I named the syndrome “adrenal exhaustion” because
the adrenals are charged with providing the oomph needed to get
us from A to Z. It is these little Brazil nut size glands
that must pull us out of near miss accidents with palpitating heart,
help us to adjust to chilling winds when leaving the warmth of
our homes, and provide us the endurance to survive the stress of
existence on this enchanting but exploited Planet.
I associate the adrenal glands with the survival
center in the subtle energy field surrounding each living entity. In
Yogic philosophy, it is said that a clairvoyant sage can look into
this spot and count the number of breaths and heartbeats a person
will take in life.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
In conventional medical circles, people suffering
from stress are generally diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome
though some are given more erudite sounding pronouncements that
appear to refer to viruses, like Epstein-Barr Syndrome or Cytomegalovirus. Some
are told that they are allergic or environmentally sensitive.
Symptoms range from simple exhaustion to much
more complex problems that are secondary to excessive output of
adrenal hormones, hormones that flood the bloodstream in vastly
increased quantities whenever there is any stress. Stress
can be emotional, such as insecurity due to lack of parental understanding
and support, fear that a vital relationship is unstable because
of a partner’s illness or infidelity, worry over one’s
own health and viability, or concern for the well-being of those
dear to oneself. Stress can be job- or money-related. One
may not like the work or the work place or other people in the
work; one may not be earning enough to make ends meet. Stress
can also be very physical: working long hours, not sleeping well,
straining oneself to meet perceived outside obligations, or sports-related,
such as with marathon competitors.
Stress can also be quite difficult to pinpoint. Living
with an alcoholic or a person who gambles is usually acknowledged
as stressful, but living with someone one instinctively dislikes
or mistrusts is harder to recognize as a stressor. Likewise,
there are pathogenic factors that one may or may have identified. These
can be as subtle, but real, such as anxiety over global politics
and the manner in which people in high positions exercise their
power to as unrecognized as proximity to ley lines, outgassing
of building materials, electrical frequencies, and astrophysical
force fields.
Instinctual Consciousness
The truth is that we all live in a sea of vibrations,
some of which are congenial and some that are not. Whether
or not we are able to identify the factors contributing to energy
depletion, our subconscious natures hold extremely strong opinions
about everything that impinges on existence.
Since this concept is sometimes new to people,
I like to use an example of dogs. Someone comes to your door
and the dogs start barking. You tell the dogs to “behave” which
in your vocabulary means not to intimidate the person at your door
with rambunctious behavior. You invite the person in and
the person does something that upsets you. Your dog comes
over to console you and being a dog rather than a people does not
say, “I told you so.” The dog has access to his
instincts, but people, especially intellectual people have rationalized
their instincts so that their heads can make their bodies do what
the heads want.
Physically, this translates into excessive adrenal
output. Once these hormones enter the bloodstream, digestion
is impaired. In order to provide the short-term spurt, other
functions are suppressed. The body borrows from reserves
and inhibits the intake of replacement energies. Libido and
sexual performance decline, usually to the point that interest
as well as activity taper off. The thyroid tries to compensate
by working harder.
Smell
There are some other classic symptoms that come
with longer-term pressure on the adrenals to perform. These
include a heightened sense of smell. At first, one is more
acutely aware of odors, all smells, pleasant and obnoxious.
The sense of smell is our most basic survival
instinct. When life is threatened, subtly or measurably,
the mechanism governing survival is triggered. Therefore,
one of the first really noticeable indications of prolonged stress
is increased sensitivity to odor. This can focus predominantly
on noxious odors such as petroleum fumes but it affects tolerance
of perfumes and even assessment of pheromones, those mysterious
exudations that repel or attract. In order, shall we say,
to identify the “problem,” we have to become fussy about
what we like and dislike. Interestingly, though the sense
of smell can become very acute, it sometimes fails completely after
a major stress, such as a terrible accident or operation. The
sense will return when the adrenals are healed, but this is often
a frustrating and long drawn out process.
Symptoms
Another symptom of adrenal exhaustion is dark
circles under the eyes. In serious cases, these do not seem
to go away; but some people wake up looking normal though within
a few hours, those circles appear. Increased susceptibility
to bruising is next on the list. An exhausted person could
bump into a table and become quite black and blue, a sign that
tolerance margins are shrinking and a suitable protocol is needed.
