The 4 Faces of Adrenal Fatigue – Part 1: Introduction

by Dr.Dave on Aug 31, 2014

At the heart of our clinical philosophy lies the belief that your genes, uterine environment, life experiences (particularly early life adversity), and environmental influences (toxins, pace, domestic discord, drugs, work stress, poor nutrition, sleep deprivation, sedentary lifestyle, and so forth) determine how you, and your body, handle life stressors. Stress, and your capacity to cope with it, is the most important influence on your overall health and pursuit of happiness. Stress exerts powerful effects on normal and, as it turns out, pathological physiology of nearly every organ in your body. Stress is not what happens to us. Rather, stress comprises our conscious and unconscious responses to external or internal stimuli (stressors). This brilliant set of ancient and automatic responses has been fine-tuned over millions of years to ensure the survival of the species. But if your fight/flight mechanism does not return to baseline and remains chronically activated, you are setting yourself up for burnout and other stress-related disorders. Not all stress is the same. That said, stress syndromes share several common themes: they usually start with your adrenal glands and are associated with imbalances among your neurotransmitters, hormones, adrenal output and immune activity. These imbalances (psycho-neuro-immunological perturbations – PNIPs) can be measured and corrected. Rather than guess at the imbalances causing your symptoms, we prefer to test for them. Based on your specific symptoms (which we evaluate) and your PNIPs (which we test), your particular stress syndrome is likely to fall into one of four categories, hence “The 4 Faces of Adrenal Burnout” model. For more on these stages of adrenal fatigue and our general and specific approaches to treating them, please visit our Adrenal Fatigue webpage, which contains more information than you would ever want. Although we strongly recommend that you have your adrenal hormone and neurotransmitter levels tested, you may for many quite appropriate reasons opt to forge ahead with treatment of your tired adrenal glands without getting tested. As such, we have assembled this information – The 4 Faces of Adrenal Burnout – to help you identify the state of your adrenals and get started replenishing them immediately. I will, over the next several blogs, review our innovative Stage (or “Face”)-Specific bundles of adrenal and neurotransmitter support supplements. Each bundle corresponds to a specific stage of adrenal fatigue as detailed below. We hope this makes it easier for you to figure out exactly which supplements are most likely to address your individual stage of adrenal output. Otherwise, you and we are just guessing. These adrenal/stress syndromes can be divided into four distinct but overlapping categories. Each of these stages is associated with specific symptoms and measurable biochemical imbalances. Moreover, each of these stress syndromes requires its own treatment approach. The graphic below summarizes these overlapping but biochemically and clinically distinct stages of adrenal burnout:

1. Wired for Sound
2. Wired and Tired 1 – Allergic and Infected
3. Wired and Tired 2 – Inflamed and in Pain
4. Just Plain Tired

This is the closest we can get to customizing your treatment without you obtaining a personal consultation with us. This approach is most appropriate under the following circumstances: if

• You opt not to get testing, or
• You want to get started while awaiting your test results, or
• You have already gotten your adrenal hormones and neurotransmitters tested and do not feel you need a consultation before proceeding, or
• You know, based on your signs and symptoms, which stage you are in and what treatment you need.

Please remember that you can consult with us before, during, or after you start nourishing and rebuilding your adrenals (and thereby your health). Stay tuned for our next blog wherein I will describe in greater detail the “Wired for Sound” stage of Adrenal Fatigue and its corresponding bundle. If you simply can’t wait until then (I’m already suspecting in that case high cortisol levels), check out my SlideShare at the top of this page or go to our webpage for “the rest of the story.”