Adrenal Fatigue supplements? page

[erikJ]

So I am finally dealing with some long term adrenal fatigue, Basically over training, plus stressful full time physical job plus an apprenticeship finally caught up with me. So, I am stopping all exercise, other than some light stretching and walking, eating primal, of course, quitting all caffeine and trying to sleep sleep sleep. I take a B complex, Fish oil, D3 and have started some Vit C and natural calm at night. I visited the supplement store the other day and saw all the adrenal support products and was curious if anyone had any real improvement with this stuff? Particularly the stuff with bovine extracts and Isocort.
Anyone have any experience with these?

[RitaRose]

Bumping this because I'm curious too. I walk between 5 and 20 miles a day in extreme heat, 6 days a week, and I'm under stress anyway because my job is being "technologically eliminated" anywhere between 2-6 months from now.

Yeah, no stress.

But I'm curious too as to whether anyone has found these supplements helpful.

[Goldstar]

My naturopath could tell just from my sitting to standing blood pressure that I had adrenal fatigue, though typically it can also be diagnosed with saliva cortisol and DHEA tests. I haven't done those yet. He put me on BioAdreno, which may only be available from a naturopath, not sure. But he's a smart guy and he's helped me a lot to regain my mental and physical energy in a very short period. He also recommended an insulin resistant diet so close to paleo/primal that it brought me here so I trust his judgement. I only went through one bottle, taking it once per day. Honestly, I don't know if it made a difference or not as my dietary changes seemed the most significant. But I can tell you I had no adverse side effects from it and I am 5'6" 120 lbs. Here's what's in it, maybe there are equivalents at the supplement store:

http://www.bio-genesis.com/pdf/BioAdreno.pdf

Vitamin C - 100mg
Pantothenic acid - 250 mg (d-calcium pantothenate)
Abgland adrenal cortex - 300 mg

SUGGESTED USE: As a dietary supplement,
take 1-3 capsules one time per day or as
directed by your healthcare professional.

ADRENAL CORTEX (GLANDULAR CONCENTRATE), like our other ingredients, is of the
highest quality around. Our choice of glandulars have been selected carefully
with quality and health in mind. Our adrenal cortex comes from New Zealand
freeze-dried, range-grazed bovine sources. New Zealand glands are clean. No
growth hormones, pesticides, herbacides, etc. are used. Antibiotics are only
used when necessary, not as a daily continuous feed as is the common practice
in other countries. These glands are inspected and analyzed for purity (freedom
from contamination from viruses, bacteria, parasites, chemicals, heavy metals,
etc.). Freeze drying preserves the delicate enzymes, trace nutrients, organic
proteins and hormones.

[Adrianag]

I'm taking TaylorMd AdrenaCare RX with Dr. K's approval Taylor MD Formulations

[Karma]

Episode #73 of Robb Wolf's Paleo Solution podcast had a question about those pills and he was pretty sceptical of most of them.

[erikJ]

@karma,
From what I gathered he was talking more about scrips like Cymbalta. Im thinking more along the lines of OTC supplements. Things that have a blend of herbals and then usually an adrenal cortex type thing. Im going to try one I saw the other day at my health food store and a little melatonin at nighttime and see how that works. Overall I think sleep, and taking some time off the exercise will be the key factors for me. The supps are more just for some additional help.
@adrianang
Do you find the Adrenacare is making a noticeable difference?

[Adrianag]

Do you find the Adrenacare is making a noticeable difference

I haven't been on it long enough to see a difference...and the adrenals were not a huge issue for me just a side issue. I probably will retest in a couple of months.

[Adrianag]

Episode #73 of Robb Wolf's Paleo Solution podcast had a question about those pills and he was pretty sceptical of most of them.

It's hard to sort the wheat from the woo! Just read the transcript and he seemed to be talking about prescription Meds for depression. In fact he mentioned a few supplements and suggested they work with a functional doc.

[hazyjane]

I'm (unfortunately) no stranger to adrenal fatigue. I had pretty severe adrenal fatigue a few years back. I highly recommend the book "Adrenal Fatigue: 21st Century Syndrome" by James Wilson. He covers all aspects of recovery/causes and lifestyle changes are paramount to healing (for example, getting to bed earlier is really important!)

As for supplements, I used to sell supplements for a decade and have tried many things and my two favorite are: Himalaya Stress Care, which has lots of research/studies behind it (use higher amounts for adrenal recovery- like 3-4 3x/day and then a maintenance dose to protect against excess cortisol production) and Rhodiola, which is a great adaptogen.

Also, add unrefined sea salt (I like Real Salt brand) to all your water. Adrenal fatigue causes a reduction in aldosterone, the hormone that regulates sodium/potassium balance and people with adrenal fatigue experience salt wasting, which leads to easily fatigued muscles, low blood pressure, light headedness and poor heat tolerance. Salt makes a huge difference!

Be patient: it can take a few months or longer to heal the adrenals and it's not a linear process, so you might start to feel better but then have plateaus or even setbacks, but eventually, you'll feel good again

[erikJ]

Thanks Hazyjane, Ill check out that book. The salt makes a lot of sense, i used to add salt to my water for rehydration and it helped a lot but I stopped because I thought I was just overdoing it. Maybe not.
Thats the thing with this stuff, I feel so bummed out, I have so much to do =) this is really inconvenient. I guess I just have to stop and reset for a while.