eventually developed low levels because the adrenal glands couldn't keep up the pace. I would assume that the patient had some form of AF in this case.
My cortisol is usually low but it was high last two test especially the first one but I was told fine. Was looking into Cushings but cortisol can go up & down with that cyclical I think it is so it’s difficult to diagnose unless you do the urine one but not easy to convince Drs that.
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