You may have had the experience of dragging yourself into your doctor’s office to deal with what is supposedly an issue with your thyroid.
As my journey of healing from severe adrenal fatigue continued, I found from much research and from my own personal experience that the adrenal and thyroid connection was a very significant part of understanding the process of recovering from adrenal fatigue.
If you have been diagnosed with an underactive thyroid, may I suggest that you do a cortisol test to check if your thyroid is struggling as a result of “overworked” adrenal glands.
In my research and from my own personal experience, an imbalance with the adrenal glands (which comes from too much stress in the body) often causes a knock on effect of an imbalance with the thyroid.
About 6 months after my worst point, I noticed that after I had previously lost weight, I was now gaining weight and I was heavier than I had ever been in my entire life much to my dismay!
The Symptoms I Noticed
- Weight Gain
- Loss of muscle mass
- My hair began to fall out a lot more than it had
- My hair had became very dry and brittle and this had never been the case before
- I noticed my skin was incredibly dry
- I felt very weak and with very low energy
- My life force just seemed to be missing
These are all symptoms of an underactive thyroid (and many of these symptoms are also related to adrenal fatigue), but I now realise that for me (and for many others) that this was just a knock on effect of my “tired” adrenals.
Consider Your Medication
Some research suggests that taking thyroid medication can further weaken your adrenals, so it is definitely worth checking more deeply into whether your adrenals are the cause, or if it is in fact thyroid issues.
A natural health practitioner will be able to help you uncover this information either through some testing and/or through a case history of your general symptoms.
Blood Tests are Not the Only Answer
In blood tests at the time, my thyroid showed up on the low end of the scale, and this really is not good! The mainstream medical profession however, deems that it’s all fine, go home and carry on with your life. This is what I was told!
My opinion is that many mainstream doctors are either looking at your results as being normal or not normal (disease state). They are paying little attention to the many areas inbetween, where the majority of us lie.
The biggest thing I learned through this is that I needed to be an advocate for my own health
After I went to the doctor with the above symptoms, she checked out my blood work and said you’re fine, you probably just need to get back into some exercise!
Boy oh boy, this got me angry and I felt so misunderstood. I had been fit all of my life and exercised regularly for many, many years. I knew that there was something very strange going on with my body and that I did not feel anything like I normally did and that tired was an understatement. I felt weak and worn out. I had nothing in me to be able to exercise.
The Exercise I did Choose to Do
I continued to work with restoring myself through getting as much calming time as I could to enhance my parasympathetic nervous system, the part that lets you feel calm and peaceful and helps to balance the overstimulated sympathetic nervous system. I went on gentle walks and did kundalini yoga. The exercise I did was restorative on my system, there was no way I could push into anything.
If you would like some more detailed information on exercise and what works and what doesn’t with adrenal fatigue, check out this article.
A Few Years On
It took 3 years for me to get back into some regular exercise. My hair doesn’t fall out like it used to and my skin is not nearly so dry.
4 years on and my energy has returned enormously and I am able to function well on a daily basis including very regular exercise.
So please, work with your doctor or natural health care practitioner (who understands adrenal fatigue and thyroid conditions) and work out which one is at the root of things. The last thing you want is medication that is not good for any overtaxed adrenals.
I wish you all well.
Love Lisa.
