Waking up tired and lightheaded even when you’re getting eight hours of sleep? You may be suffering from chronic fatigue a.k.a. adrenal fatigue. If you think you have a successful stress and lifestyle management scheme going on but still experience bouts of drowsiness and exhaustion during the day, better get your hormones check. Hormones imbalances, particularly with the hormones produced by the adrenal and thyroid glands can result to a wide variety of body health conditions such as adrenal stress.
Hormone imbalances – Adrenals
The adrenal glands are a couple of walnut-shaped glands located on top of the kidneys. They produce the stress hormone, cortisol, when you’re faced with life-threatening crises and help you recover during times of rest.
When faced with barrage of stressful situations — money issues, work-related stress, and unhealthy exercise habits — on a day to day level, the adrenal glands tend produce more and more cortisol until it’s out juice. When this happens, adrenal fatigue occurs.
Cortisol is largely responsible for your circadian rhythm or the natural cycle that tells our body it’s time to get busy or time to relax. When you have adrenal fatigue, inadequate amounts of cortisol disrupts that rhythm, leaving you with a “tired but wired” feeling. Many try to fix this with caffeine and sugar and try to get energy bursts. However, caffeine and sugar only rattle the adrenals but does not solve the problem — only worsen it.
Hormone imbalances – thyroid
Located in the lower part of the neck, the thyroid gland produces hormones which are critical in regulating metabolism. Common hormone problems of the thyroid gland are known as hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism. Hyperthyroidism is when the thyroid produces too much thyroid hormones. This causes nervousness, irritability, increased heart rate, weight loss with increase in appetite, heat intolerance.
Hypothyroidism a condition when inadequate thryoid hormones are produced. Aside from fatigue and low levels of energy, hypothyroidism also results in weight gain, dryness or low body temperature.
Problems with the hormones from adrenals and the thyroid are quite common but are often overlooked in conventional medicine. However, they are relatively easy to identify with a thorough history and appropriate laboratory tests.
Hormone Imbalances 