- The Simplified Newsletter
- Posts
- Adrenal Fatigue
Happy 2024 from all of us here at The Simplified Podcast! We appreciate you all so much, and we are looking forward to another year of bringing you valuable information…in a Simplified manner.
We kick things off with getting to the bottom of a diagnosis that gets thrown around quite a bit. Adrenal Fatigue. People can begin experiencing symptoms such as: fatigue, weight gain, body aches, trouble sleeping, digestive problems, stress, feeling tired even though they got a good night’s sleep (which is basically fatigue), etc. They then hear from a friend, social media, or even a health care practitioner that what is happening is that their adrenal glands are burning out due to the stress and they can no longer make enough cortisol. Seems straightforward enough, but is it true?
We began by looking at this systemic review which looked at 58 different studies. The goal of the review was to look at fatigue status as it relates to cortisol measurement. The exams the studies looked at were “Direct Awakening Cortisol”, “Cortisol Awakening Response”, and “Salivary Cortisol Rhythm”. The study concluded that “there is no substantiation that “adrenal fatigue” is an actual medical condition.” Ouch.
We then discussed this article which spoke to the Endocrine Society president about the topic of adrenal fatigue. She also referenced the above study and discussed something called “adrenal insufficiency” also known as Addison’s Disease. This is when your body doesn’t produce enough cortisol (and aldosterone) and also has many symptoms, but one of those symptoms is weight loss, not weight gain. There is also a condition called Cushing’s Syndrome where your body is producing too much cortisol, and this comes with symptoms such as weight gain and fatigue. So you can see that trying to fit a diagnosis of adrenal fatigue into this equation gets tricky. The symptoms don’t quite match up.
We ended the discussion debunking a common recommendation that is typically told to people who feel they may be suffering from adrenal fatigue symptoms…limit caffeine. All over social media is the idea that you need to stop/limit/postpone caffeine consumption because it is increasing your cortisol and frying your adrenal glands. As we have stated before on the podcast/newsletter, if only we didn’t have human trials (like this one or this one) showing that people who consume caffeine are leaner, have less cardiovascular mortality, have less cancer mortality, and less all-cause mortality. The idea that caffeine is secretly frying your adrenals is simply not supported by the evidence.
Simplified Takeaways…
Frequently, people suffering from fatigue, weight gain, trouble sleeping, body aches, etc. are diagnosed with adrenal fatigue.
A systemic review with 58 studies concluded that adrenal fatigue was not an actual medical condition.
If your body can’t make enough cortisol, that is called Addison’s disease which has a lot of symptoms, one of which is weight loss, not typically weight gain.
People with these symptoms are also often told to limit or postpone caffeine intake as that is increasing their cortisol and leading to weight gain. This theory is simply not seen in the data.
Disclaimer: This newsletter is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of medical advise. No doctor/patient relationship is formed. The use of information on this newsletter or materials linked from this newsletter is at the user’s own risk. The content of this newsletter is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advise, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard, or delay in obtaining, medical advise for any medical condition they may have, and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions.