share. learn. thrive!

Diagnosis=Opportunity (New to this)

Diagnosis=Opportunity

Adrenal fatigue!

My unemployment did not bring back my energy level. I found that to be odd. I ended up at a new Dr, with interesting results. This man is familiar with nutrition, bioidenticals, and other such areas of health benefit.

In the midst of the abundant information, exhaustion, and one too many supplements / adaptogens / and diets…

There is a bright light:

I simply have to guts this out, sort the information and find the best resources for self empowerment.

I have on order at my library “Thrive”, and am about to embark on adding to my already powerful nutrition/exercise regimen, a slow filtering in of Maca and Chorella.

I see the diagnosis as an offering, to my already half full glass of life. I have before me for the first time in years, insight, as to why I feel so tired. Prior to this I had suffered from and resolved a case of long term anemia. It never occurred to me, despite my preventive medical care, that I had a case of challenged adrenals.

This is like being offered my life back to me in full, on a silver platter. Now I just have to choose what goes on that platter, and put it into action.

Easier said than done… Thus, I have possibly begun to do this in a rather blind fashion. The information on supplements and diets is confusing and often contradictory. I no longer am on iron sups, as the my iron stores are building nicely without them. Yet, all of the nutrition is going to add unwanted iron to my diet, such as is the case with some of the Vega products. All will be monitored so I do not reach the other end of the spectrum of Iron Overload. I may very well not be a candidate for the Vega Complete Whole Food Health Optimizer products, if those blood numbers shift too quickly.

I gather even the Chorella is high in iron. I can see where if Chorella an important part of this, cutting back on the fish and poultry consumption, thus lowering my iron intake.

I noted that Chorella is recommended, as part of a mercury detox program. I also noted; It can hit an unfamiliar system rather hard, go extremely low dose to begin with. On one hand: Having been at a minimum of 75% organic nutritional consumption, may help with that initial hit. Yet another note: My immune system is at a compromised point, so the benefit of all my nutrition may not be as much as I believe. Add to that my body weight of 115-120; I gather an adjustment for lower body weight is advisable as well, and that also applies to the adaptogens?

Any suggestions of course are appreciated, for I am finding the task before me a bit overwhelming.

I decided to cut back to working out every other day. The alternating days will be what I term yoga/stretch days. I am maintaining my veggie juicing and goats milk yogurt as part of this diet, for they have most likely been the only reason I am not more exhausted. I am not a vegetarian, and what meat (and veggies/fruit) I consume is 75% from antibiotic/hormone free sources.

Rose

Tags: Adrenal, Anemia, Chorella, Iron, Maca, exercise, juicing

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ken Wilkens on February 3, 2011 at 2:26pm

Hey, welcome Rose!

Wow, great post. I think to some extent we are all "finding our way" through adrenal fatigue. It is amazing how much contrary information is out there, no?

I cannot comment on the iron or chlorella issues. I only use WFHO as a chlorella boost, but also just started green juicing as well, so I am sure that doesn't hurt!

For me, I had to cut way back on working out, and even now am down to basically walking and yoga. I went for a hike a couple of weekends ago where my HR got up to about 87-88% of my max for a few minutes and spend the next day napping. So, not I try to keep it throttled down to about 75% of max.

Maca surely helps, I also take an adaptogen my chiropractor recommended. It is mostly just a vitamin supplement (no animal adrenals) and so far so good. I also work with him to balance my energy and make sure I am not frying myself physically, mentally or nutritionally.

Stay plugged in here (I am not one to talk, I have been MIA for the past few months on out of town business)... I think the Thrive Diet makes much sense for those of us with compromised adrenals. The fact that it goes easy on our digestive system and is nutritionally superior provides our adrenals a break. Brendan also has some great information in the Thrive books on his own Adrenal burnout.

Ken

Permalink Reply by joanna on February 17, 2011 at 5:05pm

HI Rose-

so adrenal exhaustion is different for each person. yes, fatigue can be dibilitating. i had it 13 years ago (wow, is it really that long??) and i was fortunate to work with a nutritonist and an alternative physician who did chinese herbs, cranio sacral and chiropractic, too. (recovering is what got me to become a nutritionist, too!)

there are so many layers to the puzzle. like peeling the skin of an onion. and when we feel really good, we just keep oging and feel lousy for 2-4 days. at least that is how it is in the beginning until we realize that we want that 'i feel good' feeling to last more than a day. and we learn balance. for me it was swimming, and still doing triathlon training but at a lower intensity and not training with groups who would push me beyond my limits. yes, i still had to be social and do group activities, but cetain ones like track practice i had to avoid (and master swimming).

i still now have the propensity to get tired and have to resort to my adrenal support supplements when under alot of stress. and that can come from mental and physical stress as well as emotional and environmental.

yes, you feel depleted and yes, you have to nourish the body and replace the deficiencies. i found juicing vegetables to be the best for me adn especially green veggies rather than carrots and fruit. but even when the nutrition is better, you still have to take care and nourish the rest of teh body with meditation, yoga or similar. reiki may be a great option, too but figuring out first off how did you get here?

so list those stresses you have. can you start to eliminate them? if no, can you change the way you react to them? (if you get stuck in traffic, getting mad won't make the traffic go away. but getting mad causes stress). this is also part of the healing process.

if you are not sleeping well, then you have to figure out how to sleep better as that is one of the keys to recovery, too. i do like alot of the Thrive principles and make my own bars now although i altered most of the recipes to suit my needs. but i need my animal proteins, too. you have to find what works for you. i am like a vegetarian (sometimes vegan) who eats meat.