There are several things that worsen or burn out the adrenal glands. The biggest of these is taking adrenal hormones; this could be in the form of prednisone or steroids (same thing). When you bypass the body and give it straight hormones, the adrenals don’t have to produce their own. As a side effect this severely weakens the adrenals. I’m not recommending avoiding steroids if your doctor has advised them. I had a patient who was a swimsuit model; she developed a heel spur and received a steroid injection for pain. Four years later she developed a huge midsection with lots of stubborn weight. Steroids tend to make you put on weight by affecting the adrenals.
The second cause of adrenal problems comes from taking too much synthetic ascorbic acid (known as vitamin C). In nature, vitamin C comes in a whole-complex form, consisting of ascorbic acid, vitamin P factors (bioflavonoids), vitamin K and J factors, organic copper and the enzyme tyrosinase. The ascorbic acid antioxidant element is only one part. Taking this one part in huge doses can severely aggravate the adrenals, since the adrenal glands are a storage system for vitamin C. Man-made vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is often produced from cornstarch and sulfuric acid.
You could even feel good taking these synthetics for a while, because they act as a stimulant. However, I’ve had patients take grams (1 gram is 1,000 milligrams) of the stuff and end up with adrenal problems down the road. Always take vitamin C in its whole form from food. In its whole form you rarely see the ascorbic acid part over 100 milligrams. The third cause of weak adrenals is overwhelming stress to the body. Years of not sleeping, living with stressful people, a stressful environment, experiencing the loss of a loved one, going through a divorce, etc., can drain the adrenal glands.
The fourth cause of trouble with the adrenal glands is infection, especially from fungus, unfriendly yeast and viruses. The adrenals get a major amount of blood flow because they are above the kidneys. These microbes travel through the blood and get trapped in the adrenals and create problems later in life. The fifth source of adrenal problems stems from a combination of taking stimulants and having nutritional deficiencies. Stimulants include caffeine, appetite suppressors, sugar, nicotine, synthetic vitamins, herbal stimulants (ma huang) and drugs. These items deplete vitamins (mainly B vitamins) and minerals (particularly potassium and calcium). Add in poor eating habits and lots of refined sugars and grains and you can end up with exhausted adrenals. If the adrenal gland is involved, I recommend the adrenal nutritional support shown in the Resources section at the back of this book. The following are symptoms the Adrenal type can experience from poorly working adrenal glands.
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