Adrenal Fatigue - Part 4 - Relaxation Response Exercises

In yesterday's post I quickly touched on how carving some time out for yourself is important especially when it comes to unwinding and relaxing which is sometimes really hard to do at home. There is a to do list that never ends and if you are anything like me, even when your sitting down your mind is going a hundred miles a minute. Your thinking of the kids bedtime, lunches for tomorrow, bills that are due, laundry that needs to get done, the grocery list. It's really hard to turn that switch off but you can if you try. This is where relaxation response comes into play. When you learn relaxation exercises you can adapt to stressful situations and can move away from sympathetic or fight or flight mode and towards parasympathetic which is the rest and digest mode.

 

Dealing with Hashimotos and the long list of other issues over the past 9 years, anxiety and heart palpitations would be triggered by a number of things throughout the day that would throw me off my game. I am more conscious of when I need to slow down, take a break, do some deep breathing, reset and then get back to what I was doing when I feel more calm.   That is the point of relaxation response exercises, pushing that reset button. Here is a list of some of the exercises mentioned in the book and I have personally used a few for years.

1) Belly-breathing: Put aside 10 minutes of uninterrupted time. Sit or lie down on a surface that fully supports your entire body. I prefer to lay down. Place your hands on your abdomen and close your eyes. As you inhale, inflate your stomach and not your chest. You will feel your belly move against your hands. I was doing belly breathing wrong all this time. I kept inflating my chest! |LOL Continue breathing through your nose and for about 5 minutes.

2) Slowing down your breathing: Whenever you notice that you are getting tense or need a break check on your breathing. Try slowly it down concentrating more on exhalation rather than inhalation. This a technique that I use at work when I feel anxiety starting to come on.

3) Counting your exhalations: Find a quiet spot and start belly breathing. This time count down from 5 to 1 with every exhalation and continue for about 5 minutes. 

4) Repeating a mantra or affirmation: This is the use of repeated phrases or sounds for prayer or meditation. There are many advanced techniques you can use but for beginners like myself you can simply choose a word or phrase that is calming to you like "relax", "peace" or even "I feel my body healing". Sit in a quiet place for about 15-20 minutes and repeat your words or phrases to yourself silently or out loud while breathing slow and deep. You will find that your mind wanders when you first start to do it. I know when I started I would say my phrases in my head and than start thinking about work or the kids and had to regroup myself.  Look squirrel! LOL But doing this twice a day you can really train yourself to focus on healing and relaxation.  

5) Progressive relaxation: This one was kind of harder to explain to I found a picture on-line. The idea is to tighten up your muscles for about 10 seconds and then relaxing, starting from your head down to your toes until you have done this with every part of your body.

6) The quiet pond: Everyone can agree that sitting beside a pond can be so relaxing away from modern day life and the loudness and chaos. Find the quiet pond in your life which doesn't necessarily have to be a pond. It could be a bench in your favourite forest, or the swing in your backyard. Whatever is the quiet pond in your life, go there for a few minutes everyday and around the same time everyday.

Along with your planned relaxation exercises, do some unplanned ones. If possible take some time off from work to rest. It doesn't have to be expensive to be relaxing, vacation or staycation, doesn't matter. Don't miss out on your sleep and try to keep a positive attitude.  Laughter is the best medicine and when you laugh "stress decreases and all mechanisms in your body relax".  Using some of these exercises daily will ensure you are doing all that you can to keep your body in the parasympathetic state where it should be and help you recover from your adrenal fatigue.

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Adrenal Fatigue - Part 3 - I have adrenal fatigue, now what?

Finding out that you have adrenal fatigue is actually good news because it only means that once you start taking the right steps the only way  you can go is up! Sometimes the road to recovery can be long and I know this first hand. I started my journey 4 months ago and still have my days where I just need to relax and do nothing. Those are the days that Netflix and me become one! LOL I will go through some things in your life that you can work on to get closer to feeling better. 

First thing that you can do is change your lifestyle.  If you suffer from adrenal fatigue there is something in your life that needs to be changed. You just have to sit down and think of all the elements in your life that could be causing you stress. Examples that it gives in the book are: chemicalized water (there is enough fluoride in water to suppress a normal thyroid), financial pressures, emotional outlet, surgeries, unhappy at work/home, prescription/non prescription drugs, chronic pain, overwork, sickness, junk food, soft drinks, tobacco, lack of fresh air, alcohol, coffee and the list goes on. You have to take a step back and look at the big picture and really be honest with yourself and think of all the things that could be contributing to your decline in health. 

