Support for Adrenal Exhaustion

By Jacob Teitelbaum, MD

I have low blood pressure, I’m frequently tired, and I get very irritable when I’m hungry. I thought I had adrenal problems, but my doctor said my blood test was normal. What should I check next?

Unfortunately, adrenal blood tests will only register as abnormal when the problem becomes life threatening. Until then, most conventional doctors will tell you your adrenals are fine.

People often experience stress reactions every few minutes—essentially sending the adrenal glands into overdrive each time and giving them no opportunity to recover. Just on your drive to work every morning, traffic jams and careless drivers may set off your adrenal glands’ fight-or-flight stress reaction a dozen times, flooding your body with adrenalin and cortisol.

I suspect you have adrenal exhaustion, even though your blood tests fall within the “normal” range, since you are experiencing a number of the condition’s primary symptoms—frequent fatigue, low blood pressure, and hypoglycemia.

Hypoglycemia deserves special attention. In my experience, most people who become shaky, nervous, dizzy, irritable, and/or fatigued when they get hungry have underactive adrenal glands since it is the adrenals’ responsibility to maintain adequate blood sugar levels. In fact, I often diagnose adrenal exhaustion based on hypoglycemia alone. Since glucose tolerance tests to determine hypoglycemia are unreliable, I find the simplest way to tell if a patient needs adrenal support is to ask, “Do you have times when a light switch goes off and you realize you must eat immediately or you may kill someone?” If the answer is “yes,” I always presume hypoglycemia and the need for adrenal support.

To treat hypoglycemia resulting from adrenal exhaustion, I suggest eliminating stimulants like caffeine, reducing sugar and refined carbohydrates such as white bread and white rice, and substituting complex carbohydrates in the form of whole grains, whose nutrients are released much more slowly into the bloodstream and have a stabilizing effect on blood sugar levels. As much as you may feel you need caffeine and simple sugars to give you energy, they put further stress on your adrenals by making the glands work harder. To give your adrenals a break, try eating frequent, small meals, and increase your intake of protein and vegetables so your system has a steady supply of low-glycemic, energy-rich food.

In addition, to treat your adrenal exhaustion I would recommend a desiccated adrenal glandular formula. Be sure to purchase your supplement from a reputable company to ensure quality, potency, and safety. Other nutritional support would include vitamin C at 500 to 1,000 mg per day, pantothenic acid at 50 to 500 mg day, and chromium at 200 to 500 mcg per day. I would also consider adding 200 mg of licorice root extract daily. Licorice helps slow the breakdown of adrenal hormones in the body, so your adrenal glands have to work less to maintain the same hormonal levels.

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