Transcript Of Today's Episode
Announcer: You’re listening to The Doctor Is In Podcast, brought to you by martinclinic.com. During the episode, the doctors share a lot of information. As awesome as the info may be, it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.
Dr. Martin: Well, good morning everyone, and welcome to a little teaching that we're going to do this morning on adrenal exhaustion. Now adrenals are add-renals. [00:00:30] They're on top of your kidneys, okay? And adrenal glands, what they do primarily, they're like little chestnuts on top of your adrenals. They're no bigger than this. But they're very, very important because they get you ready for the fight or flight. Cortisol, the primary hormone of the adrenal glands, come out of there. This is a very, very, [00:01:00] important gland. I tell you, I think and I could be wrong, but I think I'm right. I think I was the first guy back in the late 1980s that talked about adrenal gland exhaustion being the reason for a new syndrome that was out in those days, and that was chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. Nobody knew what it was.
Dr. Martin: They called it the yuppie flu. They called it M.E. I can't [00:01:30] even pronounce some of the things. Epstein BARR virus, but I was one of the first guys that mentioned, "No. Those things might've been factors, but what was happening was that the adrenal glands were becoming exhausted." So if you have stress that goes on for a long period of time, it will exhaust the adrenal glands. Stress doesn't necessarily [00:02:00] ... Well, we live in a very stressful world. It seems that we have more and more of that today than ever before. But secondly, you can be stressed environmentally. The environment can stress the body, and you can be stressed nutritionally. Even bad nutrition can stress the body and stress the adrenal glands. I just want to go over some of the symptoms. On [00:02:30] in the email it was called adrenal fatigue or adrenal exhaustion.
Dr. Martin: So obviously if you're exhausted, and you have to look and ... Could be the thyroid, could be anemia, it could be low levels of B12. It could be a lot of things that can cause fatigue. But one of the hidden ... I sort of call it the adrenal glands, I sort of call it the Rodney Dangerfield [00:03:00] of your body because they get no respect. It seems to me that medicine, with very few exceptions, ever even test for cortisol. It never checks the adrenal gland, unless they're looking for adrenal cancer or a disease called Cushing's or Addison's. They rarely ever check for that. So all I'm saying is adrenals are, [00:03:30] especially today, can be a big factor in exhaustion. So if you're not feeling good, you're tired all the time, here's some of the other symptoms that could go along with adrenal exhaustion, like high levels of cortisol secreted over a long period of time.
Dr. Martin: One of them, number one would be brain fog. That is just where you're sort of ... You just have trouble focusing, [00:04:00] and maybe your short term memory is not like it used to be. Again, this can be many other things too, but often is related to the adrenal glands. Now, another one is insomnia. You're not sleeping. You might get to sleep, but you can't stay asleep. These are often signs of adrenal exhaustion or adrenal fatigue. You don't sleep. So you can imagine the [00:04:30] vicious cycle that this can create. High cortisol, you don't sleep. You don't sleep, it elevates your cortisol. And you can imagine ... You don't get enough sleep and this can just ... You can imagine. I'm a big baby, I always get a good night's sleep. It seems to me that when I don't, I am as Rosie says, a big, big baby.
Dr. Martin: Because I always feel good. I'm very thankful [00:05:00] for that, but I'm very sympathetic to my patients who don't sleep well because it elevates their cortisol, and elevated cortisol won't let you sleep very well. This is why we use the cortisol formula to lower cortisol. A lot of patients have said, "Well, why are you using cortisol?" Again, I'm not giving you cortisol, believe me. I am lowering and balancing your cortisol. Another a sign [00:05:30] that you're getting adrenal exhaustion is anxiety. And this is a big, big ... They're saying today that anxiety is taking over from depression in terms of mental health. Anxiety, that stress inside the body, it's like it's wound up like like a top. It's tight, tight, tight. That's stress clenching the jaw. This drains the body because [00:06:00] cortisol is supposed to be part of the fight or flight mechanism.
Dr. Martin: Meaning if I come up behind you and scare you, of course you're going to go into a ... You're going to punch me or you're going to run. But what if it goes on for a long period of time? That drains the body. You're not meant for that, and that creates a lot of cortisol and it can exhaust you. Another one, another sign is cravings for sugar [00:06:30] or salt. Those are adrenal symptoms. You're craving. Why? Because cortisol elevates your insulin. And insulin, what goes up must come down. Therefore you get fluctuations in your blood sugars, and you can get cravings for sugar. And another one, the adrenals need salt. And so a lot of women that I know love their potato chips. They get [00:07:00] the salt from it, they crave it. That is a sign that your adrenals are not working properly.
Dr. Martin: Another one is weight loss or weight gain. It can be two sides of a coin. If your adrenals get so exhausted, you can lose your appetite. But on the other hand, you get cravings for sugars and you want a quick fix, and this of course can make your weight go up because you're going [00:07:30] to eat crappy carbohydrates and especially sugars. You'll [inaudible 00:07:35] and you want to do a Swan dive, right?
Dr. Martin: And that is a craving that you're getting from adrenal glands. These things are very, very common. Another one is we talked about loss of appetite, but unexplained allergies. I see this all the time in the clinic where patients, "You know, doc, I never used to have intolerances." [00:08:00] But now you smell something that never used to bother you and now it bothers you, and you have these allergies and you're sneezing, and you're coughing and your eyes are watering. You're getting these unexplained allergies.
Dr. Martin: That's often a sign that your adrenal glands have been exhausted. Another one is a decrease in the immune system. You're getting one bug after [00:08:30] another, especially in the wintertime. People with adrenal exhaustion do better in the summer usually. They feel better with that sunshine and the vitamin D. But when the long winters come, they're exhausted. They don't see enough sunlight, and that directly affects your pineal gland, but it also affects your adrenal gland. And so these are sort of hidden symptoms of the adrenals. [00:09:00] This is why it's so important to check that out, to see if that could be one of the reasons that you're not feeling good and that you're exhausted. Look for those signs as possibly hidden signs that the adrenal gland ... And here's another one, lastly.
Dr. Martin: Because the adrenals affect the thyroid, when your cortisol is secreted for a long period of time, it slows the thyroid [00:09:30] down because it's not meant to be like that. And one of the classic signs of adrenal exhaustion is hair loss. Ladies, you know your hair. I never argue about hair with women because they know their hair. Men, we lose our hair. It's nothing for a man to lose hair, but it's never normal for a woman to lose their hair. And this is another thing that can happen.
Dr. Martin: So you get this unexplained hair loss. [00:10:00] What's going on here? I brush my hair and, boy, hair is falling out. Or I notice in the shower, man, I'm losing my hair. These can be signs that the adrenal glands have become exhausted. So just a little teaching this morning on the adrenal gland. If you have any questions or anything that you want me to discuss, give us some feedback on these little videos that I've been doing and I hope you enjoy them. Okay? Talk to you [00:10:30] soon.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In podcast with your hosts, Dr. Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode, and thanks for listening.