For me I now know looking back on the last 9 years, my health problems started with stress and just snow balled from there because my stress triggers were never addressed. I had 2 pregnancies back to back that were stressful because we were having issues financially and I never got to relax and enjoy my babies. I went back to work after 6 months with my first and 4 months after the second. In between those 2 pregnancies it always seemed like when we got ahead one of us would be laid off or unexpected bills came our way. It was like trying to go up stream without a paddle. Right after I had my second child is when everything went down hill. I was having all kinds of issues. Sciatic nerve, gall bladder removal, umbilical hernia, diagnose with hypothyroidism, cysts on my ovaries, 2 miscarriages, anemia, endometrial ablation due to severe menstruation (uterus was burned to slow down my periods as I couldn't reproduce my blood fast enough month to month), 2 failed root canals that were re-done twice and this January had one of those teeth extracted from an infection from a routine dental visit. Once I turned to alternative medicine I paid out of pocket to get more answers and found out that I have Hashimotos, celiac, SIBO, leaky gut, helicobacter pylori, methylation issues, digestion issues, adrenal fatigue and a few other issues. That is what 9 years of unresolved stress and unchanged lifestyle changes have done to me. 

If you want things to change in your life, you have to change and I know this from experience. Nobody is going to come to your door and give you the EASY button from Staples to push. You have to take the reins in your life and do what needs to be done, the first steps are always the hardest. I always thought that I was eating healthy but know now that was far from true. I was eating all the wrong things and in the wrong ratios. I started digging into research and now know much more about health and what I should be eating to benefit myself. There is no cookie cutter diet as everyone is different. We have different personalities, different blood types, different goals. There is no fix all diet and you have to look at the whole picture.  The short version of this is do the things in your life that make you feel good physically and emotionally, try to drop the rest if you can.  There will be things in your life that you just can't change but you can change how you react to them. Remove the negative talk in your head as positive thoughts attract positive people or situations just like negative talk attract negative. 

Next thing to work on is to make sure that you are taking time for yourself everyday to relax or unwind. Making sure that you sleep enough is key. The book indicates that you should be in bed before 11pm every night before your second wind hits. I know this first hand, as I try to start and get myself ready for bed by 10pm. If not, those are the nights that I have trouble sleeping or staying asleep. If possible, stay asleep until past 9am. For me this is not possible because I work Mon-Fri but I do this on the weekends. Apparently there is "something magical about the restorative power of sleep between 7-9am in the morning for people with adrenal fatigue." I can say that those times where I wake up and go back to bed until around 9am are the best naps I ever have and feel most refreshed. If you are waking up in the middle of the night, this might be due to your adrenal glands not able to keep your glucose high enough to get through the night. 

If you feel like you need a break during the day, the best thing to do is lay down for someone with adrenal fatigue. Sitting down is not enough and you will feel much more restored after laying down for 15-3o minutes. I nap most days after work to get my second wind and get through house hold chores. 

Exercise is something else that will help you recover but it needs to be the right kind. You cannot push yourself too fast as you will just burn yourself out even more. I did this a few weeks ago. I was starting to feel much better and started running between 5-10km a day and within 3 weeks I was so tired I had to stop. The best exercises for someone with adrenal fatigue are a combination of aerobics (builds stamina), anaerobics (builds strength) and flexibility (increase range of motion). I found an image on-line to show examples of each type of exercise to start incorporating into your daily routine. 

 

Lose the term "No pain, no gain". That is so far from true when dealing with adrenal fatigue. Listen to your body and when you need a break, take it.

I think that is quite a bit of information for today. We've talked about lifestyle changes in this post so the next post will concentrate on changes that should be made to your diet.  

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Adrenal Fatigue - Part 2 - Do I have adrenal fatigue?

