Why Is Everyone Talking About Adrenal Fatigue?

It’s because your weight gain and constant tiredness might be down to the pressure you’re under.

- Nicky Perks

If you suffer from one or more of the following – fatigue, stubborn weight, belly fat, insomnia or brain fog – then you might need to pay attention to your body’s stress response system or HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis. Your stress response is governed by the interaction between the hypothalamus and pituitary and adrenal glands. Stress causes the release of hormones like cortisol and adrenaline that prepare your body for flight or fight. While this response to stress is protective in the short term, the longer the stress response stays activated, the more damaging it is to your health. This chronic stress response is called adrenal fatigue (or HPA axis dysregulation), and the varied physiological changes that accompany it can include obesity, high blood sugar and insulin resistance. 

The problem is, the adrenal glands are not geared to being on constant red alert and they eventually start to produce cortisol at the wrong time and in the wrong quantities. When cortisol works as it should, it spikes in the morning to help you wake up, and then tapers off during the course of the day. But chronic stress can create an inverted cortisol pattern, so that you wake up tired in the morning and suffer from insomnia at night. Poor sleep leads to fatigue, low mood, anxiety and weight gain (especially around the belly).

SPOT THE TRIGGERS: 

1.Stress – either emotional and/or psychological 

2.Blood sugar imbalances – both high and low blood sugar, or alternating between the two 

3. Circadian disruption, which includes sleep deprivation, too much exposure to light at night, not enough exposure to light during the day, shift work and frequent travel across time zones