Are You Dangerously Close To Burnout?

The Causes of Burnout May Be Physical as Well as Emotional

Do you live on sugar, coffee, or cigarettes, or maybe sugar, coffee, and cigarettes? If you do, you may be dangerously close to a hormonal condition known as adrenal burnout. The adrenal glands are two tiny organs, each one located on top of a kidney. Their primary job is to make the hormone cortisol. This is the chemical that releases energy for "fight or flight," helping the body deal with stress.

Cortisol is essential for human life. Just as cortisol helped our early ancestors outrun or outsmart saber-toothed tigers, it also helps us perform amazing physical feats today. Probably you have heard stories of how a mother with a broken arm used one arm to lift an entire car off her endangered baby, or how a parent was a poor swimmer managed to pull a drowning child out of a raging river.

Cortisol also has functions that are much more mundane. The adrenal glands release cortisol in tiny bursts through the night to help our livers release the sugar our brains need to function while we are asleep. Cortisol quells inflammation, and keeps the immune system in check. In this way, it helps the immune kill germs while leaving healthy tissues along. And it is a boost of cortisol about two hours before sunrise that helps you get out of bed in the morning.

Too much cortisol, however, can lead to chronic problems with the adrenal glands. Eventually the adrenal glands "burn out," so they don't make as much cortisol. Not only are you unlikely to be able to lift a car with one hand or to snatch a loved one from a raging river, you may start having problems getting out of bed. You may suffer eczema, psoriasis, arthritis, headaches, or chronic stomach upset, as your body loses its ability to fight inflammation. And your brain may start keeping you awake at night and sleepy during the day as the adrenal glands sputter and spurt out their largest amounts of cortisol at the wrong time.

How can you recognize potential adrenal burnout?

Here are some early warning signs:

• Most of your life activities are schedule for daytime, and you feel tired during the day and energized at night.
• You have itching, allergies, irritation, or inflammation that just won't go away, or that comes back in a different form after you treat it.
• You come down with colds or flu several times per year.
• You suffer from chronic fatigue.

Adrenal fatigue is a condition that can take 10 to 25 years to fully manifest itself. Vague symptoms become very specific symptoms as time goes on. Research physicians have found a list of specific symptoms of burnout that define the disease.

More Warning Signals of Adrenal Fatigue

The adrenal glands do not "burn out" because of stress. They lose their ability to function when stress never lets up.

After any severe stress, the adrenal glands need 24 to 48 hours to acquire new raw materials to make enough cortisol to deal with new stresses. The liver has to be nourished with "comfort food", or at least with carbohydrates, to make more glycogen so it can release glucose needed by the brain and heart the next time there is severe stress. After stress, you need at least a weekend of peace and quiet to recharge.
 

If you never take time to let your adrenal glands recharge, or if you simply are never able to take time to let your adrenal glands recharge, eventually they will tell you "Never again!" A few months to as long as 25 years after the initiation of a stressful period, poor adrenal function causes predictable symptoms.

According to adrenal health expert Dr. Susan Sklar:

• 99% of people who suffer adrenal burnout will experience fatigue.
• 98% of people who suffer adrenal burnout will develop skin spots (age spots, lentigos, or freckles, even where the skin is not exposed to the sun).
• 97% of people who suffer adrenal burnout will experience muscle loss (although, sadly, not necessarily fat loss).
• 34% will develop chronic abdominal pain that does not have any clear connection to changes in the gastrointestinal organs.
• 27% will develop salt cravings.
• 20% will develop chronic diarrhea.
• 19% will develop chronic constipation. Some will develop an alternating pattern of diarrhea and constipation that is "not quite" irritable bowel syndrome.
• 16% will have chronic fainting spells.
• 9% will develop vitiligo, loss of pigmentation in patches of the skin, most commonly on the face and hands. The darker the skin, the more likely it is to affected by vitiligo.

Adrenal burnout also leads to high triglyceride levels that may be a warning of type 2 diabetes. As the liver is less and less able to store the carbohydrates it needs to supply the body with ready fuel, it becomes less and less sensitive to insulin, causing type 2 diabetes.

You can develop adrenal burnout even if you are leading a "wonderful life." Getting married, getting a promotion, making a lot of money from an investment, or having a child are major stressors. Even if you are happy with your life, you can experience adrenal burnout if you do not allow yourself time to relax every week.

What should you do if you believe you are experiencing adrenal burnout?

First of all, it is important to recognize that the symptoms listed above may be part of a deeper problem. Caffeine, nicotine, and taurine (found in energy drinks) may help you get through chronic fatigue for weeks, months, or even years, but eventually your adrenal glands will crash if you do not make a habit of rest and relaxation. Treating age spots, vitiligo, digestive problems, and taking pills for the hypertension caused by your salt cravings may take care of the symptom, but you still need to take care of the underlying problem.

Both medications and nutritional supplements can help restore adrenal function after burnout—but it is a lot better to keep burnout from ever occurring. Make time in your life for peace and quiet, especially when you are having the time of your life.