“Don’t want to wake up in the morning, crave sweets late morning, start feeling sleepy in the afternoon, refreshed in the evening, and the later it gets, the more awake you feel.” If you often experience these symptoms, it’s not something to take lightly because it may be a sign of “adrenal fatigue” that you have but are unaware of. So, let’s dive into the examination methods to understand the root cause of these symptoms.
The adrenal glands produce several hormones, such as sex hormones and the stress hormone cortisol. The adrenal glands release cortisol when the body faces stress, both everyday life stress and physical stress that can occur in various situations, such as being sick, skipping breakfast, or staying up late.
Doctors explain that cortisol released to balance the body causes the heart to beat faster, raises blood pressure, and reduces inflammation. However, due to modern lifestyles, we constantly face stress, causing the adrenal glands to continuously release cortisol to combat stress. This leads to adrenal fatigue because the body cannot produce cortisol fast enough to fight the stress.
Checklist!! Which symptoms put you at risk of adrenal fatigue? See a doctor immediately
The symptoms of adrenal fatigue commonly follow a daily cycle as follows:
- Morning: don’t want to wake up, feel unrefreshed, weak, skip breakfast
- Late morning: feel unrefreshed, crave energy boosts like coffee or sweets because they make you feel good
- After noon: start feeling sleepy, unrefreshed
- Afternoon: feel refreshed after drinking or eating sweets
- Around 6:00 PM: body feels good
- 9:00-10:00 PM: feel refreshed and wide awake, although this should be bedtime
- 2:00-3:00 AM: start feeling sleepy and fall asleep
If you have symptoms of adrenal fatigue, don’t delay, see a doctor immediately
Anyone experiencing these symptoms should undergo detailed laboratory diagnostics to uncover what is happening in the body. If adrenal fatigue is diagnosed, treatment can be promptly targeted at the cause, especially by eliminating existing stress. If left untreated, it may affect other hormones in the body and lead to additional health problems.
Patient cooperation is the key to treating adrenal fatigue
Treatment for adrenal fatigue focuses mainly on lifestyle adjustments. Doctors will discuss with patients to find treatment approaches aimed at the root cause of stress. Patients will receive advice on adjusting sleep patterns, diet, daily living habits, and taking vitamins and supplements as appropriate on an individual basis. All of these help enhance adrenal gland function and address the problem directly.
It’s important to emphasize! Patients with this problem are not “lazy” but may suffer from behaviors and stress that cause adrenal fatigue. The best course of action is to see a doctor to plan health management and find ways to adjust behaviors to reduce stress, which will help improve health in the long term.
