How stressed, tired and running on quick fixes are you?

London Healthy Living - Attitude To Food Blog

We seem to wear stress as a badge of honour nowadays, and what usually comes with a consistent period of high stress levels is adrenal fatigue. It’s epidemic in A types and perfectionists, who put everyone else first and drive themselves through fatigue, going from one stressful experience to the next with little focus on time for self care.

If you’ve ever had that tired but wired feeling, where you feel like you’re running on empty, but somehow you find the energy to zip yourself up and do what you have to do regardless you know what I mean …and that works fine for a while, but keep doing it, and it’s a sure fire way to exhaust your adrenals so before you know it you’re feeling like everything is just too much effort, you’re jumpy, snappy and anxious, and you probably can’t concentrate to save your life! Plus, you wake up tired no matter how many hours sleep you’ve had, you don’t get sleepy at night which is beyond frustrating and you just can’t seem to find a way of getting things back to balance.

I never paid much notice to my adrenal health when I was younger …just kind of took my health for granted as lots of us do, but it’s a little like building blocks; the long forgotten stress in our childhood, teens and 20′s forms the foundation and then every subsequent stressful situation just piles right on so at some point in our lives we notice our energy is down and no matter what we do, it doesn’t seem to pick up …that’s usually when we start to take note of the importance of these two little triangular-shaped glands that sit above our kidneys.

They’re responsible for production of cortisol, adrenaline, oestrogen and progesterone along with balance of over 50 hormones in the body, blood sugar and blood pressure, plus they support our immune system so they’re pretty important and it makes sense to pay them some attention before you get to full-on adrenal fatigue.

If you’re not sure if you’re adrenals are fatigued, these are some of the symptoms you’d experience if they are:

:: Low stress threshold; easily irritated and quick to respond angrily
:: Non-negotiable cravings for sugars, carbs and quick-fix foods
::Cravings for a relaxing glass of wine to help you wind down, yet at the same time intolerance to alcohol
:: A craving for salty foods
:: You’re jumpy with a tendency to startle easily
:: Worsening PMS
:: Excessive sweating from little activity
:: Lower back pain and/or knee weakness or pain, especially on the side
:: Dark circles under the eyes
:: Dizziness and light-headedness on standing up
:: Low blood sugar
:: Low blood pressure
:: Heart palpitations
:: Sensitivity to light, or difficulty seeing at night
:: Chronic infections (bacterial, viral, fungal, yeast)
:: Poor sleep, difficulty getting out of bed in the morning
:: Dry, unhealthy skin with excess pigmentation
:: Lack of libido
:: Negative response to thyroid hormone
:: Poor concentration and fuzzy thinking

To run your own Stress Assessment head over to www.attitudetofood.com/adrenal-fatigue/

Posted Date
Sep 24, 2013 in London Healthy Living - Attitude To Food Blog by AttitudetoFood