Now that you know what adrenal fatigue is and its causes/symptoms, question is do you have it? The author of this book has a website and a questionnaire available to anyone who thinks they might have it. See the link below if you think you might have adrenal fatigue.

http://adrenalfatigue.org/take-the-adrenal-fatigue-questionnaire/

I did the quiz directly from the book. Since I am seeing a naturopath and functional medicine doctor, I did a before and now quiz to show the difference. Results were that I had severe adrenal fatigue before and now I have milder adrenal fatigue but it's still there. So your recovery will not always be short. I've been at it for 4 months and still have my days where nothing happens but Netflix and PJs. LOL

Best way to truly find out if you have adrenal fatigue is to seek professional help but there are some tests mentioned in the book and on his site that you can do at home to give you some indications of adrenal fatigue. I was able to do some digging on-line to find an image that had all 3 tests mentioned in the book in one image. See below.

Now that you have some indication that you might have adrenal fatigue, you can take this information to your doctor. Although I wouldn't get too excited there. Adrenal fatigue is not a term that is widely used by everyone in the Western medicine community. I never heard it until I turned to alternative medicine myself and when I confronted my family doctor about adrenal fatigue, she looked at me like I was crazy or talking fairy tales again like I mentioned in Part 1. The reason for this is explained in this book as well. 

You can apply a bell curve to many situations and this is one of them. This bell curve shows the normal bell curve for adrenal fatigue. Anyone that falls within the normal or even weak ranges of this bell curve are considered to be normal. Only those patients that fall in the very high or very low are considered an issue. But at those points it's a disease. Some with extremely low ranges now have Addison's disease and someone in the high ranges now have Cushing's disease. So what this chart is showing is that you have to have a disease to be considered on most doctor's radar which is insane to me!! They should be catching this as it happens and as you are complaining about changes in energy and other symptoms. 

There is an example in the book that describes a patients results which was at a normal range but dropped in between the weak level range. But because this is still within range they were not considered as having an issue. Even a drop like that is huge when dealing with adrenal fatigue. It means there is something wrong and if not addressed you will end up with Addison's or Cushing's disease depending on which end of the spectrum you are heading towards.

My advice from personal experience is that if your family doctor doesn't listen, find another doctor or better yet turn to alternative medicine. In alternative medicine they will treat your body as a whole system and know that when you are not at your optimal functionality that something is wrong. They will know what tests to run and what adrenal fatigue even means.  Sometimes you have to take your health in your own hands which I have done as well. I have been through many doctors over the last 9 years to get answers and I finally have 3 doctors that are in my corner helping me get better everyday. It took a while to find them but was worth the wait. I hope that you find yours. 

I think that is quite a bit of information for today's post. My next post will be addressing lifestyle changes and habits that you can incorporate in your life to prevente complete burnout from happening again. Knowing the signs is key! We just need to start listening to our bodies and not our egos. That's a hard one, as I was guilty of that for many years. Until next time have a great Sunday my journey peeps! :) 

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Adrenal Fatigue - Part 1 - What is adrenal fatigue?

I finished reading the book 'Adrenal Fatigue. The 21st Century Stress Syndrome' by a naturopathic doctor named James L. Wilson. There was so much good information in this book that is normally not available or even known about in the regular medical community that I felt that I had to share. There was far too much information to include in one single post so I will dedicate a few days to sharing all the information that I learned in this book because at some point or another everyone will experience some form of adrenal fatigue and knowing the signs is key to preventing fatigue and complete burn out. So here goes, Adrenal Fatigue Part 1. :)

Adrenal fatigue, what does it even mean? Well you have 2 adrenal glands that are about the size of a walnut that sit at the top of your kidneys. The role of these glands is essentially to help you handle stress and survive. It is much more complex than that but I am trying to keep it simple and it would take forever to describe every single function and hormone that depends on these little guys. It's quite impressive actually! Your body depends on these glands to function properly for energy, endurance and survival. Have you ever been stuck in a traffic jam and someone in the lane beside you cuts you off. You feel that anger and rage instantly coursing through your body and you feel your face get flush and your ready to jump out of your skin in attack mode? Your adrenal glands are responsible for that. 

