While many alternative practitioners focus on the adrenal glands as being the main source of dysfunction, it is only part of the problem. It is most often associated with periods of intense or prolonged stress but can also develop during or after acute or chronic infections. It has become popular in the natural and alternative health world in recent years and is surprisingly common in the United States.

ADRENAL FATIGUE-This condition is the collection of symptoms that occur when the adrenal gland is underproductive.

When this dysfunction is not corrected, it becomes the norm and can lead to adrenal fatigue. Over time, this can cause the glands of the HPA axis to become desensitized and stop recognizing signals to stop producing hormones. Hormones continue to be released on an accelerated basis. When the body experiences chronic stress, dysfunction can occur in this system. The stress response ends with the decrease of cortisol, and the body can calm down and hormone levels return to normal. When the hypothalamus and pituitary gland receive signals that high levels of cortisol have been released, they stop the production of CRH and ACTH, which in turn stops the production of cortisol from the adrenals. The HPA axis works as a feedback loop, meaning that the output of one of the glands loops back around to become input elsewhere. Cortisol prepares the body for the “fight or flight” state to face potential threats by suppressing certain systems and giving it a burst of energy with a surge of glucose. Once it has been released, ACTH travels through the bloodstream down to the adrenal glands, where it triggers the release of the steroid hormone cortisol. When you face a stressor (big or small), it is this system that creates the stress response in the body, releasing a hormone known as corticotropin-releasing hormone, or CRH, which triggers the release of another hormone, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), from the pituitary gland. It consists of the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal glands. The hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis is part of the endocrine system, the chemical messenger system of the body through which hormones are secreted.

Adrenal fatigue symptoms in females