Testing For Adrenal Fatigue
by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP
Conventional medicine is truly amazing at treating serious disease-state conditions, but when it comes to chronic health issues it does not have such a great track record. Unfortunately its focus on drugs also tends to suppress early-stage symptoms rather than treat their underlying causes. This is where functional medicine come is so well, we look at what is going on upstream that is creating the problems that are present.
By only looking at symptoms and getting a diagnosis this can have the effect of delaying treatment until a disease state has developed. This is true in the case of adrenal dysfunciton cortisol testing. In the conventional standard of care, any cortisol level within a very broad range is considered normal, and anything outside that range indicates disease. Serious disease I might add.
In our practice, we measure cortisol levels at several points in the day to track the adrenals’ day–night pattern (called the “diurnal rhythm”) using a panel of simple saliva tests. We expect to see cortisol higher in the morning to help you get going, and lower as the day progresses to night, when it is at its lowest to support restful sleep.
In the early stages of adrenal dysfunction, cortisol levels are too high during the day and continue rising in the evening. This is called the “Race Horse” in my book, Is it Me or My Adrenals. In the middle stages, cortisol may rise and fall unevenly as the body struggles to balance itself despite the use of caffeine, carbs and other factors, but levels are not normal and are typically too high at night. This cause increased issues with regards to sleep, which greatly increases exhaustion. In advanced stages, when the adrenals are exhausted from overwork, cortisol will never reach normal levels, I call that my “Flatliner”.
Conventional medicine will detect only the extremes of these conditions, when damage to the adrenals has already occurred (Cushing’s disease and Addison’s disease). Within those extremes, you can feel miserable and still be told your cortisol levels are normal. But by responding to early-stage symptoms of adrenal fatigue, we can reverse the developing dysfunction.
Should you get an adrenal test?
In general, if you feel happy and well, have steady energy and emotions, sleep soundly seven to nine hours a night, wake up feeling rested, recover well from stress, and maintain a healthy weight without dieting, then your adrenals are probably doing well.
On the other hand, if your energy ebbs and flows during the day, you feel emotionally stretched much of the time, you sleep poorly most nights, you can’t lose excess weight even while dieting, you use caffeine or carbohydrates as “pick-me-ups” — these are all signals indicating adrenal dysfunction.
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