Let's break this down. There are 2 states that your body can be in, sympathetic state which is your 'fight or flight' mode and parasympathetic state which is your' 'rest and digest' mode. Your body should be in the 'rest and digest' state the majority of the time to allow for proper digestion and function/synchroinicty of all of your systems. Now 'fight or flight' mode comes into play when there is a stress in front of you that you need to tackle. Since the beginning of time, 'fight or flight' would be a means of survival. Imagine thousands of years ago that you are traveling with your group or pack on foot, then you come across a wild animal that starts to charge at you. Your adrenal glands will surge adrenaline through your body. This is where the 'super human strength' suddenly appears. Your start to breath faster and oxygen is sent to all the vital organs while blood flow going to the intestines is shut down. Your body does not care that you have food to digest, it's main purpose is survival!

Now fast forward to today, we don't live in jungles, need to hunt for survival but our bodies have not adapted to that and a stress such as a traffic jam will produce the same response as if a lion jumped out of nowhere and was standing right in front of you ready for attack.  Your body doesn't know the difference because it senses the same response and reacts. Where the problem lies is that modern day is much more stressful than it used to be. We have families that need dual incomes to survive, mothers who can't afford to take full maternity leave after having a child, the cost of living is just too expensive, guilt of working so much to support your family, having to come home from a full day of work and jump into home life mode of supper, dishes, homework, being the chauffeur for sports. From the moment we get up to the second we rest our heads to go to bed, the majority of us are in constant GO mode, fight or flight. Well as mentioned before you need to be a the rest and digest mode so that you can properly digest your food and wind down. Being constantly stressed means that you are not properly digesting your food and will start to have a ripple effect to your other systems.

When you are constantly in fight or flight mode this causes stress on the adrenal glands and can lead to adrenal fatigue when not addressed. Once you have suffered adrenal fatigue for a period of time you can develop other conditions like infections, allergies or auto immune disorders. I know this first hand. I had never heard of adrenal fatigue before and had been suffering for years with conditions I had never heard of. I have Hashimotos, celiac, adrenal fatigue, helicobacter pylori, SIBO, low estrogen, low testosterone, methylation issues, digestion issues and the list goes on. All because I didn't know the signs and now have to address and try to reverse 9 years of stress my body was under.  I am currently working with a naturopath and functional medicine doctor and I couldn't be happier because my family doctor was of no help and completely dismissed alternative medicine as a fairy tale and that I would need pills to address my issues. No....but thanks for playing! LOL

Some factors that might cause you stress in your life can be death of a loved one, repeated stress, emotional stress, over exertion, lack of sleep, poor eating habits, sugar and white flour,  lack of exercise, prescription or non-prescription drugs, fear, job loss, divorce, financial pressure, lack or relaxation, negative attitude and toxins. There are so many more but these are the most common ones. 

Signs and symptoms of adrenal fatigue are: 
-difficulty getting up in the morning (still suffering from this one myself lol)
-still fatigued after sleep
-craving salt or salty foods (this was huge one for me but didn't know it at the time) -lethargic
-more energy needed to do simple daily tasks
-decreased sex drive
-unable to handle stress like you used to
-takes longer to get over an illness
-light-headed when standing up quickly (I had this pretty bad for a while)
-mild depression
-symptoms increase if you skip a meal (yes! I got HANGRY and shaky)
-brain fog
-memory slipping
-less tolerant
-less productive
-don't fully wake up til about 10am, hit a wall around 3 or 4pm then feel better after supper. (For me I used to feel tired all day, crash around 2-3pm and then at 9pm it was like a flip switched and I would be cleaning the house late at night)

I know that was a lot of information to cover but that was just scratching the surface. Later this week I will talk about how to get properly diagnosed, the struggle with getting a diagnosis, simple tests that you can do at home, and what you can do on your own while you wait or seek professional help. 

 

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Health Challenge - Intro to the AIP Diet (Auto Immune Protocol)

