Category: Health

Health

Why You Should Know The Signs Of Adrenal Fatigue

Jessica Strimpfel


What’s Adrenal Fatigue?

I spent years unknowingly in late stages of adrenal fatigue and each year got worse. I would go to the doctor for repeated thyroid and autoimmune tests that always came back with the same normal results. Though I was glad there wasn’t anything to diagnose, it was frustrating to have chronic symptoms that no doctor could explain. I still couldn’t sleep, stay asleep, or if I did sleep why I felt like I didn’t sleep at all! I was tired all the time and any amount of stress would burn me out to the point of complete exhaustion. If this is true for you, you may be battling adrenal fatigue too.

I did some reading about adrenal fatigue after seeing a video about the symptoms. After consulting with a naturopath, we decided to try the adrenal protocol to see if my symptoms would improve, and boy did they!

Your adrenal glands produce a variety of hormones that are essential to life. When Adrenals are taxed by stress, inflammation, and poor self care it creates a cortisol imbalance. This imbalance becomes a multi-phase decline in your health and wellbeing that is difficult to diagnose.

If you suffer from insomnia, insulin resistance, restless legs, dark circles under the eyes, and weight gain in the belly due to craving of carbs and sweets your cortisol levels may be high resulting in the early stages of adrenal fatigue.

Maybe you fall asleep fine, but wake up during the night or a few hours before your alarm and you can’t go back to sleep. This makes for many days where your mood is affected, your libido is low, and you experience more unexplained aches and pains. If you experience this on a regular basis, it may be advanced adrenal fatigue.

When the first two stages of adrenal fatigue continue untreated, it progresses into a place of complete exhaustion regardless of the hours slept. It can also affect your DHEA and thyroid levels putting you at higher risk for autoimmune disease, chronic bacterial, viral, and yeast infections.

Natural Ways To Heal

  1. Change your diet.

Chances are, you know certain foods cause you to feel badly, but you eat them anyway. When this happens, there is inflammation in the body which can wear down your immune system. Keeping these foods out of your diet and choosing foods that are lean clean proteins, whole grain gluten free, and packed with veggies can help keep the stress on the adrenals low. Several in my family are also sensitive to dairy so we’ve had to eliminate that as well. Be aware of how your body responds to each meal and keep a journal to help you figure out foods that may be stressing your body.

2. Go to bed early

Getting plenty of sleep is going to play a major role in recovering from adrenal fatigue. Staying up too late can cause a late cortisol surge and will disrupt your sleep pattern. We also use an adrenal fatigue serum as part of our nightly routine. It helps us to fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up feeling refreshed as sleep was intended to do! We don’t go to sleep without it, and if we do, we remember why we use it in the first place after a bad night sleep.

Only tested with Young Living products

3. Replace lost nutrients

The third thing that has helped me overcome adrenal fatigue is Super B by Young Living. I take it at lunch to get me through the afternoon slump I tend to get from having adrenal fatigue and it carries me through until bed time. B vitamins are food for the adrenals, help give energy, and uplift mood. Krill oil helps reduce inflammation and maintain a healthier functioning immune system and less stress on the adrenals.

4. Hydrate

This one is tough for me. I HATE drinking water! I’ve learned to put a few drops of lemon or orange vitality oil in my water to give it a boost of flavor and prompts me to want to drink it a little more.

Rebalance

If you’ve been diagnosed with adrenal fatigue or think you may have it, rebalancing your body by taking some of the steps below. Changing your diet, getting better sleep, taking supplements, and hydrating can make a world of difference. Don’t let it get worse and slip into an autoimmune disorder. Let your body heal naturally and see how much better you start to feel in no time!

Advertisement
Health

My Escape From Sickness

Jessica Strimpfel

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been drawn into using scented bath and body products on a daily basis. As a teen, my go to was Love’s Baby Soft. As a young adult, I was smitten with Exclamation perfume and the fruity grape scent of Aussie mouse and hairspray. Moving into my 30’s I was overtaken by the plethora of gels and lotions that came in more scents than I knew existed in one store. Behold Bath And Body Works. Spending an hour smelling each colorful bottle and carefully selecting a set or special combo of scents to smother my skin and hair was very appealing to me. The many bottles on my vanity proved that to be true!

