I'm assuming that I have burned out adrenals - the insulin resistance I know for certain. I'm 56, need to lose over 100 lbs., bipolar, usually depressed, trying very hard to get healthy, and just started bioidentical hormones. As someone else here said, I can't afford the testing and certainly not a consultation with SB. Is there anyone here with experience that might help - or someone else in a similar situation?

Most of you seem to be pretty fit already from where I am.

If you are asking how you can tell whether you are suffering from adrenal stress/burnout, check this out:

"How Can You Tell If Your Adrenal Glands Are Stressed Out?"
Traditional medicine recognizes only the most extreme form of adrenal burnout: Addison's disease, a potentially life-threatening condition in which the adrenals make no cortisol hormones. However, there's a wide spectrum of diminishing function between healthy adrenals and Addison's disease. A person could feel horrible and have virtually no energy because of poor adrenal function and yet not show any abnormalities on the standard adrenal function test.

If your adrenal glands are stressed out, you may experience:

Chronic fatigue.
Lightheadedness.
Cold hands and feet.
Low blood pressure.
Loss of appetite.
Food or environmental allergies.
Cravings for salt or sweets.
Headaches.
Nervousness and irritability.
Dry skin.
Thinning hair.
Excessive worrying and weeping.

Dr. Robert Atkins suggests a simple method for determining if your adrenal glands are working properly. (You'll need a blood pressure gauge to do this test.):

Have your blood pressure gauge nearby.
Lie down and rest for 5 minutes.
Take a blood pressure reading while still lying down.
Stand up.
Take your blood pressure again, immediately.
If your blood pressure is lower when you stand up, your adrenal glands are probably stressed. The greater the drop in pressure, the more stress your adrenals are experiencing. Note: If your blood pressure drops significantly when you stand up, you should probably discuss the problem with your physician.

In addition, if you hit the wall about 3pm each day, I'd say that's a pretty big indicator of adrenal stress.

Some of the indicators overlap with other things. Most of it seems to fit, but I have high blood pressure, not low. I do get faint going from lying down to standing, no cold feet or hands here, chronic fatigue - absolutely, nervousness, excessive worrying and weeping - yep,no hair thinning, but very dry skin. Something else I read about it is an excessive reaction to insect bites and other irritants. I still have chigger bites from 4 months ago. The inflammation would just not stop, even after a Prednisone pack.

Loss of appetite! Not in this life time. On the other hand, I have no immunity to anything. If a flu bug is going around I will catch it. The overwhelming fatigue is the single biggest reason I have to suspect adrenal exhaustion. The caffeine keeps me going in the afternoon, and the Adderall through the evening. If I cut back or forget to take it I can't do anything after work other than crawling into bed.

But, I also have a mild inherited anemia that can make me tired.

There's just so much wrong I might as well figure they're exhausted. I know the rest of me is!

well, you don't have to have ALL of the symptoms listed in order to have adrenal stress/burnout. I think a key indicator is the hitting-the-wall-at-around-3pm thing.

So try an adrenal supplement for a couple months (I'm told that the adrenal "times" to take such supplements are 11am, 3pm, 7pm), what have you got to lose?

What is an adrenal supplement? I'm taking enough stuff to choke a horse now - so what's one more.

I don't think we're allowed to post URLs here, so just go to google and type in 'adrenal supplement' you'll find LOTS!

Have you used any of them? I don't need a brand name or anything. I'd just like to know what you think of it, if you have used it.

Yep, I have used an adrenal supplement (a veddy high quality one using dessicated bovine adrenal tissue from New Zealand) for burnout ( I had the low blood pressure, cold extremities, thinning hair, dry skin thing happening).

Took 'em for about 6 months - to the point where everything had improved - and then discontinued. Keep in mind, two biggies in terms of adrenal burnout are stress and poor nutrition. So along with taking the supplement, I made a determined effort to reduce my stress (took a new, lower stress job) and improve my nutrition (LC - YES!).

