Adrenal Exhaustion

Hope that info is helpful,

Susan

This is a great website for reading about it:  http://www.adrenalfatigue.org/

The doctor I work for has me check for definitions and side effects of meds through Wikipedia all the time, he finds it very reliable and this is what they say about adrenal fatigue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrenal_insufficiency

I know it's real, I hope none of you non-believers ever have to deal with it.

I have to add something here.  I have never been officially diagnosed with celiac disease.  I was newly divorced, had no ins, and no job when my sister was diagnosed 11 yrs ago, so no money for testing.  After her first 3 months of gluten free, she convinced me to try it too.  After that day, I never turned back to gluten, not once.  Now, I can't be tested for celiac because I would have to eat gluten for at least 6 weeks for proper testing, which I will never do.  A tiny bit of cross contamination makes me ill for weeks, I don't need that diagnosis.  My neuro however did have a celiac panel with gene testing done on me 2 yrs ago.  The lab told me I CAN'T have celiac because I have the wrong genes.  There were so many doctors even 2 yrs ago that absolutely did not believe that gluten was an issue for anyone unless they were celiac...thankfully, none of my doctors fell into that area.  My doctors do not agree that I am not celiac, they are all positive I am.  But, had I listened to the naysayers telling me that gluten intolerance outside of celiac disease is not real, and had gone back to eating gluten, I may not be here today to speak to any of you.  Yes, gluten makes me that sick, for that matter, all grains do.

The message here is, NEVER SAY NEVER!

I know what you mean about the tireness being different.  It's like being tired to the bone, sleeping without resting, waking like you didn't sleep, dragging yourself to do everything you want to do.

Mine isn't from meds because I rarely can handle any meds.  Mine happened because of vitamin and mineral deficiencies, which also drag you down like nothing else.  I went years without knowing why I was so sick nearly every single day..diarrhea every day, never knowing if I would be able to attend family get togethers, my kids sports, special time with friends.  Doctors didn't know what was wrong, I was diagnosed with so many false issues..IBS, Colitis, Nervous Stomach, viruses, and my favorite...it's all in your head!  I even went for weekly talk sessions, which didn't help.

Gluten was slowly taking my life away and even just 12-15 yrs ago, doctors never thought of celiac/gluten intolerance.  My sister's hubby found it online, researched it as much as he could.  When she went to her doctor with it, he told her it wasn't possible for her to have it because it was so rare.  Now we know, nothing rare about it...they just didn't know to diagnose it.

Going gluten free changed my life, I lost weight finally and felt better.  Then once the gluten was out of my life, it opened the door for the other intolerance's to rage a battle.  First soy, then corn, then nightshades, red meat..I started gaining weight again.  When my body gets a food it feels doesn't belong, it goes into starvation mode, stores everything it can in fat cells.

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea nearly 3 years ago, told it would be the answer to all my problems.  Nope, that didn't happen.  I used the CPAP as told, my sleep doc/pulminary specialist couldn't understand why I still was exhausted, tried me on Lunesta, Sonata..kept saying I am a very interesting patient.  Well, at that point, we still had not found the correct combination for me.

Then I was diagnosed with CFS, my Epstein Barr virus is always elevated.  I was told to try something simple, 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar daily, for good health.  It made me so sick, that's when I found out about candida albicans and went on a candida diet.  The best decision I have ever made.  That was 1 yr ago last month and I am 95# thinner, my cholesterol is down to 158, my pre-diabetes is gone with my glucose down to 88...my BP is too low, which is an adrenal fatigue symptom.  The day my neuro decided I must be dealing with adrenal issues, my BP was 80/50.

So yes, I do believe in adrenal fatigue.  When a body goes through this type of thing, the stress of the illness alone is devastating, throw in all the stress from daily life, of course it messes with your adrenals.  There is one simple home test people can do for adrenal fatigue/exhaustion, with a flashlight and your pupils..I have failed that test every time.  My daughter tried it on me just to see what my eyes do and she told me it's just plain freaky!

Any ways, onwards and upwards.  We just keep trying to find the correct combination for ourselves and as a rule, I find this is our problem, no doctor can figure all this out.  For me, the meds just confuse my body more, cause more damage than good.  My immune system attacks nearly everything.

Better times are a coming!

The candida diet for me was to try and heal my leaky gut.  In the first 3 weeks I had die off symptoms...did you have that happen?  I would imagine, if you do not have a candida issue, then the diet probably wouldn't change much for you, other than the fact that it is much healthier than most people's lifestyles.  People often ask me how I can eat the way I do, and I always tell them, I eat to live, I do not live to eat.  I eat the same things, day in and day out, yet I lost all the weight, for the most part I feel better, and it works for me, so why shouldn't I do fine with it?  I also know, as long as I continue to eat healthy like I am, I will not gain back weight, which is always better for our health.

I stopped using my CPAP machine and my doctor knows.  I had a 2nd sleep study done last summer, they lowered my titration at the time.  By Oct, I had lost another 30# and the machine just seemed to be keeping me awake, or waking me too much.  My doctor told me with the huge weight loss, I probably do not have the breathing issues any longer.

It is definitely a process at work!

http://www.fungusfocus.com/html/candida_diet.htm

Good for you about the probiotics, I can't take them.  They make me very sick too.

I have been on the diet for over a year, I never gave up my apples.  Some people can eat fruits while on this diet, some can't..thankfully I can.  I only eat apples, pears, peaches, cherries, and recently I added grapes back in.  My diet is so limited because of my intolerances, it's hard for me to give up the few things I can eat.

I also feel that most of us are dealing with so many issues it's tough to figure out where one begins and another ends.  Some times that which is helpful for one issue is bad for another.  All we can do is keep trying to figure out the perfect formula for ourselves.

I'm in East Islip, where abouts are you?

Might I say, howdy neighbor to Susan too then.  Sounds like we are all right in a line.  I live just the other side of Heckscher Parkway.