  • Smells like teen spirit!

Back then I didn’t think twice about what I put on my skin, hair, or body. I thought friends who were advocating all natural products and saving the Earth were fanatical. If millions of people were using these products and they were approved by the FDA as safe, why should we listen to some protesters? Well, they might have been a little weird to us back then, but I for one wish I had listened to them and researched the facts for myself.

Coincidence Or Ingredients?

Through my 30’s I started to see my health decline. I suffered with major migraines almost daily. To the point where normal headache medications didn’t touch it and I was paralyzed in bed. Confined to a cool dark room and pillow over my head to block out noise, I would pray for the pain and nausea to let up. I finally found an OTC migraine medication that worked! However, I was going through an entire bottle every two weeks. This continued on for several years and I thought nothing of it. At age 32, I started having symptoms of Endometriosis and Fibrocystic Breast Disease. Biopsies, tests, blood work, and more on a repeat cycle for 3 years leading up to a double breast lumpectomy and hysterectomy. My body was falling apart and I was way too young for all of this to be setting in!

My nightmare of health decline culminated during the hysterectomy surgery. I lost a lot of blood and had difficulty healing. My skin was a yellow gray color, my body unable to walk or eat much of anything. Every medication they gave me either didn’t work or I had a terrible reaction to.

After a week of calling the doctor’s office repeatedly to alert them something was wrong, a friend brought me directly in. Unable to stand upright and my kidney protruding from my back, I was rushed to the ER. It was too late- Sepsis had set in. All of my internal organs were infected and they rushed me into the second surgery to remove the infected hematoma. I was in serious trouble fighting for my life. My doctor even spoke the words “I wasn’t sure you were going to make it, but today I give you the all clear.” That was 2 months after the hysterectomy. He said I had the all clear, but I still wasn’t feeling good and everything I ate or used seemed to make me feel worse. I decided it was time for a look at holistic living and after some research, I was realized it was worth a try. It wasn’t more than a week into a new strict diet and eliminating all chemical based products when I realized how good I was feeling. I hadn’t had a single migraine, no extreme fatigue, no restless legs at night, and my energy level had increased significantly. We were on to something and I was determined to get well. I made a dramatic recovery, but I was left with auto-immune deficiency requiring me to be mindful of my body and make adjustments to my daily life forever.

I’ve been cautious about what we eat, what types of bath and body products we use, what types of medicines we take, and the types of cookware we prepare and store food in ever since. I also got rid of all my candles and plug in air fresheners replacing them with diffusing essential oils. We’re still a work in progress to be 100% free from chemicals, but no products with sulfates, parabens, or imidazolidinyl urea, triclosan, etc are allowed in our home. Along with fragrance and synthetic colors, those are among the most toxic ingredients found in beauty products.

Proof Is In Living

Now you’re probably thinking I’m the fanatic and frankly that’s ok with me! I know how much better life is when I’m healthy and I want my family to be healthy too. We still use conventional medicine when necessary, but I prefer to try everything natural based first. Thankfully, since switching from chemical cleaners to Thieves, replacing allergy medicines with essential oils, and switching out things like deodorant, shower gels, perfumes, toothpaste, mouthwash, dryer balls instead of dryer sheets for all natural choices, we’ve seen a significant reduction in sickness. I was usually sick at least twice a month, my son had severe asthma requiring ER visits several times a season and had eczema so bad he was constantly scratching himself raw. My husband had bad allergies that kept him up at night and frequently got sinus infections. In the last year of changing our products to Young Living, my son hasn’t had one asthma attack or even any allergy symptoms. His eczema is under control with only occasional flares and my husband no longer uses or needs daily allergy medicines. I no longer have sleep difficulties, restless legs, or any problems whith Endometriosis or Fibrocystic Breast Disease. I still on rare occasion get a headache and only had 2 or 3 migraines all year, but eliminating all of these things from our lives has really made a huge difference.

Take Action!

Is it time for you to take your health into our own hands and make the conscious choice to use all natural products? What is it that you want to improve in your life? Better sleep, more energy, eliminate headaches, improve allergies and asthma? Whatever it is, do a case study for yourself. I guarantee you’ll see an improvement in your health when you are only putting good things in.