Dr. Schwarzbein's new book, The Program, is probably your best bet. Instead of knowing EXACTLY what you have in the way of metabolism damage, you take a couple tests from the book and decide if you need the "healing" program or the "maintenance" program. The healing program is to heal your metabolism and once you have accomplished that, you move on to the maintenance program to get all the excess weight off. I'm on my 3rd day of the healing program and I really find it very easy to follow. The food is much the same as in her other books, but this is so much easier to follow and understand!! The allowed carbs are higher and she explains how much daily protein you need for your "ideal" weight to simplify life. If I hadn't read either of her other books, I could still do this program perfectly with the new book. From what you've stated, you would be starting on the healing program and following the 5 steps for that first.

CB

[QUOTE=csoar2004]Yep, I have used an adrenal supplement (a veddy high quality one using dessicated bovine adrenal tissue from New Zealand) for burnout ( I had the low blood pressure, cold extremities, thinning hair, dry skin thing happening).

Took 'em for about 6 months - to the point where everything had improved - and then discontinued.

I have similar symptoms and heard about this product from NZ and the excellent results plus the fact you don't need to stay on it long term, can anyone please help me find more information on how to order it from Australia? Thanks

Are you looking for the name of the adrenal supplement I used to take? If you send me a pm, I'll give you a link to the supplier (don't know if posting links is "legal" at this forum).

Keep in mind that stress really does a number on your adrenal glands (and if your adrenals give up, your thyroid will take a hit, too) so how long you will need to gake a supplement will depend entirely on how successful you are at reducine stress in your life.

[QUOTE=csoar2004]Are you looking for the name of the adrenal supplement I used to take? If you send me a pm, I'll give you a link to the supplier (don't know if posting links is "legal" at this forum).

Thanks for replying but I can't send you a pm it won't let me, can you reply to ishtariah~yahoo.com.au? Have done all I can to reduce stress, I have ME/CFS so have learnt how to accomodate lifestyle and be kind to myself.

My main focus now is getting whatever treatments I can to support glands and circulation. Vitamin/mineral supplements don't help if body systems don't function well so I am very interested in anything that helps improve these to function.

I take Maca Root because it targets the hypothalamus and pituitary glands, the master glands which control hormones and its "veddy" good for menopausal symptoms, works quickly and is very inexpensive, unlike costly bio-identical hormone replacement which did nothing.

Am seeing dr for armour thyroid supplement, and hopefully medication for pro-inflammatory cytokines which also improves circulation. Just need to find dessicated bovine adrenal supplement too. Thanks for your help!

One thing I did was get off caffeine completely. I was using it to keep going, just like you are, but the caffeine masks the exhaustion. What happened is instead of drinking coffee, I slept a lot. After awhile I began to have more energy, and now don't need coffee to keep going. I still take naps sometimes, when I feel the need. But now, I can't describe myself as CFS, even tho I did for many years. Lcing helped with the fatigue, as does supplements. I avoid wheat which has helped me a lot too.--Gail

Say how did you know I drink coffee when I never mentioned it? CFS has come to mean a lot of things to many people and was a vague diagnosis introduced in 1988 to cover up the history of ME which had been documented in the medical literature since 1934. What I have is true ME, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, classified by WHO since 1969 as a disease of the central nervous system. I had 60 tests which show I have immune dysfunction and chronic immune activation, multiple chronic infections and many other abnormalities.

I wish simple dietary changes would fix it but in my case they haven't helped, however I do appreciate your interest and suggestions. I agree coffee doesn't help and that is why I am looking for adrenal support to help me function better, other sufferers have agreed that I need to get functionally stabilised so that any changes I make are not too stressful on my system. Thanks for your thoughtfulness

[QUOTE=csoar2004]Are you looking for the name of the adrenal supplement I used to take? If you send me a pm, I'll give you a link to the supplier (don't know if posting links is "legal" at this forum).

I am hoping that you will be able to send the information you seemed so happy to share, and I will assume that Gailew was replying to someone else by mistake, these things happen etc.

Really need some helpful information about the supplier.....