I'm in quite a few support groups on Facebook sharing my story/success and learning from other members as well. Had a few requests from members to learn about AIP. Sharing with all my journey peeps what the AIP diet entails and is recommended for anyone that has health issues. Your health begins in your gut and if you have health issues it means your problems started in your gut where your immune system is. This diet allows your gut to heal by eliminating trigger foods and reintroducing at a later time. It's not 100% fool proof as I've found I still have issues with foods that are allowed like green apples and carrots because they are higher in sugar and my SIBO says nom nom nom. Lol But I haven't had a severe flare up in months and only get cramps and discomfort when I haven't prepared the food myself and not sure what the food  contains. The first week on this diet I dropped 3 lbs and continued at that pace for 3 weeks and then lost 1 lb steady for weeks until I plateaued at 27 lbs lost. I'm  on a new protocol to address other issues and seems like I'm dropping weight again.  I am doing nothing extra except for my morning walks because frankly I'm still not there energy wise. I tried running for 3 weeks but that relationship ended quickly because I was still suffering from adrenal fatigue even though I was feeling much better. But I actually wasn't better and still have a ways to go. I have been sick for years that I couldn't remember what 100% feeling better feels like and I pushed it too soon. If you don't have any major health issues you can adapt a Paleo version of AIP. I promise it will help in some way if you stick to it and change your thinking from "live to eat" to "eat to live". I challenge you to try it for a few weeks and see if you don't see any changes.  Warning that you may feel sick or light headed at first as your body gets used to not being fed so many carbs and processed foods but it won't last. Idea is clean eating. High veggies and lower fruits and meats. You don't realize how much food you consume that is processed until you go to make something and realize you can't use it. Very eye opening! The image shows a 30 day minimum elimination timeline but for those with severe flares or digestion issues I would suggest doing it for at least 3 months. You can do it!

 

 

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Avocado Brownies

In my search to find new and different dessert recipes I came across this one on-line and had to try it out. I don't have a sweet tooth but this was really good. I did reduce the amount of sweetener for my taste. See recipe below. 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup dark chocolate
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 cup avocado (2 large or 4 small)
1 tbsp coconut flour
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1/2 cup honey (I put a bit over a 1/4 cup)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

I melted my dark chocolate over the stove and then just put everything in my food processor to make a nice puree. I poured this in a glass 8 x 8 pan and bake at 350°F for about 35-45 minutes. I was quite surprised and how moist it was and very tasty. It was just the right sweetness for me and family approved. Give it a try, they are gluten free, dairy free and paleo friendly.

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Nitrates and Nitrites

Since going on the AIP diet (Auto Immune Protocol Diet) I've been looking for nitrite free items that I can eat. In general you should avoid processed meat no matter what your health condition but I am really a sucker for cooking my family breakfast on a Sunday that includes bacon, eggs, some AIP friendly pancakes and some fruit topping. 

I found 2 brands that they now sell at the grocery store called Free From and Naturally. Both claim to be nitrite free and Free From also claims that their animals are grass fed and free from antibiotics. This is great but doesn't mean this should be a staple in your household. I did some more digging into the whole nitrate/nitrite debate and nitrate naturally occurs in fruits and vegetables as well. There is a bit of chemistry difference between the two, one less oxygen atom. ( Nitrate = NO3, Nitrite = NO2)

Nitrates in general are harmless and actually do a lot of good in your body. They can relax blood vessels, which relieves chest pain. Vegetables such as celery, leafy greens, beets, parsley, cabbage are some that contain the most but all plants contain nitrate.  But when they convert to a nitrite that's where the problems can arise. "When nitrates hit the tongue, bacteria in the mouth of the enzymes in the body turn the nitrates into nitrites. Nitrites can be good when they form nitric oxide, but then they form nitrosamines, it can have a negative effect and may be where cancer-causing cells occur".  Meaning they are carcenogenic. That was a direct quote from Dr. Axe site as I found him to explain it the best.

Nitrites are needed in the curing process to prevent bacteria growth and keep the meat nice and pink. The problem lies when it hits the pan, frying at high temperatures can increase the potential of nitrosamines which are bad and even the chemical reaction when it hits and acidic stomach. Also the amount of nitrates that you would find in processed is much higher than what you would find when eating a fruit or a vegetable. 

Best thing to do is choose a fruit or vegetable first. If you really want to buy processed meat look for ones that are free from nitrate/nitrite to decrease how much you are ingesting. Make them occasionally rather than making them part of your daily life. Having processed meat on a daily basis is not good and will cause some health problems for you at some point. This includes anything that is cured, salted, smoked and have added preservatives like lunch meat, hot dogs, sausages, bacon and ham. I think I cried a little at the ham at bacon. Not gonna lie! LOL But you owe it to your health and your family to know that everything that you put in your mouth will have an outcome. Make it a good one! :)

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