Video is summarized in article below.
Dr. Lam: Oftentimes, people complain that they feel a little jittery, nervous, unable to take stress, are startled easily when the phone rings. These are all very common signs of adrenal fatigue. You may not know it, but there are other signs along with this.
Dr. Carrie: So, you could also have a very hard pounding heart, or a feeling of panic and doom, or some jitteriness that you don’t know where it’s coming from, and it’s going to ultimately affect your sleep.
Dr. Jeremy: Now, there are multiple reasons for what could be causing these symptoms that you’re having.
The first thing is if you’re taking stimulants such as ashwagandha, rhodiola, or glandulars, then this might be causing the symptoms because they might be stimulating your body too much. It’s kind of like having a caffeine rush when you’re on these stimulants.
Now, Dr. Carrie, what’s the second reason for the symptoms?
Dr. Carrie: Your body can actually be overstimulated from an autonomic nervous system imbalance which is otherwise known as a reactive sympathetic response (RSR).
Dr. Lam: Now, don’t forget, if you’re already on some kind of anabolic hormones or stimulants such as even testosterone or thyroid medication, that if it is overprescribed can also cause this.
Oftentimes, what we find is that people try to self-navigate. When they’re tired, they’re fatigued, they reach out for stimulants. They think it’s the right thing to do, but over time, they kind of get dependent upon them. Also, they get what we call ‘wired and tired’ both at the same time.
So, you’re wired because the stimulants are causing you to be hyper. You’re walking around like an Energizer Bunny, but at the end of the day, instead of going to sleep, you are actually still wired. So, you have sleep disruptions. Not only sleep disruptions in terms of going to sleep, but also waking up after a few hours. Then when the adrenals sense this, they go into a loop where they activate the sympathetic nervous system. So, it kind of makes things even worse.
The good news is that this can be resolved, because this is not something wrong with your heart. I encourage you to check-in with your doctor to make sure everything is fine, but oftentimes, you’re going to be told that you’re perfect and to go home and relax. But if you just relax, it’s not going to go away too quickly because you’re dealing with neurotransmitter overload in these cases.
So, what you need to do short-term is to do adrenal breathing exercise. These are special breathing exercises that are designed to help the adrenals rebalance the autonomic nervous system. But long-term, you have to understand this is a signal that the body is telling you that it doesn’t like your reactions to stress. Therefore, you have to focus on the adrenals and help the adrenals get stronger.
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