Allergies are next. In the beginning, there
is usually some sort of rational basis for the allergies, but as
time progresses, the list of intolerances increases and it is clear
that the problem is as much internal as external.
My experience with most American doctors (do not
know about Canada) is that patients with these symptoms are usually
put on synthetic thyroid hormones or sometimes glandulars, extracts
from animals that are made into “nutritional supplements.” However,
the people who consult me usually express the opinion that these
are not working satisfactorily even though they sometimes noticed
some improvement when first beginning use of the prescriptions.
I therefore dispute the theory behind this practice,
and here is my argument. If people were born with weak thyroids,
they would be Cretins. However, the fatigue syndrome is affecting
intelligent people whose minds work perfectly well. The body
may be tired, but the mind is still fired up with ideas for projects,
more efforts that would pressure the body to obey the dictates
of a mental force that is perceived as tyrannical by the body.
I therefore try to build up the adrenals and wean
people off the thyroid supplements.
The Unconscious
The best way to understand the unconscious forces
that affect adrenal function is to imagine that one part of each
person’s being is hooked in on an immense loop that includes
a lot of thoughtforms, some that are virtually primordial and some
that might pertain more to current circumstances. From the
perspective of this part of our beings, no “new” arguments
hold any weight. For instance, if someone who has been the
source of much grievance reforms or mellows, the subconscious does
not necessarily change its opinion of this person. It holds
to the “tested” version of reality which is that the
person is not to be trusted, that he is potentially dangerous,
etc., etc. In a certain way, it would be fair to say that
this part of our being does not pardon, nor does it grasp the nuances
of high-minded discourses on letting go and forgiving. It
is governed by practicality and various proofs that it has from
past experiences.
We could postulate that favorite colors and tunes
as well as aversions to colors and places and people all stem from
memories that reside well below the threshold of normal consciousness. In
other words, they are not arbitrary but rather “sensible” from
the perspective of the memory because the opinions are derived
from actual experiences.
If, then, a person were to act in such a way as
to ignore the “advice” of the subconscious, the behavior
would not merely alert the adrenals, but rational input to the
adrenals that the conscious person knows more than the unconscious
would fail to convince the adrenals that the conscious person is
either wise or trustworthy. Therefore, the effort of the
conscious person to force the unconscious into submission would
be resisted—and the adrenals would function just as though
there had never been any reprogramming. In other words, the
conscious mind usually fails to impact the operation of the adrenals
since they work in accordance with their own wisdom.
Treatment
As a consequence of the persistence of ancient
instinct, it is difficult to heal such problems as chronic fatigue
unless the subconscious is honored. Otherwise, even seemingly
brilliant protocols tend to fail. In such cases, people who
have been making slow but steady progress slide back to square
one as if there never had been any progress.
An effective strategy entails some basic discovery
work to determine what the undermining factors are. When
these are “surfaced,” it will usually be found that some
hazards can be eliminated whereas some situations can be improved
or at least adjusted so as to make them more tolerable. In
other instances, skills for dealing with “permanent” challenges
have to be forged.
To make this a little less abstract, we could
say that an example of a hazard might be computer radiation in
the work place. People in large offices such as travel agencies
and banks are exposed to the radiation from scores of computers. If
all the monitors were replaced with low radiation monitors or fitted
with radiation shields, there would be immediate advantage for
all employees, but the first to benefit decisively would be those
who are most devitalized by the radiation. This therefore
would be a “fix.” An improvement would involve
repositioning desks and chairs so that the worst radiation moved
in a direction that did not impact any employees. Usually,
this means that no one is sitting in a direct line to the left
of the system unit and no one is right in front of an unshielded
monitor. A slightly more esoteric accommodation would be
to wear some high tech jewelry that transforms the frequencies
to benign waves. There are also dietary changes that would
make radiation somewhat less poisonous for the body. These
include use of trace minerals and seaweed as well as adaptogenic
herbs such as ginseng and garlic.
