The name Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome brings to mind immediately that it is just your adrenal glands that are tired or fatigued. However, a major problem and very common with the syndrome is hypoglycemia, more often known as low blood sugar. Hypoglycemia results in dizziness, feeling faint and very fatigued.
A simple explanation of the cause of hypoglycemia is as follows:
- An adrenal fatigue sufferer produces less cortisol
Cortisol is a vital hormone produced by the adrenal glands, and it is involved with metabolizing glucose, regulating blood pressure, and balancing blood sugar through insulin release.
- Stress will cause normal adrenals to increase the glucose level in your blood
- When you suffer from adrenal fatigue this causes your adrenals to produce less cortisol
- Less cortisol slows down the release of glucose into your blood or causes lower levels of glucose
Normal adrenals and stress equal higher glucose.
- Fatigued adrenals and stress equal lower glucose
- The adrenal fatigue sufferer will generally have higher insulin levels
When the adrenal fatigue sufferer’s levels of insulin are high that creates an increased need for glucose. Because of high insulin and low cortisol we suffer from low blood sugar or hypoglycemia.
We can deal with and generally manage low blood sugar with diet and frequency of meals to maintain and balance blood sugar levels. It is important to avoid succumbing to a “sugar fix”, as this is temporary and will actually contribute to the whole vicious cycle. It is also very important to control hypoglycemia because its results are cumulative and it can cause cell damage.
(There is a free matrix of adrenal fatigue symptoms you can download at http://www.jenbusch.com/readMore.htm)
