Making sense of Adrenal Support

Making sense of adrenals support can be confusing at first. Parents are often unsure about whether or not their child actually needs it. Is it even safe? How come no one's mentioned this before?

Adrenal fatigue is a condition that is more prevalent than previously thought. It seems to be far more common in individuals with toxicity or endocrine problems like hypothyroidism.  Generally in mainstream medicine adrenal fatigue is not recognized until you have reached adrenal failure known as Addison's Disease.  This condition is a very serious condition but this is not what I am referring to in the book or this article.  Addison's Disease requires an endocrinologist to diagnose and properly treat the condition. 

When we use the term adrenal fatigue we are referring to a condition where the adrenals glands are working but not adequately.  In most cases things like infection, toxicity and other factors have led to overworking the adrenal glands.

This leaves many children (and adults) with low cortisol levels. The gland then push out a lot of adrenaline in order to compensate. However, our bodies were not mean to live on adrenaline boosts all the time. Adrenaline was our "fight or flight" hormone which allowed our bodies to kick into higher gear in survival situations.

The problem with high adrenaline is it causes a lot of symptoms like anxiety, panic attacks, asthma like symptoms, allergies, hives, high histamines, and of course fatigue.

In some cases this goes on long enough that the thyroid starts to be affected. Your body cannot make and use the hormones it's needs without the proper balance of adrenal hormones.

I should point out that just because the book has a chapter on adrenal fatigue, it does not mean that everyone has this condition.  Some children do not and should not be given the over the counter supplements for adrenal support. 

This can change at any time of course but just nothing I don't advise everyone go get the supplements without first looking at symptoms to determine if this might really be a problem for your child.  It is fairly common in mercury toxicity though because that is one of the only metals know to affect adrenal gland function.

I personally learned that this condition is very often missed but can really cause a lot of problems in your health and functioning. Treating it with over the counter supplements goes a long way towards supporting and healing the glands so they can work properly.  The use of natural over the counter supplements to treat adrenal fatigue has been around for many years.  In fact doctors didn't always have synthetic cortisol to give patients and they did rely on the use of glandulars prior to that time.

Sometimes parents have determine a child has struggling adrenals but they are unsure about treating it.  Once they do, and they see their child is not having anxiety attacks anymore, or tantrums. They are sleeping better, their mood is better, and in many cases allergies reduce or asthma improves......they come to realize how important treating this really was!

-Jan Martin