Emotional “Cure”
There are emotional situations that do not lend
themselves to such quick fixes. From the vantage point of
the survival center, relationships need to feel supportive. This
promotes well-being, confidence, and usually success. Neutral
relationships make people think that they are on their own, that
they have to stand on their feet, that they have to make a lot
of effort to accomplish less than astounding feats. Challenging
relationships make the psyche watchful so that people are hypervigilant
and always on the alert for the next disaster, disaster as measured
by the subconscious which may not always impress the rational person
as significant.
Coping power can be described as great when there
is a lot of elasticity or resilience. It is “exhausted” when
the ability to adjust is lost. This makes tired people vulnerable
and fragile whereas more determined people become rigid and often
more insistent, a sign that might be interpreted as inability to
flex or refusal to compromise. In either case, strategies
have to be embraced that bring life back from the edge.
Some relationships can be adjusted through attitudinal
changes, but these must be real, not bland aphorisms about opening
oneself up to learn what one needs to learn. As noted, the
subconscious is wary and does not buy into higher mind propaganda. However,
it will respond to information from the conscious mind that is
relevant. So, if the subconscious is told that the next time
there is a row at home, the decision making self will walk out
the door, the subconscious will be a little less paranoid about
the first signs of commotion, and it will not probably go into
a fit in which it gushes thirty times the usual amount of adrenaline
into the system.
In working with people who are exhausted, we try
to begin by diagnosing the sources of stress and determining which
situations are most amenable to adjustment. Then, we try
to come up with adequate protective measures for the more intractable
situations. In terms of protocol, the most important point
is neither dietary nor herbal. It involves pacing oneself
so that the line between can and should
not try is not violated.
I also recommend orderliness and predictability. This
means repairing or throwing out everything that is broken, keeping
one’s space neat and clean, and catching up on necessary evils
like balancing checkbooks and paying bills. It also means
keeping to a sensible schedule and avoiding temptations to burn
the candle at both ends. It could mean deliberately undertaking
some mindless chores like walking the dog or weeding the garden,
activities that do not require the mind; but when the mind is in
charge, every effort should be made to do one thing at a time and
to keep one’s full attention on that project until it is completed. Then,
a little break should be permitted before diving into the next
task. The break can be as simple as washing dishes or making
the bed, but doing something between great mental efforts gives
the psyche time to assimilate. Establishing a rhythm for
life that acknowledges the need for balance between physical, emotional,
mental, and spiritual foci is healthy and gives the body time to
regenerate before new demands are placed on it.
Conclusion
As noted, the adrenals sit atop the kidneys are
therefore inseparable from the kidneys in certain ways. If
the adrenals “panic,” the kidneys go into spasm, usually
resulting in an urge to pass water. When the panic is more
or less constant, fluids pass out of the system before necessary
nutrients are assimilated. Therefore, besides losing the
fluid buffers that make for physical ease, this syndrome is usually
attended by malnutrition, this regardless of the “intelligence” of
the diet. In other words, a person may eat appropriate foods
but fail to extract the nutrient value of the foods and be left
deficient. Most people with these problems are trace mineral
deficient and rally quickly when given easy to assimilate trace
minerals, whether in the form of liquid seaweeds or “trace
mineral cocktails.” I often suggest taking trace minerals
in pineapple juice because the enzymes assist proper absorption
of the micronutrients upon which our bodies depend for proper electrolyte
balance and tissue structure.
When a condition goes unchecked for many years,
the kidneys become tired and cease to respond to the adrenal shockwaves. When
this happens, people retain fluids because they cannot squeeze
them out of the body. Most people with such problems can
see marks on their wrists and fingers where their jewelry is touching
the skin, but the swelling tends to be somewhat pervasive. Ironically,
these people lose weight when they rest or when they take proper
adrenal tonics, such as the Chinese kidney “yin” formulas
(of which there are many.) They can also eat strengthening
foods such as black turtle beans or root vegetables that have absorbed
nutrients from the soil. Such measures tend to keep people
on an even keel.
Regardless of how successful dietary and herbal
protocols are, there should never be room for complacency until
the stressors themselves have been resolved, but in my experience,
it takes time to identify the causes of stress and effort to transform
undermining situations into supportive ones.
Copyright by Ingrid Naiman 1999
Olfactory
Sensations and the Earth Element 
Recipe for Black Bean
Soup
WuZiWan
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