Adrenal
Gland Fatigue
I want to talk a little bit about
Adrenal Gland Fatigue. Before I was diagnosed I had no idea what this
was. Our adrenal glands are small organs above our kidneys that help deal
with stress by producing cortisol. If someone is under a lot of stress or
goes through a traumatic experience their adrenal glands can't keep up with the
hormones needed to combat the stress/stressors.
Everyone’s symptoms are a little
different & what might have caused their AGF. For me personally, I
think it was a few different things:
1. Dealing with Anorexia from age
13 to age 19 probably didn't help. Due to such a low body fat percentage &
weight I lost my period for 4 years (amenorrhea). I restricted my caloric
intake to about 400 calories a day & would run 13-15 miles every day.
2. Body building, there are many
competitors who have been competing longer than I have that have never been
diagnosed with AGF, but I did. The yo-yo dieting & volume of training
on such low calories was a big factor. I went from being Anorexic to
bikini competitions within 1 year so there was no rest time for my body or my
hormones.
3. Stress, I'm a stress head! I had
separation anxiety from age 5 to age 7, I started having panic attacks in
middle school, I’ve dealt with depression for quite a few years & I just
opened a new business with my family, so you could say I have some experience
with stress/anxiety.
4. My quality of sleep has never been
good. As a kid I had nightmares almost
every night & even when I didn’t have bad dreams that night I was afraid to
go to sleep in case I did. As a high
school kid who worked, went to school, was a part of student council, FBLA, played
soccer & danced, I had a lot on my plate.
When I got out of dance at 8/8:30 I ate dinner, showered & then
started my homework. I was awake until
2-3am sometimes & then up at 5:30 to get to school. When I was bodybuilding & in prep I was
so hungry I couldn’t fall asleep.
5. I used to drink 2 XL coffees
everyday because I was exhausted (Probably because I didn’t sleep well). I definitely
over did it on the coffee which can be another cause of AGF.
My side effects of AGF were:
1.
Bloating. It was horrible! I looked like I was 9 months pregnant all the
time!
2.
Severe stomach pains, 95% of the time.
3.
Not to be gross but constipation.
4.
Allergic reactions from foods ate my whole life. Apples, bananas, jelly, peanut butter,
peanuts, almonds, wheat/whole wheat, cheese, ice cream, yogurt, eggplants, zucchini, summer
squash etc.
5.
Horrible sleep patterns.
Everyone’s symptoms are different,
but I just wanted to give you a basic idea of what they could be. I hope this blog post helps bring some
awareness about AGF & how common it is becoming. Stay strong xo
